This is the Weed Talking

     Imagine this scenario: You are stopped at the Chatsworth city limits by a cop. He tells you of a new city policy excluding Mexicans. You are offended.
     You call City Hall and you find out that Chatsworth has enacted an immigration policy making Mexicans illegal aliens. After going to the Supreme Court and failing to get this policy overturned, you sneak into Chatsworth.
     You see the new mayor of Chatsworth, Mark Fuhrman, the closet racist who enacted this policy. You have him in your sights and you begin to gently squeeze. At this point a friend tries to dissuade you. You give him a listen, even though you are not inclined to be tolerant of racist injustice or to be dissuaded from doing your duty.
     “Don’t the poeple of Chatsworth have a right to control their border?” he argues. Reply -- When people talk about “our border,” it is important to distinguish two meanings of the word “our.” It could be used to indicate ownership, and it could be used for identification.
     When a student talks about “my English professor,” “my” identifies the professor. It does not mean the student owns the professor. When people talk about “our border,” they are identifying the border. It doesn’t mean ownership.
     Your friend then asks, “Don’t immigrants hurt the economy?” Reply -- If you look at the empirical evidence, economic growth is compatible with high levels of immigration. Furthermore, since human life did not originate in America, we are all immigrants and descendants of immigrants. If immigration reduces economic production, then how can the racists explain the high standard of living in America? To be anti-immigrant is to be anti-American.
     Your friend argues that justice is not your job, and you should not attempt to achieve it. Reply -- If the partisans of justice violate their duty, they are little better than the racists who commit this injustice.
     Your friend then argues you should respect established authority. Reply -- Established injustice is still unjust. And when injustice is expanded from the city level to the state and national level, it becomes injustice on a larger scale, and therefore, more evil, more intolerable.
     To keep friends who hold racist beliefs and oppose justice -- that says more about you and your ethics. Is it about time to drop the hammer on the closet racists who practice this racist injustice.

This editorial was first published in ‘95.
Copyright © 1998, The Association of Future Philosophers. All rights reserved.