Unity Review
By Peter Brimelow, Paul Craig Roberts, Steve Sailer, etc.
The Center for American Unity
PB, US$7.50
ISBN: 0-9752-9290-0 

Leading immigration reform website hits bookshelves

By W. James Antle III
web posted May 31, 2004

Although people are increasingly turning toward the Internet and
other new media outlets for news and commentary, there is still
something distinctive about the character of the printed page.
After several years of writing regularly about politics for online
magazines such as this one, I joined the staff of The American
Conservative, a print fortnightly -- making what many net-savvy
news consumers would describe as a transition from the webzine
to the "treezine."

There's a noticeable difference between the two cultures, neatly
described by John Derbyshire in the introduction to the collection
of webzine pieces archived on his personal website: "When I
write for a weekly print magazine, my stuff sits there on the
newsstand shelf for a week, and hangs around in libraries and
orthodontists' waiting rooms for months afterwards.  Web
journalism generally disappears after one day."  While Google
and other search engines are starting to change this by preserving
even items posted on obscure web journals and making them
accessible to any adept net surfer, the mindset Derbyshire refers
to endures.

It was partly in recognition of this that Peter Brimelow, editor
and proprietor of the immigration-restrictionist webzine
VDARE.com, and his colleagues decided to publish Unity
Review -- A 2004 VDARE.com Anthology (full disclosure: I've
been published on VDARE; nothing written by me appears in
this volume). As Brimelow wrote in his VDARE announcement
of the anthology's publication, "Occasionally I hear rumors that
there are people who don't spend all day reading on computer
screens, but still prefer their words delivered via dead tree
technology.  In fact, Edith Hakola, Executive Vice President of
the Center for American Unity, insists that some of our best
friends and donors fall into this category." Hence, a new hard-
copy book that puts a number of articles dealing with the
National Question in print for the first time.

Unity Review is characterized by one, well, unifying theme: That
continuous mass immigration into the United States, under the
auspices of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, is
culturally and demographically transforming the country while
offering Americans few if any of the promised economic benefits.

In the absence of significant reform, the end result may be a
country that is poorer and far more divided along ethnic lines.
Yet all too often any discussion of immigration is hobbled by
misconceptions. One is that the United States a homeland to the
world dedicated to abstract political propositions without any
real history or culture of its own. The second is that as a "nation
of immigrants," it is somehow unpatriotic or un-American to
contemplate any limitations on immigration.

Anyone who dares to challenge these assumptions is likely to
invite charges of "xenophobia" or "racism." Even the estimable
scholar Samuel Huntington was scurrilously attacked for violating
multiculturalist dogma simply by discussing America's Anglo-
Protestant cultural roots in his recent Who We Are: The
Challenges to American National Identity. As Brimelow might
say, as in libel law, the truth should be an absolute defense.

Nevertheless, such name-calling is enough to prevent many
establishment media organs of both the left and right from delving
into these issues. This is especially unfortunate given that our
post-1965 immigration policies are disproportionately harmful to
black and Hispanic Americans (not to mention their intersection
with discriminatory racial preferences). Unity Review shows that
some writers are unafraid of this debate.

Indeed, they can be found plunging straight ahead throughout the
compilation. This set of contributors exhibits true diversity. For
example, Joe Guzzardi is a newspaper columnist from Lodi,
California who has been teaching English-as-second-language
courses for years. Allan Wall is an American citizen living legally
in Mexico with his family, giving him a unique perspective from
south of the border. David Yeagley is a Comanche Indian and
patriotic American.

These and other regular VDARE writers lay out a systematic
critique of the immigration status quo. Unity Review is broken
into six sections focusing on different areas: the pressure for
immigration reform, signs of actual reform, the case against
amnesty, the loss of English as a national language, the
balkanization caused by mass immigration and the cost of
unfettered immigration in terms of jobs, welfare and crime.

Some of the statistics contained in the book may surprise you.
Did you know that the Florida Hospital Association surveyed 28
hospitals and found that health care for illegal aliens cost them at
least $40 million for 2002? Or that George Borjas' research
found that the immigration-induced labor "supply shock" by
2000 had reduced even the wages of native-born college
graduates? How about that U.S. Census data shows a 53.6
percent increase in linguistically isolated residents -- people who
cannot effectively communicate in English -- between 1990 and
2000? These are a just a few of the underreported dimensions of
the immigration issue that are uncovered.

While Unity Review is a good primer for those approaching the
topic of immigration reform for the first time, I do have some
minor quibbles. The emphasis on the Barton case -- where a
woman was jailed for using an ethnic slur in a private
conversation and the ordinance she was convicted under was
struck down by the Michigan state Court of Appeals -- in the
second chapter seems disproportionate and readers who don't
visit VDARE might have benefited from more context for the
issue.

Such readers are also missing out on some of the site's gems.
The anthology features only one piece written by Steve Sailer,
who regularly contributes intelligent and sometimes
groundbreaking analysis in his weekly column. There is also only
article by Edwin Rubenstein, whose number-crunching dissection
of the day's conventional wisdom is a sorely missed feature from
the John O'Sullivan-era National Review. The anthology reprints
syndicated columns by Paul Craig Roberts and Sam Francis;
Michelle Malkin would have been a fine addition.

But I suppose you have to save something for the website.
Brimelow and his fellow contributors do a good job bringing the
immigration-reform buzz from the web into print. Unity Review
may even start a precedent for other webzines looking to
broaden their readership to those who would rather bring a book
to the beach than a laptop with a wireless card. Maybe it's a bit
much to expect print anthologies of Slate or Salon, but the belief
that the Internet is the future and the printing press is the past
ignores the deeply held regard many readers have for the
permanence of the printed page.

If you are concerned about the consequences of porous borders
and current U.S. immigration policy, but think the blogosphere
sounds like something out of a horror film and have no desire to
race down the Information Superhighway to stay informed, this
worthwhile collection is for you.

W. James Antle III is an assistant editor of The American
Conservative and a senior editor for Enter Stage Right. The
views expressed above represent his alone.

Enter Stage Right -- http://www.enterstageright.com