LatinaLista — Organized opposition or concerned citizens?
It’s the question most Americans now struggle with whenever seeing on television images of people screaming, pointing fingers or waving weighty stacks of paper at healthcare town hall meetings.
Woman protests Obama’s healthcare reform at town hall meeting with Rep. Barney Frank.
One side would like all Americans to believe that these Nazi-doctored-Obama-picture-toting-citizens aren’t part of any organized group effort to derail healthcare reform. Yet, it’s just hard to believe, especially when these same in-your-face challengers have trouble expanding on their arguments against heathcare reform when they stray off script.
Accusations that insurance companies and conservatives are behind these orchestrated efforts to turn public opinion against healthcare reform have been running rampant since the start of the debate.
It’s enough to plant dread into immigrant advocates who are leery of how anti-immigration reformists will attack when it comes time to debate the bill for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR).
Well, a video that surfaced over the weekend shows that the opposition against CIR isn’t waiting for the bill to even be written. They have already started an attack that shows the ugliest battle is yet to be fought.
The last thing I want to do at Latina Lista is give free publicity to what I view as nothing more than a piece of propaganda film against immigration reform and undocumented immigrants, but I provide the video to start making people aware that subtle, and obviously not so subtle, attempts will be made to turn public opinion against immigration reform the closer we get to Congress introducing a CIR bill.
In the process, these individuals, who seem to be fighting for a “white America,” are also endangering the lives of legal Latino residents by inciting anger in those people who are already teetering on the edge of reality.
I don’t think I have to share my analysis of the film for anyone to be able to pick out the elements that make this a propaganda piece directed against Latinos, undocumented immigrants and immigration reform.
Yet, there was one thing that was amusing about this video — in the poor attempt to make people think this was remotely about healthcare reform (like we were led to believe in the beginning), it’s laughable when the “hostess” of the video tries to talk about the healthcare bill to someone who is attending the town hall meeting and is against the bill.
It doesn’t take long for the “hostess” to go above the guy’s head when she starts citing reports, etc. If there had been a text bubble over his head, the line of Homer Simpson quotes could rapidly fill it. It did provide the perfect seagueway into talking about Latinos and immigration reform.
From then on, it was pretty clear what the intent of this video was and it was disturbing to watch.
It was disturbing to watch grown men being allowed to egg on a teenager with taunts and dares. It was equally disturbing to see how the police overreacted in subduing this teen, and it was disgusting to read the captions.
Yes, there is no doubt the next legislative battle is going to be ugly but only if people with evil intentions of painting the whole Latino community in a negative light are allowed to operate without being challenged by both citizens and our nation’s leaders.
Comment(24)
cookie
You know Marisa, I didn’t expect this from you, “fighting for a white America”? Boy, talk about pulling the race card! Objecting to illegal immigrants in our country and rewarding them with amnesty/legalization is not akin to racism or about preserving the white race in this country. There would be no need to preserve the white majority in this country if all immigrants came legally. Funny how the ethnocentric Hispanics would certainly object to an illegal invasion by the Chinese into Mexico and thereby changing it from a Hispanic country to an Asian one culturally and lingually. Talk about hypocricy!
What you call CIR isn’t a reform at all but an amnesty. Giving millions of illegals amnesty does not “reform” our immigration laws because we would still have them in the same capacity afterwards. You may as well call it AFI (amnesty for illegals). That would fit your agenda much better.
Marisa Treviño
“There would be no need to preserve the white majority in this country if all immigrants came legally.” Uh, are you saying then that there are racial quotas?
cookie
To my knowledge today there are racial quotas in our immigration laws. But fear not as Latinos are only second to Asians (who are alloted the highest percentages) by a few percentage points. White immigrants are at the bottom of the totem pole percentage wise.
Latinos migrating here by the millions illegally have nullified any of our racial quotas.
There is nothing inherently racist about any country wanting to retain their traditional societies, culture and language. Of course Latinos only hold that true for their own countries. The U.S. is viewed by them as being racist for wanting the same. I never hear them complaing about the China, Japan or any other country either who desires the same.
Beverly
“Uh, are you saying then that there are racial quotas?”
No racial quotas, but I think that our citizens should actually have some say as to whether or not they wish to remain an English speaking and generally literate country with no new requirement to re-educate and subsidize millions of new poor. We already have millions of poor and illiterate without importing them through and amnesty program. Contrary to the democrats perception that our country should be the dumping ground for Latin America’s poor, most citizens would like to retain their quality of life without a catastrophic increase in their tax burden., which this would undoubtedly do.
