Author's Posts

Community As Key to Overcoming Isolation

Karina Garcia — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:17:53 -0500

We Fought Hate, Not Free Speech

Karina Garcia — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 23:00:00 -0600

The Oct. 4 protest at Columbia University against Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist revealed a dangerous reality in American politics. A substantial sector of the conservative political establishment and media has chosen to stand openly with an armed vigilante group that has well-documented links to far-right, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist groups. Under the guise of defending Gilchrist's freedom of speech, Fox's Bill O'Reilly, scores of right-wing radio commentators, and even Mayor Michael Bloomberg have portrayed Gilchrist as the innocent victim of raving Columbia students. Some civil libertarians have joined the chorus in calling for the protesters to be penalized or disciplined. To set the record straight: Gilchrist's decision to terminate his talk had nothing to do with the supposed violation of his free speech rights. When we walked on stage with anti-racist banners calling for immigrant rights, we withstood a violent attack by Gilchrist's supporters. We were the ones who were punched and kicked. It was our banners that were ripped from our hands and torn to shreds. When Gilchrist walked offstage, it was because he and the Minutemen were isolated in the overwhelmingly pro-immigrant rights audience. Less than a week later, I appeared on Pacifica's Democracy Now program with Gilchrist. This time, he was safely tucked away in his Irvine, Calif. studio. Within minutes, he cut the debate short, refused to answer questions, and hung up. The Minutemen insist on an absolutely pristine environment so they can espouse their program of organized violence without challenge. The real issue with the Oct. 4 protest was not free speech, but the presence of an armed group which espoused hate and took advantage of our University to legitimize its violent activities. The Minutemen, however, are not just espousing racist ideas. The presence of armed vigilantes on the border has only one purpose: to instill fear among poor Mexican families desperate for work. As the daughter of Mexican immigrants, I know the depths of this fear in our community. The families who are chased deep into the desert-where many perish-are not running from their shadows. The Minutemen and their supporters claim that they have never engaged in a violent act. In a world without witnesses or fingerprints, only the desert knows whether this is true. Their thuggish intimidation isn't just reserved for immigrants at the border. At any given time, day laborers face the possibility of abuse and harassment. The Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups have documented the overlapping membership between Minuteman and white supremacist groups like the National Alliance. "We understand why Gilchrist and former project co-organizer Chris Simcox have to talk all this P.C. crap," a National Alliance member at a Minuteman event told the SPLC in an April 22, 2005 report. "It's all about playing to the media." There are those who argue that these groups are part of a "radical fringe" and that the best way to address them is to give them the same respect and legitimacy as any other political group. There are a number of problems with that approach. First are the dangerous similarities between the Minutemen and fascist and racist groups. Like the Ku Klux Klan, for example, the Minutemen's real strength is not in numbers but in the extent to which they can inspire fear among one sector of the society-in this case, among undocumented immigrants. More ominously, the Minutemen's combination of the threat of violence with xenophobic scapegoating has parallels with Hitler's Nazis in the late 1920s. With U.S. society today facing the instability of growing casualties in an unpopular war in the Middle East and the looming possibility of economic recession, anti-immigrant scapegoating can gain dangerous resonance and must be challenged. It is almost universally recognized that more Germans should have taken advantage of their own free speech to challenge Hitler's fascist movement before he came to power. We who protested against Gilchrist on Oct. 4 stand in that tradition. Yet the biggest problem with the argument to "ignore the fringe" is that the Minutemen are in fact not isolated. That was proven in the reaction to Gilchrist's decision to cut his speech short. The conservative media howled as if one of its own had been attacked. The truth is that Gilchrist and his group play an important role in the broader campaign to roll back the rights of immigrants that began last year in Congress with the draconian Sensenbrenner bill that would criminalize millions of immigrants and their families. The anti-immigrant political rhetoric depends to a large degree on Gilchrist's pistols "on the ground." As one of those who took to the stage to protest Gilchrist, I am proud to say that he and other racist and fascist groups are not welcome at Columbia.

Message From the Protesters

Karina Garcia — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 23:00:00 -0500

In the aftermath of the protest on the night of Oct. 4 against Jim Gilchrist and the racist Minutemen at Roone Arledge Auditorium, we want to state clearly: we are proud to send the message to the country that racist and fascist groups are not welcome at Columbia or in New York City. As Chicanos and Latinos, alongside African Americans and progressive people of other nationalities, we took it as our responsibility to give voice to the undocumented immigrant families who live in fear of terrorist vigilante groups like the Minutemen. Armed patrols by these groups force more and more people desperate for work to find even more hazardous ways into the United States. Over the last decade, over 3,000 people-including hundreds of children-have died in the desert. Their blood is on the hands of Gilchrist and his thugs. Fascist scapegoating is not up for academic discussion. Like Hitler in pre-Nazi Germany, Gilchrist and the Minutemen attempt to demonize foreign-born poor people, blaming "illegals" for society's problems. His group doesn't present reasoned debate. It spouts racism and hatred, aiming to divide people against one another. Regardless of how Gilchrist tries to sanitize his message for national audiences, more candid moments tell the real story. Gilchrist is a member of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, which is now notorious for referring to Mexicans as "savages." In Essays and Thoughts: America's Mexican Problem by Doug Bower, Minuteman co-founder Chris Simcox is quoted as saying in reference to Mexicans and Central American immigrants, "They have no problem slitting your throat and taking your money or selling drugs to your kids or raping your daughter and they are evil people." This vile racism translates directly into violence on the ground. "It should be legal to kill illegals," said one Minutemen volunteer to the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report. "Just shoot 'em on sight. That's my immigration policy recommendation." It is no wonder that neo-Nazi organizations like the National Alliance praise the Minuteman Project in their publications and have members signing up for Minutemen militias. We are sure that if the Nazi party held a public meeting on campus, Jewish groups would be there to challenge them-so would we. We are sure that if the Ku Klux Klan held a public meeting on campus, African American groups would be there to challenge them-so would we. The Minutemen are no different. We are pleased that an overwhelming number of people answered our call to demonstrate against the racist, fascist Minutemen the night of Oct. 4. The hundreds of people outside Roone Arledge Auditorium chanting, "Minutemen, Nazis, KKK, racists, fascists, go away!" represented students and community people from all walks of life. Inside the auditorium, perhaps as much as 80 percent of the crowd was repelled by the Minutemen's message of hate. When we walked on stage on the night of Oct. 4, with anti-racist banners for immigrant rights, we were met with violent attacks by Gilchrist's goons. We were the ones who were punched and kicked. We are proud that despite these attacks, we held our ground. When Gilchrist walked off stage, it was because he and his Minutemen outfit were isolated. This is not an issue of free speech. The Minutemen were able to reserve a hall at our university and had the protection of campus security and the NYPD-all to espouse their hate speech. We along with hundreds of others expressed our right to speak and protest. Over the last 50 years, throughout the civil rights movement and the women's rights movement, ultra-right-wing groups have routinely used violence, lynchings, armed assaults, and bombings against oppressed people. Yet when we organize to oppose them to express our contempt for their violence, we are criticized for inhibiting the free speech of the ones who perpetrate violence. Shame on the Columbia University administration for launching an investigation of peaceful protestors and failing to condemn the perpetrators of violence. Shame on the College Republicans for inviting this fascist thug and provoking such outrage on our campus. We thank everyone who joined our protest inside and outside of the auditorium. The author is a Columbia College senior majoring in economics. This statement was written on behalf of the Columbia anti-Minutemen protesters who took the stage against Jim Gilchrist on Oct. 4.