LatinaLista — On the day 63-year-old Maria de Jesus Alvarez died, the temperature was hovering above 103 degrees. This mother of nine, along with 150 other farm workers that day at the Anthony Vineyards, was being pushed to pick table grapes faster.
Maria de Jesus Alvarez attends a United Farm Workers gathering.
Yet, Maria wasn’t feeling well. Her head ached and she had been vomiting and feeling nauseated off and on. Not having any shade made things worse and when Maria started feeling really sick, she nor her co-workers recognized that she had symptoms of heat stroke.
If Maria had known that her symptoms were a sign of something severe it might have saved her life. As it is, she died August 3.
Another victim of a preventable cause.
If the farm labor contractor, Manuel Torres, who employed Maria had followed state guidelines, he would have made sure his workers had shade and had received training in heat stroke prevention and precautions like state law mandates.
When a reporter from the Press-Enterprise newspaper in California pressed Torres, via telephone, if he had supplied his workers with such training, Torres hung up.
Maria’s funeral was this past Monday and with her death the uneasy question of how many more will come after her dying from preventable causes?
Unlike so many pressing issues today, this one issue of preventing the needless deaths of farm workers is within everyone’s grasp to change. It just seems there is a lack of political will to enforce the laws that are on the books and a lack of moral conscience to provide the basic necessities for any person working in a 100+ degree heat.
California legislators need to hear beyond their constituents that allowance of such conditions won’t be tolerated.
Farm contractors and farmers/vineyard owners need to understand that their blatant disregard for the safety and wellness of their workers won’t go unpunished.
Farm workers need to understand that just because they do backbreaking work in the sun, they have a voice — and they deserve to be heard.
Comment(29)
Grandma
“It just seems there is a lack of political will to enforce the laws that are on the books”
This says it all.
EYES OF TEXAS
“It just seems there is a lack of political will to enforce the laws that are on the books”. That’s exactly what has been stated here many times about enforcement of our immigration laws and those that advocate for enforcement of these laws get slammed, called names and demonized. If you want to enforce the laws that are on the books, enforce them all.
laura
Why isn’t the contractor Manuel Torres going to jail? He would be if he had shot her with a gun to take money from her. What he did was the same: he killed her to take money from her. Everyone who was making money from her working without the safeguards demanded by law is involved in this killing and should be held responsible for it.
Evelyn
Laura You Nailed It!
We need CIR so this wont happen.
For those hypocrite racists who hide behind the ‘rule of law’ and want to enforce unjust broken immigration laws that weren’t enforced for 20 years while they reaped the benefits of the goods and services brought to them by immigrants and are still being fed, housed, and cleaned up after by the work of immigrants, but now want to punish immigrants, Mexicans, Hispanics, Mexico, and anything below our southern border including wildlife that would have the audacity to drink from the Rio Grand or cross the border to eat.
Be careful what you wish for your children and grandchildren will likely pay for your sins.
Census report sees minorities becoming majority by 2042
BY OLIVIA WINSLOW
olivia.winslow@newsday.com
In a new report out Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau projects the nation will become much more diverse by midcentury, with minorities forecast to become the majority population by 2042, experts said.
The Census Bureau projects that minorities, now roughly one-third of the nation’s population, will become the majority by 2042, and grow to 54 percent by 2050. Hispanics are projected to nearly triple their numbers — rising from an estimated 46.7 million today to just under 133 million by 2050, out of a projected total U.S. population of 439 million.
The black population is expected to rise from 41.1 million, or 14 percent of the nation’s population today, to 65.7 million, or 15 percent by 2050. The Asian population is projected to rise from 15.5 million people now, or 5.1 percent of the U.S. population, to 40.6 million, or 9.2 percent, by 2050.
By contrast, non-Hispanic whites’ share of the nation’s population is projected to drop from 66 percent currently to 46 percent by 2050. Their population numbers are projected to remain stable, going from an estimated 199.8 million today, to 203.3 million by 2050.
Census officials also expect the nation’s population to grow older, projecting that by 2050 one in five Americans will be age 65 and older.
The Fears of White People
September 08, 2005 By Robert Jensen
Robert Jensen’s ZSpace Page
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It may seem self-indulgent to talk about the fears of white people in a white-supremacist society. After all, what do white people really have to be afraid of in a world structured on white privilege? It may be self-indulgent, but it’s critical to understand because these fears are part of what keeps many white people from confronting ourselves and the system.