Teddy
This is all about white racial fears, and the fact that some people seem to think that there is a need to “preserve the white majority” proves that.
Evelyn
There would be no need to preserve the white majority in this country if all immigrants came legally.
E
There is no need to preserve a white majority in this country unless one thinks whites are better then others. If one does think that, ugh how racist.
cookie
So it is racist to want to retain the white majority, their culture and langauge in this country as it has been since its founding? How so? Do you also hold the same view for Mexico? How about Japan or China? Of course you don’t! It is only white people that you hate and want to see disappear off the face of this earth or at least diluted in this country. You are so filled with hatred towards the white majority in this country that you will need psychiatric help to cleanse your brain of your own hatred and racism.
Paolo
This is why we do not need CIR or amnesty:
National Review Online: Stop Illegals, Save CA
by Alex Alexiev
August 24, 2009
California’s financial unraveling has prompted a long-overdue debate about taxes, regulation, and government spending, but the state’s media and government continue to ignore what could be an even greater problem: the irreparable damage to California’s human capital that nearly 30 years of unrestrained illegal immigration has achieved.
This is not an immigration problem, or even an illegal-immigration problem, per se. A strong case could be made that, in terms of educational achievement, industriousness, and entrepreneurial acumen, Asian immigrants to California have proven superior to white natives of the state. Therefore, if California were to experience a wave of mass immigration from Asia, its long-term economic prospects would be improved. Today’s Hispanic immigrants would probably have the same effect if they came from the top 10 to 20 percent of their society according to those same measures of human capital rather than from its bottom rungs. But the influx has instead been composed mainly of the poorly educated, the unskilled, and the illiterate. Such immigrants will likely soon dominate the state’s overall population and politics.
In 2005, the California K12 school system was 48.5 percent Hispanic, compared with 30.9 percent white. By now it is above 50 percent Hispanic. Two-thirds of kindergarten students were Hispanic, most of them unable to speak English.
For a closer glimpse of what’s in store for California, look at the Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest in California and the second largest in the country. Of its roughly 700,000 students, almost three-quarters are Hispanic, 8.9 percent are white, and 11.2 percent are black. More than half of the Latino students (about 300,000) are “English learners” and, depending on whether you believe the district or independent scholars, anywhere between a third and a half drop out of high school, following significant attrition in middle school. A recent study by UC Santa Barbara’s California Dropout Research Project estimates that high-school dropouts in 2007 alone will cost the state $24.2 billion in future economic losses.
Even those who graduate aren’t necessarily headed to success. According to one study, 69 percent of Latino high-school graduates “do not meet college requirements or satisfy prerequisites for most jobs that pay a living wage.” It is difficult to see how the majority-Hispanic labor force of the future can provide the skills that the sophisticated Los Angeles economy demands. Already studies show that as many as 700,000 Los Angeles Latinos and some 65 percent of the city’s illegal immigrants work in L.A.’s huge underground economy.
The unhappy picture in Los Angeles is replicated to one degree or another across much of California and is taking a huge toll on the state’s economic competitiveness and long-term prospects. California’s educational system, once easily the best in the country, is today mired in mediocrity near the bottom among the 50 states as judged by National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests in math, science, reading, and writing. And for the first time in its history, California is experiencing an increase in adult illiteracy. In 2003, it had the highest adult illiteracy in the United States, 23 percent nearly 50 percent higher than a decade earlier. In some counties (Imperial at 41 percent, Los Angeles at 33 percent) illiteracy approaches sub-Saharan levels.
Perhaps even more important than the collapse of educational achievement among the lower strata is a deterioration of the higher education that was for decades the basis of California’s preeminence in science and technology. California currently ranks 40th among the 50 states in college-attendance rates, and it already faces a significant shortage of college graduates. Studies have shown that the economy will need 40 percent of its workers to be college-educated by 2020, compared with today’s 32 percent. Given the aging white population (average age, 42), many of these new graduates will have to come from the burgeoning Latino immigrant population (average age, 26). By one estimate, this would require tripling of the number of college-educated immigrants, an impossibility if current trends hold. The state’s inability to improve the educational attainment of its residents will result in a “substantial decline in per capita income” and “place California last among the 50 states” by 2020, according to a study by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.
