Chilton Williamson Jr. is the author of The Immigration Mystique: America's False Conscience and an editor and columnist for Chronicles Magazine, where he writes the The Hundredth Meridian column about life in the Rocky Mountain West.

By  Chilton Williamson Jr.

The morning paper brings a column, written by David Bacon and carried by Pacific News Service, about the recent race riots in the British Midlands.

In the course of his piece, Bacon quotes one Jude Woodward, an organizer for the National Assembly Against Racism in London, as claiming that anti-immigration "hysteria" has been "cynically" orchestrated by English politicians, following the Glorious Victory for Labour in the recent elections - which, Woodward charges, has served to fan the fires of racism in England.  Another organizer for the NAAR, Sabi Dalu, laments what she describes as the worst backlash against asylum seekers and immigrants "since the 1960s and 70s, when you had waves of immigrants come in from the former colonies like India and Uganda."

"In establishment circles," Mr. Woodward explains,

This argument turns reality upside down.  The most positive thing for race relations is to have more people of colour come here, because the more integrated society becomes, the less space there is for racism.  This argument is not primarily about economics—it's about race." [Emphasis added]

So there you have it. For immigration enthusiasts, immigration policy—all national policy, really—is not about promoting the interests of particular nations and cultures by maintaining their coherency, harmony, stability, and felicity. It's about - CURING RACISM! 

Whoopee.

July 26, 2001