The first, and perhaps most crucial, fear is that of facing the fact that some of what we white people have is unearned. It’s a truism that we don’t really make it on our own; we all have plenty of help to achieve whatever we achieve. That means that some of what we have is the product of the work of others, distributed unevenly across society, over which we may have little or no control individually. No matter how hard we work or how smart we are, we all know — when we are honest with ourselves — that we did not get where we are by merit alone. And many white people are afraid of that fact.
A second fear is crasser: White people’s fear of losing what we have — literally the fear of losing things we own if at some point the economic, political, and social systems in which we live become more just and equitable. That fear is not completely irrational; if white privilege — along with the other kinds of privilege many of us have living in the middle class and above in an imperialist country that dominates much of the rest of the world — were to evaporate, the distribution of resources in the United States and in the world would change, and that would be a good thing. We would have less. That redistribution of wealth would be fairer and more just. But in a world in which people have become used to affluence and material comfort, that possibility can be scary.
A third fear involves a slightly different scenario — a world in which non-white people might someday gain the kind of power over whites that whites have long monopolized. One hears this constantly in the conversation about immigration, the lingering fear that somehow “they” (meaning not just Mexican-Americans and Latinos more generally, but any non-white immigrants) are going to keep moving to this country and at some point become the majority demographically. Even though whites likely can maintain a disproportionate share of wealth, those numbers will eventually translate into political, economic, and cultural power. And then what? Many whites fear that the result won’t be a system that is more just, but a system in which white people become the minority and could be treated as whites have long treated non-whites. This is perhaps the deepest fear that lives in the heart of whiteness. It is not really a fear of non-white people. It’s a fear of the depravity that lives in our own hearts: Are non-white people capable of doing to us the barbaric things we have done to them?
A final fear has probably always haunted white people but has become more powerful since the society has formally rejected overt racism: The fear of being seen, and seen-through, by non-white people. Virtually every white person I know, including white people fighting for racial justice and including myself, carries some level of racism in our minds and hearts and bodies. In our heads, we can pretend to eliminate it, but most of us know it is there. And because we are all supposed to be appropriately anti-racist, we carry that lingering racism with a new kind of fear: What if non-white people look at us and can see it? What if they can see through us? What if they can look past our anti-racist vocabulary and sense that we still don’t really know how to treat them as equals? What if they know about us what we don’t dare know about ourselves? What if they can see what we can’t even voice?
I work in a large university with a stated commitment to racial justice. All of my faculty colleagues, even the most reactionary, have a stated commitment to racial justice. And yet the fear is palpable.
It is a fear I have struggled with, and I remember the first time I ever articulated that fear in public. I was on a panel with several other professors at the University of Texas discussing race and politics in the O.J. Simpson case. Next to me was an African American professor. I was talking about media; he was talking about the culture’s treatment of the sexuality of black men. As we talked, I paid attention to what was happening in me as I sat next to him. I felt uneasy. I had no reason to be uncomfortable around him, but I wasn’t completely comfortable. During the question-and-answer period — I don’t remember what question sparked my comment — I turned to him and said something like, “It’s important to talk about what really goes on between black and white people in this country. For instance, why am I feeling afraid of you? I know I have no reason to be afraid, but I am. Why is that?”
My reaction wasn’t a crude physical fear, not some remnant of being taught that black men are dangerous (though I have had such reactions to black men on the street in certain circumstances). Instead, I think it was that fear of being seen through by non-white people, especially when we are talking about race. In that particular moment, for a white academic on an O.J. panel, my fear was of being exposed as a fraud or some kind of closet racist. Even if I thought I knew what I was talking about and was being appropriately anti-racist in my analysis, I was afraid that some lingering trace of racism would show through, and that my black colleague would identify it for all in the room to see. After I publicly recognized the fear, I think I started to let go of some of it. Like anything, it’s a struggle. I can see ways in which I have made progress. I can see that in many situations I speak more freely and honestly as I let go of the fear. I make mistakes, but as I become less terrified of making mistakes I find that I can trust my instincts more and be more open to critique when my instincts are wrong.
Jensen is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu .
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/5440
Frank
EOT, the ethnocentric racist, illegal supporters just pick and choose which of our laws they feel should be enforced. If it fits with their agenda only then are they all for it but if not, those who do want enforcement get slammed by them.