The mediocre education system, along with the unfriendly business climate and confiscatory tax regime, is driving educated, middle-class Californians out of the state. Between 2000 and 2005, more people with college degrees left California than came in, according to research by the Hewlett Foundation. Since then this trend has accelerated, and the state lost 2.2 million members of its young, educated, tax-paying middle class between 2004 and 2007. IRS data show that of recent migrants from the Golden State to places like Texas and Oklahoma, who average 29 years of age, 58 percent have received at least some college education and 53 percent own their homes.
In short, we are witnessing a highly advanced and prosperous state, long endowed with superior human capital, turning into the exact opposite in just one generation. What can be done to stop this race to the bottom? The answer is simple: California and Washington need to enforce existing immigration law. Unfortunately, it is difficult to convince the public that this is necessary, so deeply entrenched are myths about illegal immigration.
One myth is that because America is a country of immigrants and has successfully absorbed waves of immigration in the past, it can absorb this wave. But the argument neglects two key differences between past waves and the current influx. First, the immigrant population is more than double today what it was following the most massive previous immigration wave (that of the late 19th century). Second, and much more important, as scholars from the Manhattan Institute have shown, earlier immigrants were much more likely to bring with them useful skills. Some Hispanic immigrants certainly do integrate, but most do not. Research has shown that even after 20 years in the country, most illegal aliens (the overwhelming majority of whom are Hispanic) and their children remain poor, unskilled, and culturally isolated they constitute a new permanent underclass.
Perhaps the most disingenuous myth about illegal immigrants is that they do not impose any cost on society. The reality is that even those who work and half do not, according to the Pew Hispanic Center cannot subsist on the wages they receive and depend on public assistance to a large degree. Research on Los Angeles immigrants by Harvard University scholar George J. Borjas shows that 40.1 percent of immigrant families with non-citizen heads of household receive welfare, compared with 12.7 percent of households with native-born heads. Illegal immigrants also increase public expenditures on health care, education, and prisons. In California today, illegal immigrants’ cost to the taxpayer is estimated to be $13 billion half the state’s budget deficit.
The state should stop providing welfare and other social services to illegal aliens as existing statutes demand and severely punish employers who break the law by hiring illegal immigrants. This would immediately remove powerful economic incentives for illegal immigration, and millions of illegal aliens would return to their countries. Instead, with President Obama in the White House and the Democrats controlling Congress, an amnesty for the country’s 13 million illegal immigrants may be soon to come.
Milton Friedman once said that unrestrained immigration and the welfare state do not mix. Must we wait until California catches up with Mexico to realize how right he was?
Evelyn
So it is racist to want to retain the white majority,
E
I am glad you said it! It’s ashame you dont realize it.
There is nothing you can do to stop the “Browning of America”
cookie
Yes, I said it Evelyn because it is true! There is nothing racist about ANY country wanting to retain its traditional society, culture and language by objecting to ILLEGAL immigration.
The same holds true for Mexico, Japan, China, Italy and every other country in the world. You can’t dispute that, can you?
You keep harping about the native indians and how their culture was changed by the European iinvasion. Does that mean THEY were racists for wanting to retain their society and objecting to the invasion? See what a hypocrite you are? No country or its citizens are going to roll over and accept the changing demographics of their country by an ILLEGAL INVASION without a fight.
Oh yes, we can stop the “browning” of the U.S. (and it isn’t about skin color anyway) by securing our borders, enforcing our immigration laws and deporting those in our country illegally. You are not going to get the CIR that you think you are.
Traci
“So it is racist to want to retain the white majority,”
Is it racist for Latinos to claim that their basis for power is their Latino numbers? I would advocate that the only purpose for Latinos to band together politically is to impose additonal taxes upon the haves to transfer to the have nots, which would in effect take money from the racial majorities to use for themselves. I’d call that a form of racisim. They already have equal civil rights, so what’s left?
MdeG
Cookie:
Yes, it’s racist.
It’s a myth that the US was ever all-white or monolingual English-speaking. That’s not our historical truth. Natives were here before the English; so were French, Spanish, and Portuguese people, depending on the region.
Yes, there are still residual racial quotas in our immigration system. This is a bad thing, in my opinion.
It’s fine to be proud of our national culture and our collective language, and to invite newcomers to participate in both. Putting people down is not the way to do that.
laura
Interesting how folks like Cookie continue to emphasize the need “to preserve the white majority” of the country. What about African Americans, are they not part of this country in your eyes?
And Evelyn, since when immigrants equal illiterate? We wouldn’t have Google if it wasn’t because of the great achievements of an immigrant.
