What the bleepity bleeping hell?

I’ve had an extremely icky day, and my nerves are razor thin right now, and on top of all that I log on to read that supporters of prominent illegal immigrant Elvira Arellano, arrested and deported this week, call her the illegal immigration movement’s “Rosa Parks.” In response, my head just about rocketed off my neck.

This is moral relativism at its stomach-turning worst. It’s too bad these idiots apparently don’t have a clue about history, because Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus because the damn laws at that time towards black people were unjust and, more importantly, unconstitutional. There is nothing unjust, nor unconstitutional, about deporting people who aren’t here legally. Eric Zorn explained this in a post he wrote about the Arellano last year:

I’m sure immigrants rights groups feel they will benefit by the attempt to turn Arellano into a martyr. Already we are hearing supporters compare her to Rosa Parks, the black woman whose act of civil disobedience– in 1955 she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man — sparked the civil rights movement.

But Parks was defying an unjust and immoral law — a judgment that history has validated. And I have yet to hear a coherent argument that says justice and morality demand that otherwise law-abiding people who manage to sneak into the United States have a right to remain here.

I’ve heard good arguments that it’s in our best interests as a nation to create a “path to citizenship” or at least a robust guest-worker program for those who are here illegally; that immigrants enrich us culturally and economically so our laws should be more welcoming.

But Arellano’s defiance — such as her proclamation that her arrest and deportation will serve to illustrate “the hatred and hypocrisy of the current administration”– retards those arguments. It’s imbued with a sense of entitlement that many Americans — I’ll guess most — find very off-putting.

Regular readers of this blog know that I didn’t stand shoulder to shoulder with most conservatives on the immigration bill, which went down in flames earlier this year, but I will stand shoulder to shoulder with any conservative or liberal who comes out and condemns this nonsense about Elvira Arellano being “today’s Rosa Parks” for what it is: a slap in the face to the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s, a movement that demanded civil rights for legal citizens of this country who happened to be black.

This “Elvira is today’s Rosa” is very similar to the baloney comparisons that the gay rights community routinely makes between their ‘plight’ and that of black people in the 60s. Uh, no. It doesn’t work that way. Get back with me, moral relativists, when both gay people and illegals have to drink from separate water fountains, eat at different lunch counters, have to sit in the back of the bus … you get the picture.

Undercover Black Man, in a post about another ridiculous comparison to Elvira Arellano (that of a ‘slave on the run’), cuts to the heart of the matter on the idiotic comparisons:

Hey, take your best shot, J.J. But don’t expect any black people to stand in solidarity with you on open immigration when you disrespect our struggle. Illegal immigration isn’t comparable to black slavery in any way.

One, nobody is dragging Mexicans here against their will. Two, no U.S. immigration official has lashed the bare back of any Mexican with a whip, as used to happen to “runaway slaves” who got caught. Three, Mexican workers get paid; they send billions of dollars per year back home to Mexico.

ST adds: Four, Mexican illegals have been coming here for years in order to obtain “free” healthcare that was not available to slaves. Five, Mexican illegals have never had to use a separate water fountain, have never been ordered to sit in the back of the bus, never had to worry about “whites only” restuarants, etc. Six, Mexican illegals, under our current no-enforcement laws, are pretty much free to come and go as they please.

Readers, please feel free to add to that list in the comments.

Needless to say, these comparisons are not going to endear pro-illegal immigration advocates to America’s other prominent minority community: the black community, comprised mostly of liberal Democrats who are not used to (nor interested in) sharing the victim spotlight. The fight from here on out will be to see how hard both sides battle for the right to claim “We’re The Bigger Victims” status.

Via Jeff Goldstein.

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