Thomas
Americans demand to the borders to be secure but so far they have been ignored. So lots of luck. There is a way to handle this though. They can go back to whatever country they came from.
EYES OF TEXAS
Thomas, I am about to share with you a little secret. I am a decendent of some of the first settlers that came here before this was even a soveriegn nation. So, as far as I’m concerned, I am where I came from.
Everyone in America are decendents of people that came from somewhere else, even the so called Native American can trace his ancestory back to people from what is now Siberia. These tribes crossed into the North American continent across a land bridge into Alaska. I suppose if everyone were to return to the place of their ancestors, you would be headed for Spain.You remember the blood thirsty Conquestadors that savaged the natives of Central and South America were your ancestors.
Evelyn
Could it be the issue discussed in this article accounts for the feelings and ideology of some of the posters on this forum?
Especially those left with no viable way to defend their racism so they rely on a smear campaign against all American patriots who defend the constitution and the rights it affords to all people within the borders of the United States. I shure think so.
If not, what accounts for the stupidity of these people? Do they really think Americans cant see right thru them to the core of their racism?
Hijacking the immigration debate to mount a smear campaign based on lies
against one group of people with the same skin color is a shure clue that points to racism as a motive.
WHY DO RACISTS HAVE LOW IQs?
Studies going back over 50 years have repeatedly arrived at the same conclusion — racists have lower IQs than non-racists. The average intelligence quotient (IQ) of all members of the human race is 100 on the Stanford-Binet scale, as illustrated in the bell curves in the figure below. The average IQ of racists is up to 4 IQ points less than this (Montagu 1952 & 1988, Allport 1946, Frenkel-Brunswick and Sanford 1945). The reasons this is true are not entirely clear. Does racism attract the unintelligent or do the unintelligent default into racist mentalities? An exploration of this phenomenon can be most informative.
Since the average IQ of a racist is less than the average, racists have two-digit IQs, while normal people have three-digit IQs, on the average. This applies to Nazi skinheads, American Nazis, the oxymoronic Aryan supremacists, Christian Identity fanatics, anti-semites, non-denominational bigots, and other such social rejects. The figure above is based on a standard deviation of 10, and is normalized for matching populations.
Many studies have explored the psychology of racism and the familial and social backgrounds of racists. Some interesting generalities can be extracted from these studies, including the fact that racists tend to be conservatives, conformists, Republicans, and hypochondriacs. The high incidence of conservatism, conformism, and Republicanism are all related phenomena. That is, one would expect a conformist to be a conservative, and a conservative to be a Republican, and a Republican to be a conformist, etc. But, why would they tend to be hypochondriacs? Perhaps they blame their body parts for imaginary illnesses in the same way they blame parts of society for imaginary social illnesses.
The arguments of racism have been demonstrated time and again to be illogical and irrational. For example, racists claim that so-called white people are “superior” to so-called black people. Ignoring for the moment the inability of science to draw a sharp line between those who are subjectively considered to be white and those who are subjectively considered to be black, lets consider the claims of superiority by racist supremacists.
As we look around us in America today we see a country full of diversity in which American blacks and other citizens of non-European descent excel in all the arts and sciences, in all aspects of business, in all political arenas, and in all athletics and other social activities. From our military commanders, to our religious and political leaders, to our star athletes both Olympic and professional, to our fastest-growing independent businesses, and in all genres of the entertainments fields — art, music, acting, directing, film-making, etc. — we witness a growing disproportionate dominance of non-whites, and this in spite of centuries of oppression and the continued denial of equal opportunities. Their successes are undeniable and ubiquitous, and yet the racists of our times act as if they are completely blind to this manifest proof that superiority of whites is a dying mirage.
Figure 2 shows how prejudice tends to be a function of parents’ college education. Obviously the more educated the parents are, the less likely their children are to become prejudiced. Again we see a correlation of both intelligence and education with normality, while the lack of education and intelligence is associated with bigotry.
Figure 1 shows the percentage of each gender that tends towards racism, based on a study by Allport and Kramer in 1946. This chart is unlikely to surprise anyone for a number of reasons. First, women are, in general, more sociable and not inclined to be aggressive. Males, on the other hand, tend to seek outlets for aggression, and racism is a convenient one. Males, furthermore, have a higher incidence of idiocy and mental deficiency than do females. That is, females tend to be more normal than males and are less inclined to both mental extremes and behavioral extremes.
