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Tony Brown's Chicago radio show on Newstalk 89, WLS airs on Saturdays from ten a.m. to noon and features news, interviews, commentary, and listener phone calls.The prestigious radio trade magazine, Talkers, said that Tony Brown is one of "the 100 most important radio talk show hosts in America." Tony's PBS show, Tony Brown's Journal, is the longest running public affairs program on PBS and the second longest running series on PBS. His PBS show was selected as one of the top ten television shows in history presenting positive African-American images. Brown's message to perhaps the most ethnically diverse city in America is "We didn't all come over on the same ship, but we're all in the same boat." Brown is a much sought-after public speaker, the founding dean and former professor of the School of Communications at Howard University , and the author of Black Lies, White Lies and Empower the People. |
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Sept. 7, 2001
Why Indian H-1Bs Are Not Superior Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar stated in "The Economic Times Online" that the choice of "top-class Indian professionals" who are imported as H-1B skilled information technology (IT) workers does not cause discrimination that prevents Black American (Latinos and women as well) professionals from getting IT jobs. “Ironically, many Whites also complain that Indians and Chinese are taking over” from Whites in Silicon Valley and at top technical colleges in the US, Mr. Aiyar asserts. Despite the fact that there are 225,000 Aframerican engineers, programmers and systems analysts, yet only 1,688 Black professionals are employed in the Silicon Valley companies (four-fifths of which fail to even file equal employment opportunity forms) and, according to Mr. Aiyar, "half of the start-up companies in Silicon Valley today are owned by Asians" (mostly Indian and Chinese), he places the blame at the feet of what he perceives as competition-challenged Blacks. In reality, only discrimination would explain why, with such a vast pool of IT professionals available, so few qualified Blacks are hired. According to a study by Mr. John Templeton, despite a 16% gain nationally, the employment of Aframerican engineers in the Pacific states fell 20% from 1998-1999. Greed is a universal phenomenon. While attending a Black IT group’s conference, I was told by an Aframerican employer that he hires large numbers of Indian H-1Bs and he plans to continue to do so because he saves millions of dollars – and he doesn’t care how harmful the H-1B program is to Black engineers or the Black community. Mr. Templeton is careful to advise Indians, who receive 50% of the H-1B visas, that there is no conflict between his group’s “advocacy of fair employment and diverse marketing in technology and their legitimate aspirations.” They too, he says, are being “played by the high-tech moguls” and are sacked after performing “the grunt work of the computer industry” when market conditions worsen. In one instance, an Indian H-1B came to the US, got an IT job, became a US citizen and was shortly afterwards fired and replaced with an Indian who was imported as a H-1B. This example makes it clear that the issues are exploitation and discrimination, not nationalities, racial backgrounds or assertions of intellectual superiority and ethnocentrism employed, unfortunately, by some Indians. Ignoring the discrimination charges by Mr. Templeton’s group, the Coalition for Fair Employment in Silicon Valley, the US companies still claim an acute shortage of skilled Americans and plead for even more visas for foreigners, especially Indians, Mr. Aiyar writes, and Congress complied last year by raising the H-1B quota to 200,000 a year. Conversely, one professional programmer’s association reports that there is no shortage of qualified American ITs and that many Indian H-1Bs with whom its members work are unqualified for the positions they hold. The Coalition maintains that more H-1B visas "accelerate ethnic cleansing in the high technology industry, lock the doors of opportunity for decades and harden racial inequality into concrete." In other words, these stealth economic and racial forces push Black engineers from their present marginal, underclass Silicon Valley status into an emerging American technology outcaste. In addition to portraying Aframericans as dependent cry babies who are using the charge of discrimination