So yes, both of your comments are racist: equating others who are not white to be inferior than you and not worthy of this country
Evelyn
Yes, I said it Evelyn because it is true! There is nothing racist about ANY country wanting to retain its traditional society, culture and language by objecting to ILLEGAL immigration.
E
It pleases me to no end that you spun yourself into agreeing with me that I am not racist for pointing out that I would like the original inhabitants of this land, the original culture , the original languages, the original spirituality to have a broader role in defining America.
Your comment “So it is racist to want to retain the white majority,” is very racist because you want to eliminate others to accommodate ONLY whites.
Like the Mexican saying goes, ” only the skunk fails to smell his stink.”
You cant stop the browning of America even if CIR doesent pass because more then half of American children are other then white.
When they grow up more then half of Americas population will be other then white and when they have children they will be other then white.
Whites in American are a dying breed.
Paolo
“It’s fine to be proud of our national culture and our collective language, and to invite newcomers to participate in both.”
Why newcomers? We should decide to regulate our population growth now, before it’s too late. The only newcomers should be those born here.
It’s funny how few other nations, including Hispanic ones never demand diversity or make a big deal out of immigrants. Let’s face it, we like being number one and react negatively to encroachment by others. We already have a diversity in this country, but it is tending towards less diversity as we Latinos are tending to dominate and other ethnic groups, including Asians and Europeans are being edged out. We can hardly claim to be advocates of adversity, as we proclaim our future dominance at the ballot box. Dominance is not diversity.
Evelyn
laura :
Interesting how folks like Cookie continue to emphasize the need “to preserve the white majority” of the country. What about African Americans, are they not part of this country in your eyes?
And Evelyn, since when immigrants equal illiterate? We wouldn’t have Google if it wasn’t because of the great achievements of an immigrant.
So yes, both of your comments are racist: equating others who are not white to be inferior than you and not worthy of this country
E
I believe you have confused me with someone else! I WOULD NEVER make a moronic statement equating immigrants with illiteracy. Immigrants are very literate and intelligent in their language of origin. All the immigrant children I tutor in English are more advanced in math and science then American children.
You have definatly made a mistake Laura. I am by no means a racist. I am and have alwayse been totally against racists and racism. As an activist for justice and equality I have alwayse exposed racism. Please check your source, I cant find it on this page.
cookie
To the reading comprehensive deprived in here and that includes at least three of you:
I never said tha we ever had an ALL white country. What I said is that we have always had a white majority. You do know the difference between ALL AND MAJORITY, don’t you? I never said that this country has always been English speaking only either. What I said is that this country chose English as its national and de facto language.
I also never said that Blacks or any other non-white race weren’t a part of this country either. What I said is that we have a white majority country along with an identifying culture and language and we should have a right to preserve that and not lose it through illegal immigration. I also never said that other races were inferior to the white race either. Do you guys just make this stuff up as you go along? I have asked several times if you also think it racist for Mexicans in Mexico or the Chinese, etc. to want to preserve their traditional society and cultures but not one damned answer from the lot of you!! That is because you have a double standard for a country that is majority white. If a demographic change comes about naturally that is one thing but for any country to lose its natural identity through illegal immigration is just plain wrong in anybody’s sane thinking!
I don’t see the tribes native to THIS COUNTRY complainiing about the culture of this country today, only the Mestizos of Mexico and their tribes were not even native to this country and in fact they are half white European by their Spanish blood. They have no claim on this country at all!
I also NEVER said that I wanted to eliminate any race of people in this counry that are here LEGALLY. I NEVER said that I wanted an all white country either! What a pack of lies!
How funny how Evelyn is licking her chops that whites are supposedly a dying breed in this country and I am the racist one? You’re half white also. Would you white father be proud of your racist statement about whites? No, we are not a dying breed. We procreate at replacement levels and when we finally deport all the illegal aliens and secure our borders we shall still remain the majority in this country much to your hatred and chagrin. There will be no amnesty for Mexicans who don’t belong here or anyone else. So much for your salivating over the browning of the U.S. Seek help for your lies about me and what I have ACTUALLY said rather than your spin on it and your raw unadultred hatred of the white race.
Evelyn
How funny how Evelyn is licking her chops that whites are supposedly a dying breed in this country and I am the racist one?
E
If you spent more time educating yourself by reading you would know “White race is now a dying breed” is fact, not something I am according to you, “licking my chops for.
Ignorance in your case isn’t bliss, it’s down right embarrising.
So much for your salivating over “white race only” for these United States of America.