Racists wear horse’s blinders at the sight of the media heroes of our age — Muhammed Ali, Martin Luther King, Michael Jordan, Condoleeza Rice, the Williams sisters, Tiger Woods, Barry Bonds, Colin Powell, Janet and LaToya Jackson, Sidney Poiter and Samuel Jackson, Sammy Sosa, Michael Johnson, the list goes on endlessly. They are deaf to the sound of world records regularly being shattered. They are dumb in their speech when asked to explain such obvious contradictions. Are racists deaf, dumb, and blind, or are they simply of such limited intelligence that they cannot recognize the truth when it is placed in bright lights before them?
Figure 3 shows the variation of prejudice as measured among the college students of different majors in 1946. Obviously the Natural Sciences seem to protect against the false beliefs of racism better than the Liberal Arts. Why this should be is unclear, and may have more to do with the type of students who are attracted to Natural Science, which is considered a more challenging major.
Let’s consider some examples of what passes for intelligence in the sub-society of what is truly an oxymoron, Aryan supremacy. Even the word “Aryan” is itself a mockery of the truth. The Aryan race doesn’t exist, and has never existed. It is a myth invented by the Nazis to promote politically expedient propaganda. Hitler himself admitted that he knew there never were any Aryans, and that the notion merely served Nazi purposes, no more. All Aryan supremacists stand naked in the light of truth, but are unable to comprehend the fact that they have no clothes. Is it due to mentally deficiency, or are they really aware of this false myth? It’s hard to say for sure, but their limited intelligence is certainly a factor in their confusion.
Figure 4 illustrates the fact that prejudice is acquired at a young age. The mean age for the onset of prejudice is about 12. This is a most impressionable age and is the appropriate time to educate the young and immunize them against hatred for life. They should be told everything science knows about race and everything history tells us about racism.
In America’s war against terrorism, we should not forget about the domestic terrorists that have sprouted in our own backyard. Nazis, skinheads, and other bigots are anti-American by their very nature. If America is a nation of all races, religions, and cultures, then the enemies of any of those races, religions, and cultures are enemies of America. The attempts on the part of Nazi skinheads and the KKK to intimidate or encourage acts of violence against innocent people because of their race or creed is terrorism by definition. Once al Qaeda has been shut down, it would be prudent to focus America’s attention on cleaning up all the nests of racist extremists that are festering inside our own borders. They are all just terrorists waiting to commit an act against Americans.
Some of the more radical anti-racist groups say that the only way to change a racist’s mind is with a shotgun blast to the head. We at SAYAR disagree that violence is a proper response to what is essentially a mental disease. We believe that education is the key to erasing racism, and that this could be accomplished within the space of a single generation if we simply show children the light of truth, and dispel the darkness of ignorance.
http://www.clubs.psu.edu/up/sayar/riqs.htm
Evelyn
, even the so called Native American can trace his ancestory back to people from what is now Siberia. These tribes crossed into the North American continent across a land bridge into Alaska
E
Show me a link where it says this is the truth and not just a theory. You are grasping at straws!
Frank
You tell me YOUR version on how they got here then. The human race didn’t orginate in THIS country according to the Bible!
Irma
Dear Eyes of Texas,
You are right that Native Americans
came across theBering Strait at least
10,000 years ago. That mean that
Native Americans have at least 9500
years of occupancy in the Americans
than the Europeans. What is more they WELCOMED the Europeans only
to be slaughtered. The Dutch and the
French were at least friendly. The
English settlers were bottom of the
barrel in English society -religious fanatics who turned out to be quite blood thirsty. It was their descendents
that essentially wiped out the North
American Indians. Nice huh?
Frank
Irma, no not nice but what has that to do with those of European descent here today? They didn’t kill anyone. They were born here and most of their ancestors came here in the early 1900’s way after any conflict with the native indians.
Although the native indians had a right to defend their land, they were every bit as blood thirsty with other tribes and the Europeans. The Aztecs believed in human sacrifice (most were of native indian extraction also). Every society has had its atrocities, so what is your point?
Evelyn
If you or I or any human being had a concrete answer with credible scientific proof instead of only unproven theories to go on we wouldent be here debating this issue. Until we do no one can be absolutely sure how they got here.
