Where's the Beef with the Beef Plant?

My former colleague, Professor David Newquist, has a post on the politics of the beef plant issue in Aberdeen.  He describes his conversations with Aberdeen Alderman Clint Rux.  I would note that Clint was a student of mine and took more of my courses than the FDA recommends.  But no one should hold that against him.  David has this comment on the opposition to the beef plant.

Construction has started on a beef processing plant outside of Aberdeen near the waste water treatment plant. Many people are resisting. A couple of law suits have been filed against the city, the county, and the plant's originators claiming that such a facility will damage the environment, their property values, and create traffic, noise, and stench. But some letters to the editors and comments on discussion boards all boil down to the fact that the protesters do not want "the kind of people" who are likely to seek jobs at the plant in town. The assumption is that they will be Hispanics and people of Asian backgrounds. That assumption is extended to the speculation that they will be illegal aliens. But whoever they are, they will endanger the life style and the security of the community and put a strain on the school system and the government services.

One does not have to have verbal skills to see a subtext behind all these arguments erupting into plain view. The resistance to a beef plant rises from racist attitudes.

Now I agree with David on the substance of the issue.  It would be crazy for Aberdeen to reject the beef plant.  Moreover, I think that the economic benefits are secondary to the fact that it seems likely to bring many new families to our town.  Contrary to what many seem to believe, it is not jobs that Aberdeen lacks, it is job seekers.  This is precisely the kind of enterprise that will bring a lot of new people here, and people is what we desperately need.

Second, there is no doubt that racism is a factor in the opposition.  There are surely those who do not want to see a lot more Hispanic folks wandering around the Lakewood Mall and Target. 

But a lot of the opposition is not racist at all.  Some of it "rises" from a desire to keep things the way they are, or better yet, turn back the clock to some imagined past.  I think these are vain and self-destructive conceits; but they are not in themselves racist.  Moreover there are perfectly legitimate concerns about the effects of growth as well as problems like rising crime rates. 

But if Aberdeen is to have a future at all we must reverse the effects of depopulation in the region.  The problems of growth are problems we should want to have to worry about.  And the more Mexican and Oriental restaurants, the better.