to retaliate against "top-class Indian professionals" who get 50% of the worldwide US H-1B quota and Chinese (10%), Mr. Aiyar believes "the truth is that the H-1B visa is colour blind" because it does not depend on "racial quotas," but " instead allows (US) companies to choose the best worldwide. If they choose Indians," he states, it means they are choosing the best IT talent in the world in a globalized economy. Mr. Aiyar also writes that this “globallsation” system, based on meritocracy and not racial quotas that benefit unqualified Blacks, Latinos, women and White Americans, “has helped make the US economy the most dynamic in the world.” (I thought it was already the most dynamic in the world – before H-1Bs – which is why the alleged superior Indian H-1Bs wanted to come here.) In fact, "Europe and Japan have been left far behind in information technology precisely because they resist the infusion of skilled Indians," he explains. Mr. Aiyar is very clear in his belief that superior technology skills, found in abundance mostly among Indians, is the salvation of America. Indians could also save the economies of Europe and Japan as well -- if these countries would only see the light, as America has done, and replace their citizens with Indian IT professionals. Perhaps, the problem is that the US cannot or will not train its own population. Or, perhaps, Americans are already trained, but more costly to employers than H-1Bs. Or, to think the inferred unthinkable, perhaps, Americans are inferior to Indians. The inescapable implication in Mr. Aiyar's argument is that Indians have some innate cultural or biologically asset that Americans, Europeans and Japanese do not have. Forget Aframericans and Latinos. Before Mr. Aiyar goes too far down that road with his Indian superman theory, he might want to read "Predatory Culture Of Fraud, Abuse Emerging In India" by Mark McDonald in the Mercury News. It turns out that there is quite an illegal industry in India with links to American-Indian companies ("body shops") that deceives U. S. companies in order to funnel fraudulent, unqualified H-1B applicants with doctored resumes, imaginary degrees and refresher course diplomas from fly-by-night Indian trade schools into $50,000 H-1B computer jobs in the United States that pay only $3,000 a year in India (for which they would not qualify either). Lucky for the fraudulent group, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is incompetent and legislation allows US companies six years in which to train H-1Bs. INS recently announced that it will not deport laid off H-1Bs, even though it is legally mandated to do so. INS has hundreds of employees to monitor millions of immigrants and illegal aliens. US consular officials reported last year that “21 percent of the H-1B applications it received (in India) contained some type of fraudulent information -- forged college degrees, doctored resumes, phony work experience or phantom job offers." That means that last year one-fifth of potential Indian H-1Bs was categorized as “suspect” -- not superior humans or ITs. It also means that Blacks, Latinos, women, Americans over 40 and White Americans are all being discriminated against by White, Asian (Indian and Chinese) and Black owners of US companies when they utilize the H-1B program. The fraud in the program specifically discriminates against the H-1Bs themselves. (see McDonald’s article for details) These Indian H-1B victims are, in turn, used to discriminate against American workers by working for lower wages and preventing the development of training programs for Americans (especially the main victims of historic American discrimination – Blacks, Latinos and women) -- that are ironically offered to fraudulent, incompetent H-1Bs from India under US law. Despite proof of a “Predatory Culture of Fraud” in India with its links in the US that exploits both H-1Bs and US companies and casts the entire H-1B program in a bad light, no one should draw the conclusion that it represents the Indian people or all H-1Bs. This unethical phenomenon does not mean that most H-1Bs are frauds or incompetents, but it does prove that all Indian H-1Bs are not superior in intellect and professional IT training, not even in ethics. Mr. Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar should realize that it is one thing to be proud of your ethnicity, but quite another to be ethnocentric. © 2001. Copyright. All Rights Reserved. Tony Brown Productions, Inc.