What I wish someone could explain are the pyramids in North and Central American and the similarity to those in Egypt.
How did two different people on opposite sides of the world have the same concept of building something so similer.
Here is a link that shows how similer the two pyramids are. Same measurements.
http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_7.htm
JT
“For those hypocrite racists who hide behind the ‘rule of law’ and want to enforce unjust broken immigration laws that weren’t enforced for 20 years while they reaped the benefits of the goods and services brought to them by immigrants and are still being fed, housed, and cleaned up after by the work of immigrants”
Racism has no meaing anymore. It is just a ploy used to silence legitimate complaints. Furthermore, immigrants are people who come here legally. People who come here illegally are illegal migrants. While certain greedy employers do benefit from cheap slave illegal migrant labor, the American people have suffered financially. The illegal migrants are poor, unskilled and have high birthrates and it is the American taxpayer that has to pick up the tab for medical care for the poor and uninsured, incarceration for those that commit crimes and other social services. This costs the American taxpayer 300 BILLION a year. Hardly a bargain. Speaking of crimes, how unfair is it that almost 5000 Americans a year are killed by those here illegally. That’s around 25,000 Americans that have died at the hands of illegals who commit crime such a DWI deaths. This is in addition to those that suffer other crimes such as rape. It’s Mexico’s responsiblity to take care of its’ own people. We have enough problems of our own, we can’t take on Mexico’s poor.
Carla
“If the farm labor contractor, Manuel Torres, who employed Maria had followed state guidelines,”
Yes and Ms.de Jesus Alvarez’s employers are responsible for her death. Also, had the state of California and the US govenrment shut down its’ borders and strictly enforced its’ immigration laws long ago, instead of looking the other way, while illegals provide dirt cheap labor and toil as slaves, Ms.Alvarez would still be alive. Had the wealthy but corrupt elitist Mexican government took care of its’ own people in their own country instead doing nothing for them and not caring about them, Ms.Alvarez would still be alive. Illegal immigration is nothing but modern day slavery that is harmful to both Mexicans and Americans. The US(American taxpayers) can’t take on Mexico’s poor at the expense of our citizens. It’s not fair to us. No government can take on unlimited amounts of immigration. That’s insane. The Mexican government’s refusal to help its’ own people isn’t fair isn’t fair to its’ citizens either. Time for this nonsense to end.
EYES OF TEXAS
That was the way of the world during those times in history. Every country, wheather it be England or Spain, were trying to discover wealth and expand their empires. What the English may have done to the North American natives, the Spanish did to the South and Central American natives. So how is one demonizes more so than the other? I had no control over what my ancestors did and all that is meant by where one comes from is the place where a person, not their ancestors, was born. For me that means Houston, Texas, U.S.A. and nothing more.
Alessandra
Since no one alive today was alive 10,000 or more years ago, the best that science can do is to analyze archaeological evidence and also DNA connections.
An informative article from the Smithsonian:
http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmnh/origin.htm
Bottom line is that the U.S. in the year 2008 is a sovereign nation with interntionally recognized borders. Events which occurred 10,000, 1,000, 500, or 150 years ago are not going to alter that fact.
Every ethnic group which inhabits any country today most likely had ancestors somewhere down the line who migrated there at some point in history. The most accepted scientific theory now is that human life began in Africa and that tribes of humans fanned out from there. Until new evidence points to the contrary, we all started out at Lucy’s place in Africa.
Evelyn
Frank :
Irma, no not nice but what has that to do with those of European descent here today? They didn’t kill anyone. They were born here and most of their ancestors came here in the early 1900’s way after any conflict with the native indians.
Although the native indians had a right to defend their land, they were every bit as blood thirsty with other tribes and the Europeans. The Aztecs believed in human sacrifice (most were of native indian extraction also). Every society has had its atrocities, so what is your point?
E
The point is you dont embrace hate and racism and make up lies or spread lies that others have made up to demonize a group of people you dont like, mimicking the behavior of those ancient people.
Only foolish people would do everything their ancestors did.
You take the good and leave the bad and progress forward. You dont torture people in 2008. You dont jail children in 2008.
Racist are trying to treat Hispanics like their ancestors treated Native Americans and Mexicans in the past, instead of treating them equal to the way Europeans were treated. That is the point.
