radicallyhottoff:

I would like us to please not allow the democratic party to blur the ALSO very real connection between anti-immigrant violence (i.e. hyper nationalism, hyper heteropatriarchy, hyper white supremacy) and these shootings. This violence is what Latin@s in the US have been living with especially since the Arizona law SB 1070—there have been multiple shootings and attacks on Latin@s throughout the US, many of those resulting in murders.

Anti-immigrant sentiment is NOT just racism against those who are immigrants—it is ALSO in a relationship with hyper nationalism and hyper nationalism is intimately connected to heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism, the policing and militarization of borders on bodies, on homes, on land, on families, on prisons, on jobs, on music even (remember it was the INS that shut down all those hip/hop sites recently). 

It is no suprise that these shootings were against 1. a woman 2. took place in Arizona and 3. were committed by a young white male. It’s not even a surprise that the victim is a member of Congress. The solidifying of borders (because of hyper nationalism) necessarily *means* that anybody who leaves any space open on those borders is a threat. And everything that I’ve read so far suggested that Giffords was somebody who (while not a raging socialist progressive), was clearly and firmly on the left.

Borders are important in this discussion—their importance, their defense, their openness, the punishment for those who cross them “illegally”—all of this has as much to do with these shootings as Sarah Palin’s target practice list does. 

(via bigbadcolored-deactivated201104)

10:22 am  •  9 January 2011  •  156 notes  •  view comments