Angela Davis Says Black People Have a Responsibility to Support the DREAM Act

My history professor says their is nothing new under the sun. Latino immigrants seek job opportunities here in the states because their developing countries are raped by the united states. In a sense the Latino immigrant has also been forced from his homeland thus indirectly they have been forcefully displaced from their land in order to deal with the circumstances that they have been subjected to. Racism persists while you argue that the undocumented don't pay taxes they actually do contribute a great deal. If anything check the statistics Latino undocumented workers disproportionately pay into the system and yet they are denied basic human rights. Education is a right not a privilege. Check with the UN. Moreover, lets be honest no one is complaining about the Canadian immigrant. Colorlines still exist.

More than 80% of illegal immigrants pay taxes!!! They do it through sales tax, income, and thanks to obtaining a fake SS #'s so YES they are paying taxes. And what option do latinos have when Mexico, Columbia, etc. have been ravaged by cartels because of an AMERICAN drug addiction? There are over 1,000 bodies of women in Sonoran desert because there families would not give into blackmail...so they're wives and daughter are being murdered for it. 

DREAM ACT serves those students who didn't have choice of where they live. Their parents moved them to this country due to the violence or poverty (the US has been really good at taking land away from natives in South America, so they are left to be a little more than indentured servants on their own land, so provide profit for American businessmen). For those of you who think that they always have a choice, I am sorry, but choosing between immigration (to a country where they are treated like a second class citizen), child prostitution, being a drug mule, or being homeless in a third world country.....HOW IS THIS A CHOICE? 

On a final note, think about the fact that the majority of the population in cities like LA, Miami, etc. are latino. Latinos are more than 25% of population in California. What happens if we don't educate the majority of the population? If you look purely at the numbers, you would never deny 25% of the population education...what would have to your economy if you do that? The Latino population is going to be a decisive vote in this election...let's start treating them like they DO have a voice in this country, just like you and I. 

Peace in response too (Blick) First and formost that word (Black) isn't a Nationality of our People it is a term that defines a Color of water such as the Niger River in West Africa Because it contains Black water.... Secondly People that look like you and Myself are    Moors" not Blacks are Colored are any of those Misnomered Names....Maybe Two Hours in A up to Date Library would relieve the Strain on  Lettered Men and Women Alike, should you find sometime. Instead of running your mouth .... Peace and Love and Let Learning be the END......( *

It is funny how you have an image that we reach higher education without paying taxes. Please do your research and understand that undocumented students pay taxes. I do not know how much you know about the DREAM Act but do you know that there are requirements that have to be met before you are put in PATH to citizenship. We were brought here at a young age without any say so think about that when you think we are so different. 

Blick, it seems to me like you don't fully comprehend what the DREAM Act entails... It is aimed at helping undocumented students who were brought here at a young age (almost always without a choice) you mentioned that Africans were brought here against their will, but so were the students that would benefit from the DREAM Act... Just a little insight.

You did not just seriously give the "we were kidnapped" excuse for your bigotry and ignorance of what the DREAM Act is? Did you? I am Black and I wholeheartedly support the DREAM Act. 

Undocumented residents DO pay taxes - property tax when they rent, sales tax whenever they buy things, gas tax when fueling up, etc. Income tax isn't the only tax people pay - in fact, 47 percent of Americans don't, because they don't make enough to. 

Also, when they pay in-state fees, they pay the complete price - no financial aid, grants, or loans (the CA DREAM Act doesn't kick in until next year, if my memory's correct.) Furthermore, if at a UC, their money (33 percent return-to-aid program) goes into scholarships they can't access. As a Cal Grant and private scholarship recipient, I'm pretty sure some undocumented student helped pay my way through school, and I'm grateful for it.

Everyone's just trying to make a living. Why can't we do it together? Big banks, broken government, and the prison industry victimize everyone - black, brown, yellow; citizen, resident, or undocumented person. 

Actually, undocumented people do pay taxes. Lots of em. Although this amount is hard to determine, rough estimates put the contribution of undocumented folks at $9 billion dollars this year into social security alone. The Social Security administration estimates that at least 75% of undocumented workers are on formal payrolls, and therefore have income tax, medicare, and social security removed from their pay checks. Also, everyone who purchases anything has to pay sales tax (which in LA is exorbitant, between 8.75 and 9.75% depending on the municipality) and renters and undocumented home owners also pay property taxes (renters, more indirectly, but property tax is a part of rent costs). All this tax revenue is used to fund services that most undocumented people cannot access. So, I have to disagree with you blick, a vast majority of undocumented workers do pay taxes and contribute to the social wage with little to no hope of accessing the services that they are paying into.

Also, education, housing, and fair wages are a right, not a privilege. If higher education was free or cheap (which it used to be in California) then this wouldn't be an issue. In the case of Los Angeles, most of the city's revenues are spent on funding the criminal injustice system (police, courts, prisons, probation, etc.), that disproportionately arrests, convicts, and incarcerates Black and Latino people. Additionally, funds spent on prison construction come from lease revenue bonds, which accrue a lot of debt that future generations will have to pay.

I think the real question is to ask, is when will the stewards of our social wages and tax dollars use that money responsibly? At what point will we stop scapegoating each other and hold these stewards accountable? It is very functional to drive a wedge between blacks, who have been pushed out of labor in Los Angeles for the past sixty years, and undocumented workers, who contribute value to the economic system that they are barred from recovering.

Think about what you just said..."i'm all about justice for all people, however" please think before you say something that makes you sound very ignorant...it's as if i said I love all people but...or I am doing my best to hire these people but...these statements takes away some of the responsibility we have and solely put it on the other individual...just saying think about it!

Although I disagree with her on this Angela Davis is brilliant and CANNOT be a racist.  Please get your facts straight.  

 Nearly every word of the above article refutes what you just said, but thanks for playing.