Carla
“The point is you dont embrace hate and racism and make up lies or spread lies that others have made up to demonize a group of people you dont like, mimicking the behavior of those ancient people. ”
Evelyn, you are not being rational. This has nothing to do with hate or racism. The US can’t take on these people at our expense. We can’t have unlimited immigration. Nobody is mimicking ancient behavior by enforcing immigration laws. Ancient behavior anyways has NOTHING to do with people today.
“Only foolish people would do everything their ancestors did. ”
Whose ancestors? We have different ancestors, many of whom didn’t come untill the 1900’s. Enforcing or limiting or stopping immigration TODAY has nothing to do with anyone’s ancestors.
“You take the good and leave the bad and progress forward. You dont torture people in 2008. You dont jail children in 2008.”
Enforcing immigration is NOT torture, sending people back to Mexico is not torture. Nobody is jailing children, they are temporarily held with their parents(who chose to break the law) while awaiting deportation. These children held briefly get free food, toys and medical care. Anyways, it’s the parent’s fault for breaking the immigration laws.
“Racist are trying to treat Hispanics like their ancestors treated Native Americans and Mexicans in the past, instead of treating them equal to the way Europeans were treated. That is the point.”
Wrong, there are many americans of hispanic ancestry. These people are FOREIGN CITIZENS who broke our immigration laws from Mexico and some other latin american countries. They don’t have to right to break our immigration laws and if they come illegally we do have the right to deport them just like they deport people who break their immigration laws.
Frank
Why do you keep repeating the same old lies in here about me? I have never repeated any so-called lies. I argue from the rule of law. What is wrong with your head to keep attributing other’s articles and remarks to me?
I don’t hate anyone! Another one of your lies! Why do you keep doing this? I oppose illegal immgiration that doesn’t equate to hate you stupid idiot!
My ancestors came here in the early 1900’s legally. What am I doing like them?
I am not jailing or torturing anyone. I don’t have the power to do that. So what the hell are you talking about?
Why is this all about Hispanics to you? Hispanics are not the only illegal aliens in this country. Since when aren’t Hispanic-Americans being treated equally to other Americans.
Marisa, would you please warn Evelyn, to stop making up lies about what I say in here and to stop calling everyone in here who doesn’t agree with her views, a racist and other hateful names. Is this the kind of blog that you want? I don’t have a problem with a differing opinion but this goes beyond that and has been going on for months. When are you going to stop this nonsense and ask that your members behave like adults?
Evelyn
Carla said,
Evelyn, you are not being rational. This has nothing to do with hate or racism.
E
Anti-Immigrant Groups Borrow From Playbook Of Hate Groups To Demonize Hispanics
New York, NY, October 23, 2007 … As the national debate over immigration reached a fever pitch, some mainstream advocacy groups “reached for the playbook of hate groups” — resorting to hateful and dehumanizing stereotypes and outright bigotry to demonize immigrants.
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/CvlRt_32/5154_32.htm
Monday, May 26, 2008
Immigration debate wasn’t colorblind
Ruben Navarrette
SAN DIEGO — The winners write the history. And now that border restrictionists have won the battle to scuttle immigration reform, the history that many are desperate to write is that the debate was colorblind.
Really. The restrictionists and those pundits who have taken up their cause claim that race and ethnicity aren’t even part of the discussion and that those who oppose giving illegal immigrants a shot at legal status would feel the same way if the immigrants were coming from Canada instead of Mexico. They say their concerns are limited to border security and the rule of law, and have nothing to do with nativism or xenophobia. And they reject any suggestion that the debate was hostile to Hispanics.
This is the fable being spun by CNN’s Lou Dobbs, a commentator labeled by New York Times columnist David Leonhardt as “the heir to the nativist tradition that has long used fiction and conspiracy theories as a weapon against the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Jews and, now, the Mexicans.” In recent days, Dobbs has argued that the Senate compromise died because Americans of all colors dispassionately concluded that it was bad for the country. Racism played no role, he insists.
Most Hispanics feel differently. I’ve seen three surveys, including one by the Pew Hispanic Center, where majorities of Hispanics say that the immigration debate has led to an increase in anti-immigrant sentiment. And, as I travel the country speaking to Hispanic groups, one thing I hear is that “anti-immigrant” rapidly morphed into “anti-Hispanic” and specifically “anti-Mexican.”
