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By Brenda Walker
Feb 19, 2004
The mid-February birthday of suffragist icon Susan B. Anthony is a
reminder of the long struggle for women's right to vote, starting with
the 1848 Seneca Falls Declaration and culminating with the passage of
the 19th Amendment in 1920. It's an appropriate time to reflect on
American women's subsequent social and economic advances, as well as
consider how these gains may be endangered by millions of immigrants
whose cultures do not share values of gender equality.
What would feminist founders like Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
make of women on American streets today wearing Islamic veils? Surely
the suffragists would be shocked at the predominance of third-world
immigration now, particularly of barbaric misogynous cultures that
have been welcomed in the name of "diversity." Certainly the early
feminists would recognize that admitting millions from extreme
woman-hating societies threatens both the rights and safety of women.
Yet the effects of this policy have been largely ignored by today's
feminists and are even foolishly celebrated as part of trendy
multiculturalism.
Immigrant women wearing Islamic veils send a message that oppressing
women is an acceptable cultural expression. But there are means of
control that go deeper than clothing. One such is the practice of
child abuse and torture known as female genital mutilation (FGM), in
which a little girl's private parts are brutally cut away; in 1996,
Congress found it necessary to outlaw FGM in America because of
increasing diversity.
In October 2002, Somalis in a Kenyan refugee camp learned that FGM was
illegal in the United States, so dozens rushed to castrate their
little girls in advance of coming to this country. The US government
then considered banning Somali refugee families because they continued
the barbaric practice, though authorities later relented. According to
the World Health Organization, the prevalence of FGM in Somalia is 98
percent. Still, multiculturalism extremists believe that Somali
culture somehow enriches America.
Despite Americans' common assumption that immigrants somehow adapt
automatically to our culture, today's newcomers largely retain their
traditions, which is not surprising since academia, professional
ethnic advocates and much of the press assert that assimilation is an
outdated, even racist, concept. Keep your culture, they insist, even
though cultural balkanization threatens social cohesion. And because
many immigrants have indeed kept their old ways, they have brought
honor killing, arranged marriage for very young girls, sexual slavery
and other objectionable customs.
Another sign of nonassimilation is the continuing practice of
sex-selection abortion by Indian and Chinese immigrants. The New York
Times reported (8/15/01) on fetal scanning clinics that pitch ads
toward Indians reading "Desire a Son?" and "Choosing the sex of your
baby." The Asian contempt for females has so skewed sex ratios in both
India and China that millions of young men cannot find women to marry.
In a direct confrontation between the rights of women versus
immigrants, women often lose. It's quite common for women to be
insulted, propositioned and worse by "day laborers," those illegal
aliens who hang around lumber stores to be picked up for untaxed
manual jobs. Open-borders advocates repeat the tiresome line that the
aliens "only come here to work," but overlook how those foreigners
find time to threaten women while looking for unlawful jobs. It's
disgraceful that these insults are accepted as a normal component of
day worker situations which are illegal to begin with.
In a particularly blatant case of public sexual harassment,
schoolgirls as young as five years old in Greenfield, California, were
harassed by gangs of illegal immigrants. The INS stepped in and
deported 39 men after complaints from parents. INS spokesperson Sharon
Rummery remarked, "Our agents... saw men... blocking the sidewalks,
rubbing themselves on the girls who tried to pass. There were
whistles, catcalls and obscene remarks. These were children of every
age, from elementary school up through high school age. We felt there
was a potential danger there."
The press continually excuses illegal immigration while ignoring the
cost to women. In January 2002, three illegal aliens broke into the
Texas ranchhouse of a pregnant woman with a toddler, and the woman
fatally shot one of the men. News coverage uniformly parroted the
sentiments of the local Mexican consular officer who described the
woman as "hysterical," even though most Texans would regard using a
gun for self-defense in one's own home against three intruders as
entirely reasonable.
Women should awaken to the growing danger posed by continued mass
immigration from anti-female cultures and how the egalitarian ideal of
American suffragists may actually lose ground as a result.
Multiculturalism promotes any and all diversity as beneficial without
admitting its negative consequences; on the contrary, multiculturalism
is a potential time-bomb of diminished social standing for women.
Rather than accepting this delusional ideology, women should insist
that our immigration policy protect our homegrown American value of
gender equality from assault by misogynous cultures.
Brenda Walker is a writer living in California and is a member of the
www.VDARE.com editorial collective. She publishes two websites,
www.LimitsToGrowth.org and www.ImmigrationsHumanCost.org.
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