POV Farmingville

POV: Farmingville

I have been watching the POV program on our local PBS station for a very long time. It really is a great source for documentaries on "free TV", and I highly recommend it.

As a preliminary note, I do find the current political discussion on immigration to be quite interesting. I often get the feeling that many Americans think this is a southwestern border state issue. I assume that the filmmakers also had that in mind, because Farmingville is located in Long Island, NY. -- and many of the same issues that make it such a hot button issue in the American southwest, are present there ... race, economics, human rights, fairness, etc.

I found the documentary to be extremely well made -- and illustrated what the various points of view over this controversy are, many of which are pertinent to the national discussion currently underway

There is the economic issue of opportunity for these workers to obtain day jobs working in construction and landscaping. As our President likes to say (and contractors in this movie), taking jobs that everyday Americans won't do.

And then there is the matter of inequality. There are always the arguments that illegal immigrants do not pay for the privileges that they enjoy ... in other words, no taxes are being paid by them. On the other hand, it seems that this immigration is a reflection on almost universally human to wish for opportunity, to help your family get ahead -- to do whatever is required, including working in a foreign country to make it happen.

The amazing thing about this movie is how potent people's feelings are about illegal immigrant day laborers -- or as they are euphemistically called "undocumented workers". There definitely appears to be a race relations component to it, where the well established members of the community are very fearful of the newcomers, defining them as a sexual, violent, criminal and a destabilizing threat to the community. There also appears to be a class relations component, where there is a view that these day laborers are not contributing members of society -- they are not hard working, middle class people -- they live 30 to a house -- they are rented to by slumlords, who inflame the problem, etc.

Some members of the town tried for two years to expel immigrants via legislation, after the police told them that there was nothing they could do to remove them. They stood across from corners where day laborers waited for trucks to pull up, offering work and taunted and intimidated them and the people looking for workers.

Eventually it got ugly, as people used to throw rocks and bottles at workers waiting to be picked up ... immigrant houses were drove by and shot at, known contractors of day laborers had their trucks set on fire, etc. ... and on the other side, a drunk immigrant driver struck a pregnant woman, killing her -- he skips bail and disappears

Eventually, all the tension culminates in the attempted murder of two immigrant day laborers who were lured to a warehouse with the promise of work and severely beaten. One of the alleged perpetrators had aryan/supremacist type tattoos which inflamed the situation even more. The city attempted to provide a compromise, by providing a common hiring site so that the workers would no longer be on the corners, but this was vetoed by the county "mayor", and the veto override failed.
The workers also formed their own community association to prove that they were there to work for the community, not destroy it ... and do positive community service for the community.

There were really stark images in the documentary. Anti-immigrant proponents flying the American flag, making at best dubious inflammatory nationalist statements ... and at worst, horribly racist statements. The other observation is that these protest groups were 100% white people, and I think that it is hard to watch the film and not think about how horribly angry and apparently racist the approach is, despite the injury that they may have felt happened to the community. The supreme irony of the anti-immigration approach, or the other side for that matter, is this: they do not see their position as irrational, hate filled, etc ... it is perfectly reasonable, and this is framed as "caring about their community" -- framing their concerns into a quality of life, community group that got involved with and the support of national anti-immigration groups

At the protest outside the vote to override the veto, it became pretty clear to me that a lot of people that are really disingenuous about their real underlying conceptualization about the issue, on both sides of it ... the issue is conceptualized around people being a different color, whether pro or con.

That is the way that both sides see the issue, and as a viewer, I found that to be very unfortunate ... but sometimes it is hard to remember that this 75% of this nation's people identify with being and will define their understanding from the perspective of being "white". It was so shocking to me that there are people who can say with a straight face, that their child cannot bike or skate, or women cannot go to the store because of the presence of immigrant workers in their town ... or feel like they are imprisoned in their houses -- truly fearing people who are different. I think it really gives me, as a person that lives in the middle of the pacific, a wakeup call ... which basically is, the notion of being American still very much is about being white.

On the other hand, there were these diversity, unity and tolerance rallies ... where a number of people of all groups had gotten together to fight against racism. My personal bias is that I tended to be more sympathetic with their message. However, I do understand anti-immigrant point of view that here are people with signs in Spanish, not English ... flying flags of other countries. Perhaps I am too distant from my familty's roots as immigrants to appreciate the affiliation with the mother country ... however, I think that such things may also be viewed as inflammatory ... and by nature, give the impression of being "un-American" as well, and not trying to fit in, so in many ways it is a bit more complex than "You should go/We are productive"

And I'm not one who is persuaded by hiding behind concepts for the purpose of being validated in the mainstream, yet being logically stupid -- for example, same sex marriage is no good, because it has marriage in the title ... whereas reciprocal beneficiaries or domestic partners is okay even if it has the same benefits of marriage, so long as you don't call it marriage ... whereas at its core, it's about being homophobic. Same here, hearing people say they are not opposed to immigrants, but they are opposed to "illegal" immigration ... that is like saying, we would be okay if your whole wave of people came and you were legal ... since you are not, please leave -- that hides from the essential crux of the matter, which is disturbing, discriminatory attitudes.

At the end of the day, the documentary is about the making of America. The filmmakers argue that each time a new group comes, there is resistance, and as a country of immigrants it is hard to say that okay, now the door is closed behind us. This film is interesting because it shows the impact at a local level, from varying perspectives ... and I think it is yet another chance for people to come to grips with some of the underlying discrimination that comes with the changing demographics in America.