I get evidence of that every day in my e-mail. Just last week, after I defended the prosecution of two Border Patrol agents, a reader called me a “dirty Latino” who needs to get “back to Mexico.” Another writer called me an “anchor baby” — the term used by nativists to describe the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States. Never mind that I was born in the United States and my parents were born in the United States. What I see here is racism
http://waronracism.blogspot.com/2008/05/immigration-debate-wasnt-colorblind.html
WHO,is being irrational now?
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The US can’t take on these people at our expense. We can’t have unlimited immigration.
E
Please don’t exaggerate, no one is asking for “unlimited immigration”.
Immigrants already here should be put on a path to citizenship because of facts stated below, and because in all fairness they have a right to be treated equal to the immigrants that came from europe.
If you have credable proof from a non racest site that my facts are false please feel free to present them.
Immigrants and the Economy
(From the National Immigration Forum)
Immigrants wear many hats in American society. They are family members, students, workers, business owners, investors, clergymen, and members of the armed services-to name just a few of their roles. According to the most comprehensive study ever done on immigrants, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) found that in all their combined roles, immigrants make indispensable contributions to our economy. They compose an increasingly essential proportion of our workforce. Through their tax payments, they help finance the costs of schools, health care, roads, welfare payments, Social Security, and the nation’s defense. Of course, immigrants are also users and beneficiaries of these government programs.
Immigrants are a Plus for our Economy – Immigrants and their children bring long-term economic benefits to the United States as a whole. Immigrants add about $10 billion each year to the U.S. economy. This estimate does not include the impact of immigrant-owned businesses or the impact of highly skilled immigrants on overall productivity.
Immigrants Pay Their Way – By conservative estimates, immigrant households paid an estimated $133 billion in direct taxes to federal, state, and local governments in 1997. The typical immigrant and his or her descendants pay an estimated $80,000 more in taxes than they will receive in local, state, and federal benefits over their lifetimes.
Naturalized Immigrants Pay More than Their Share – Immigrants who become U.S. citizens typically pay more in taxes than do native-born Americans. Adult, foreign-born, naturalized citizens actually have higher adjusted gross incomes (averaging $40,502) than families with U.S.-born citizens only ($35,249). Federal taxes paid by families with a naturalized citizen average $6,580 per year compared with $5,070 for U.S.-born-only families.
Immigrant-Founded Businesses Are an Important Revenue Source – Businesses founded by immigrants are a source of substantial economic and fiscal gain for U.S. citizens. Ten high-tech firms founded by immigrants, generated $28 billion in revenues in 1996. These and other businesses started by immigrants add at least another $29 billion to the total amount of taxes paid by immigrants.
As They Assimilate, Immigrants Become Net Economic Contributors – Immigrants’ earnings rise over time as they climb the economic ladder of success in America. In their first years in the United States, immigrants typically are a net cost to the country, but over time— usually after 10 to 15 years in the United States—they turn into net contributors.
http://www.iwfr.org/facts.asp
~~~~~~
Nobody is jailing children, they are temporarily held with their parents(who chose to break the law) while awaiting deportation.
E
WRONG! You have shown over and over you know nothing about the immigration crises and the plight of immigrants.
Hutto IS child abuse and can be reported
March, 22, 2008
The ACLU, University of Texas Law School Immigration Clinic and the international law firm LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP have filed suit against Michael Chertoff (Oberführer of Homeland Security) and six Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on behalf of ten children from Lithuania, Canada, Haiti, Honduras, Somalia, Guyana and other countries, presently “detained†at the T. Don Hutto Concentration Camp Rent-a-Prison in Tyler, Texas
Approximately 400 people are currently detained in Hutto, half of them children, and many of them are refugees seeking political asylum. What ICE calls a “Family Residential Facility†is in fact a converted medium-security prison that is still functionally and structurally a prison. Children are required to wear prison garb, receive only one hour of recreation a day, Monday through Friday, and some children did not go outdoors in the fresh air the whole month of December, 2007, according to legal papers filed today.
They are detained in small cells for 11-12 hours each day where they cannot keep food and toys and they have no privacy, even when using the toilet.