PART II "So Much For a Colorblind Meritocracy" by Mike Yamamoto - August 14, 2001 also travels down the nationalistic road paved by Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar in his article in The Economic Times Online. As an added touch, however, Mr. Yamamoto plays the racism card as he extends it to rationalize an entitlement “minority” status for Asians, who are, ironically the nation’s top income earners and the hands-down education over-achievers. Essentially, he compares apples and oranges (overpopulation immigration and racism) and portrays Americans who have a point of view that opposes the company-friendly H-1B visa program as prejudiced against "non-whites." His analysis of racism against "non-whites" never mentions the only racism that is taking place -- the racism against qualified, albeit unwanted Black engineers and programmers. See "High-Tech Firms Fail to Hire African-Americans" by Candice Choi that is based on the research of Mr. John Templeton. Mr. Yamamoto is correct in assuming that he will be accused of "fanning the flames of racism" because that is precisely what he has done. He cites a "Techies.com survey" that allegedly found “ethnic bias” (against whom is not clear) among 25% of the respondents. That means that 75%, an overwhelming majority, are not prejudiced. This causes one to wonder about such an unscientific sample of "employee opinions" in the IT sector (a community that is disproportionately Asian and immigrant and not representative of the U. S. population) where only a handful of Blacks are employed. One does not need a study to know that White America is not colorblind and that Asians, like all other groups, are not universally loved, and there will never be a survey that contradicts that fact. That fact, however, is not admissible as proof that H-1B is a necessary program or that it is in the country's best interests. Therefore, factual refutation of H-1B’s merits does not depend on a "non-white" animus. By "non-whites," Mr. Yamamoto seems to be referring to Asians, not Blacks who have gotten lost in the "minority" entitlement programs which were subtlety changed to dilute Black power by giving entitlement status and preferential benefits to anyone who was not White. Asians benefited mightily from this entitlement. Blacks were the original creators and benefactors of “minority” entitlement benefits as a form of compensation for slavery and centuries of legal segregation and violent persecution. Asian Americans comprise both the number one over-achieving group in the nation, along with an entitlement "minority" status, simply because they are not White. As a result of their cultural emphasis, they have a higher income and are educationally more successful (particularly in the high-tech field) than Whites, and light years ahead of Blacks and Latinos. As a result, and with the help of the H-1B immigration preference program that benefits both White and Asian-owned companies, "Asian-owned companies generated $16.8 billion in sales -- 17% of all sales from Silicon Valley's high-tech firms," according to BusinessWeek magazine. (June 18, 2001) These firms account for one in four (Mr. Aiyar says half) new tech start-up companies and employ 58,000 people in Silicon Valley. I wonder how many Aframericans these Asian-owned firms hire? Unofficial and anecdotal word-of-mouth sources (including a study I can’t find at this time) suggest that the rate of Black and Latino employees is lower than it is among White-owned firms. Greed is a universal phenomenon. While attending a Black IT group’s conference, I was told by an Aframerican employer that he hires large numbers of Indian H-1Bs and he plans to continue to do so because he saves million of dollars – and he doesn’t care how harmful the H-1B program is to Black engineers or the Black community. Far from being a deprived "minority" that served as slaves in the U. S., Asians lead the nation in family income, educational achievement and high-tech preparation. If only Black and Latinos, and underemployed and unemployed Whites and women, equaled their outstanding performance, America would be better prepared for the 21st century. Yet Mr. Yamamoto "wonders" subjectively and focuses on events that "seem" to confirm a racist animus among White Americans towards Asians because some of them legitimately oppose H-1B. On the other hand, he believes that the "intelligence" of Silicon Valley ITs is so enormous that, if need be, the facts alone could knock out ignorance, the root of racism, among these elitists. That fantasy demonstrates his ignorance of economics and the history of US racism. And it is at this point that he also seems to fall into the trap of his own nationalism, i. e., that the US IT sector cannot attain viability without foreigners, particularly H-1Bs. The H-1B program was not built on Indian or Asian superiority, but corporate greed and a deep-seated hatred of Black people. The legitimate opposition to H-1B (other than for bigots) is based on the realities of overpopulation immigration and the environmental, economic and social consequences that flow from it -- not on the character or nationality of the H-1B immigrants involved. Mr. John Templeton, author of a study that proves the harmful effects of the H-1B immigrant preference program on Black engineers, states: "High-tech companies in Silicon Valley have lagged behind in hiring African-Americans. Despite a 16 percent gain nationally, the employment of African-American engineers fell 20 percent in the Pacific states from 1998 to 1999." Mr. Gene Nelson (www.BrainSavers.org), a Dallas-based expert on H-1B, was fired shortly after he published similar data in the Dallas Morning News. Mssrs. Aiyar and Yamamoto should study the history of American racism and reconsider Asian success in the context of being equals in a culturally diverse America. -30- © 2001. Copyright. All Rights Reserved. Tony Brown Productions, Inc. Reproduced by Permission of Tony Brown |
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