By Frank Muller Santa Monica
As compelling as immigration reform appears dressed up in racism overtones, as the new economy takes on the old, there are reasons to question the quality of communications to Latinos.
What we see at present are the characteristics of an employment market in transition. Industrial mergers, acquisitions and plain old business sense are as pertinent now as they were in the ’50s, with one exception — groups, rather than individuals, are now being affected by global-ization. American life is now criss-crossed by very visible trip wires of emotional, racial grievances simply because we are not told that high-paying three-shifts-a-day manufacturing opportunities, which used to absorb high work ethic Latinos, are no longer positive safety valves!
Whereas Detroit’s auto industries, and their parts subcontracting stakeholders saw a bright future in eventual assimilation, no such hope exists now as America can no longer take in and make people from many nations part of its generous own, as we see such companies as Delphi moving factories south, of all places, to Mexico!
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 19, 2007. Read the original PDF.