Duplicity
by A.X. Perez
perez180ehs@hotmail.com

Credit The Libertarian Enterprise

During the Cold War the US spent a reasonably large sum of money broadcasting Radio Free Europe and the now defunct USSR spent a reasonable amount of money jamming RFE. Meanwhile high (more wattage than FCC regs allow) power AM stations like KOMA in Oklahoma City (Grandfathered in before regs passed) and several stations with offices in the US and transmitters in Mexico were transmitting a mix of rock and roll, news, ads, and smartass commentary that often reached Moskva. Any Russians that tuned in must have gotten an interesting opinion of life in America from these guys.

One story they never heard involved an El Paso DJ. Our protagonist (names have been left out to protect my wallet, the innocent can protest themselves.) was fired for a reason most people believed was phony. We knew the real reason he was being fired was because he was homosexual, antigay bigotry being more prevalent and open in the Sixties. We also knew that his homosexuality was an excuse for firing him for expressing opinions that did not please his employers, for example satirizing and criticizing an antiacne product that had been discovered to be above average carcinogenic.

He soon found work at other stations, taking his rather large fan base with him and thus at one time or another contributing to the success of a variety of AM and FM stations in the El Paso/Juarez/Las Cruces area. The station that fired him languished. Until his recent death our protagonist was both professionally successful and extremely popular.

I am unabashedly straight. I tell this story not as a gay rights story but to draw your attention to how bigotry was used as an excuse to try to silence our protagonist's opinion on issues (e.g., the safety of antiacne treatments).

Of course we all know that one of the main goals of bigotry is to keep minority members in their place. Sure we're willing to tolerate your being gay, Black, Jewish, whatever.

Just don't ask for a raise. Or engage in union activity. Or run off at the mouth about politics or social issues.

Of course we'll give one excuse for firing you. Everyone will know it's because you're gay, Black, etc., but it will protect your dignity. Maybe they won't guess the real reason.

Crummy trick ain't it?

Talk to a few Border Patrol agents and sooner or later you'll hear about the people who turned in the illegal aliens working for them just before payday. These examplars of fair employment practice got incensed when BP actually made them pay off their workers before deporting them. Another variation was to short mojado¹ workers of their pay when la Migra (Border Patrol) was rounding them up at work (usually ranches and farms) and to overcharge them for cigarettes, clothing and other goods bought by the boss for the workers. The BP always told the workers to file complaints and the answer was always the same, "If we do next year no one will hire us."

There are twelve million illegal aliens in the United States, about four percent of the total population. They include the stereotypical Latin American agricultural and domestic workers. They also include Irish construction workers, Chinese seamstresses, Uzbeki slave lap dancers (honest to God) and others. For all practical purposes they have no rights, can be cheated six ways from Sunday by their bosses, and usually don't dare complain except in the most egregious cases for fear of being deported and blacklisted if they ever get back in the US. About five percent are violent criminals, the underground that protects the others so they can come and do your yard work and pack meat in the slaughterhouses cheaply hides these monsters as an unavoidable side affect.

About four percent (Enough to elect about 17 members of the House of Representatives) of the residents of the US live here with privileges, not rights, a situation that weakens all Americans rights. 600,000 criminals are given a hiding place from which to violate our rights. And rather than fix this our honorable Senators said they thought it was wrong to give illegal aliens amnesty and essentially voted to keep four percent of the US population living underground and without rights. They claim they were doing this because they didn't want to reward criminal behavior. Of course, these people are still in America under conditions that fail to protect their rights and weakens ours.

Demicans and Replicats at work.

Notes

1. Literally "wet one," i,e, "wet back." This is considered a racist epithet, it is used regularly by Americans of Mexican descent and Mexican citizens residing in US to describe persons who come into the US illegally.

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