Seek help for your lies about me and what I and others have ACTUALLY said rather than your spin on it and your raw unadultred hatred of Mexicans.
Here educate yourself!
U.S. to Grow Grayer, More Diverse
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/13/AR2008081303524.html
In a Generation, Minorities May Be the U.S. Majority
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/washington/14census.
html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1218719106-ouIwhfOUfGavDE/V6/xQ0Q
White race is now a dying breed
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/0821/
1219243760069.html
“We white people are a dying breed.”
http://www.colorado.edu/journals/standards/V5N2/ESSAYS/
williams.html
cookie
Evelyn, no the white race is not a dying breed! You are the one in need of an education. The races are mixing so for the most part no one will be all this or that someday. If the races will be mixing how does that make the white race a dying breed when the races they would be mixing with would become just as diluted? The only way the white race would die would be to stop having babies altogether. You are nuts if you think that is going to happen. Your far left propaganda sites are full of it also. I see you can’t discuss anything without insults just like you do in HB also.
Why do you repeat the same old lies again, Evelyn? I SAID I AM NOT ADVOCATING AN ALL WHITE U.S. just retaining their majority and it is more about the culture and language of this country rather than skin color. How many times do I have to state that before you get it through your thick skull? When are you going to answer my question of “would it also be racist then for Mexico, China, Japan to object to an illegal invasion thereby changing their traditional societies, cultures and languages”? I will be waiting for an answer. If you refuse to answer that question yet again then don’t bother to respond to me again because I will then know for absolute that you only hold this country that has a white majority to a different standard.
I hold no hate against Mexicans who come here legally. But you hate the entire white race for the past. You can’t even see your own racism and that is just plain sick!
laura
My apologies Evelyn, my comment was meant for Beverly.
Beverly
“And Evelyn (meant for Beverly), since when immigrants equal illiterate? We wouldn’t have Google if it wasn’t because of the great achievements of an immigrant.”
Since we’ve had an invasion of 12 million unskilled illiterate illegal Mexicans cross our border. If our national policy is to promote education and invite competent educated immigrants into our country, how can we say that we also need people who fit just the opposite description. Illiterate and poor are a burden on society. That’s always been true and it will never change, but we don’t need idiots advocating to increase their numbers.
If it stands to reason that the highly literate excel in our society, then it also stands to reason that the illiterate will be very prone to failure and burdens to the rest.
Marisa Treviño
Beverly, what is your definition of “unskilled”? Just because a person doesn’t have a college degree or a certificate from a vocational school makes them unskilled? The truth of the matter is there are all types of skills and just because someone doesn’t have a college degree doesn’t make them a burden on society. These people do work and they do do the work that most “skilled” Americans do not want to do. Don’t believe it? Even in this recession, I have personally heard of out-of-work engineers and accountants say they would never seek a job at the local Wal-Mart or McDonalds. Why? Because they consider it a waste of their time and skills. If everyone was skilled as you claim they should be then there wouldn’t be the manpower to work as janitors, in the restaurants, as landscapists, in housekeeping, etc.
cookie
Really, Marisa? These illegals are mostly doing jobs that Americans won’t do? HOGWASH! There are very few jobs that Americans won’t do for a fair wage. Are you saying that Americans won’t do construction work, clean rooms, work in restaurants? The only jobs that many Americans (not all) won’t do is farm work and they only make up 2% of our workforce in this country.
The jobs mentioned above used to be done my Americans for a fair wage but the illegals have driven down the wages on those jobs. They have created a language barrier now so it makes it hard for an Emglish speaking American to fit in. Once the employer gets all Spanish speaking employees both illegal and legal they won’t even hire and English speaker because they won’t fit in.
We still have a large population of blue collar workers but they are fading fast with all of these illegals invading our country.
cookie
Most of those crossing our southern border are unskilled and uneducated workers. Employers are willing to teach them certain skills because they work cheap. They will mostly remain at the poverty level and therefore pay a lot less taxes into the system that is if they aren’t paid under the table.
Of course Americans with college degrees such as accountants that are out of work are not going to work at McDonalds. McDonalds or Wal-Mart, hey wouldn’t hire them anyway. They would be overqualified and not make enough to live on. Their severance pay and unemployment would pay more. But American blue collar workers who have been laid off would probably take them after their unemployment ran out. As I said, we have a large blue collar workforce and they would probably take anything to pay the bills but discrimination towards mono-English speakers today is the norm and add cheap illegal labor to the mix and no way would they get hired.
Comments are closed.