The children at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, 35 miles northeast of Austin, live in cells; they wear uniforms and receive inadequate medical and educational services, are often cold and hungry, separated from their parents as punishment, and until recently received one hour of schooling per day and rarely played outside. They are guilty of no crimes, and endanger no one. Their parents, who are incarcerated here because they are seeking asylum after fleeing such circumstances as war, torture, political persecution and rape, or are accused of violating civil immigration laws, have committed no crimes.
It is difficult to fathom why Hutto was ever considered an appropriate shelter for families: It is still essentially a prison, arranged in pods with cells furnished with two metal bunks and a toilet, and a central day room. Cell door systems prevent parents from attending to children after “lights out.â€
Teachers at the center are not required to be licensed in Texas, and the state’s family welfare agency exempted Hutto from child care licensing requirements. Along with one other, less prison-like facility in Pennsylvania, Hutto is operated without official regulations. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the arm of Homeland Security that runs the two centers, relies on custody rules designed for inmates.
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Wrong, there are many americans of hispanic ancestry. These people are FOREIGN CITIZENS who broke our immigration laws from Mexico and some other latin american countries. They don’t have to right to break our immigration laws and if they come illegally we do have the right to deport them just like they deport people who break their immigration laws.
E
The U.S. Government didnt have a right to wreck their country. That is also illegal.
When we allow our government to do these things, there will be consequences.
Immigration from countries whose wealth has been sucked dry by us are those consequences.
It’s the System…
Why Do Immigrants Come to the U.S.?
In the early hours of dawn or in the plain light of day, massive immigration raids at factories, fast-food chains, and neighborhoods have swept up thousands of people. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security) “removedâ€â€”that is, deported—276,912 undocumented immigrants just in 2007. These are the actions of a modern-day Gestapo, the fascist police that rounded up Jews and others in Nazi Germany.
This major intensification of raids has torn parents from their children. There are approximately five million children in the U.S. who have at least one parent who is considered an “illegal†immigrant by the government. Many of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants being rounded up and deported have children they were forced to leave behind. One recent study of ICE raids at three work sites where 900 adults were arrested found that 500 children were affected. (National Council of La Raza, “Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America’s Childrenâ€)
Why did these immigrants end up in the U.S. in the first place?
Manuel was 18 when he left his small town in the countryside of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. He traveled to northern Mexico. And then he risked his life to cross the border through the desert—where the heat and lack of water can mean painful death. He now works in a garment sweatshop in Los Angeles, living life in the shadows as an undocumented immigrant, wary every minute of being picked up in one of the raids by armed government agents.
Manuel didn’t want to leave his home. “I love the countryside and being among my people. But it was time for me to think about my mom and my younger brothers and sisters. It’s impossible to make a living off the land anyway, so I came here to make money and send money to my family and to build a little house in my town.†He said most of the guys his age had already left his town by the time he, too, left.
There are countless stories like Manuel’s—he is one of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., exploited in farm fields, sweatshops, meat-packing plants, restaurants, construction, and so on. Why have so many made that dangerous trek across the border, where hundreds die each year?
Let’s look at that border. It wasn’t always where it is. The United States seized huge chunks of Mexican territory in the mid-1800s. And as U.S. capitalism developed into a worldwide imperialist empire, it has dominated, oppressed, and distorted the economy and development of the whole country of Mexico, feeding off its people and its resources.
Then in 1994, this domination took a new leap with the so-called “free trade†agreement (NAFTA)—which gave the U.S. imperialists more “freedom†to squeeze even more profits out of Mexico. The results have been disastrous for the masses of people in Mexico.
Why does Manuel say “it’s impossible to make a living off the land� Because NAFTA knocked down what protection there was for small farmers in Mexico. And they could no longer compete with the cheaper corn and other crops, produced by huge U.S. agribusiness corporations, that flooded Mexico. More than six million peasants have been driven from the countryside since 1994 because they can no longer feed themselves and their families by farming. And the shantytowns around Mexico’s cities, already swollen with the very poor and the displaced, offer no way out.
So that is why millions of immigrant workers have ended up in the U.S. as “illegals.†It’s not a matter of “choice.†It’s not that these immigrants want to willfully “break the law†or “freeload†off social services or “steal American jobs†or any of the other lies that the rulers of this system tell about them—and that too many people are taken in by.
The truth is that the immigrants have been forced across the border by the workings of the capitalist-imperialist system and the policies of those in power.
Once in the U.S., these immigrant workers are super-exploited—working the most low-paying and dangerous jobs. Again, the immigrants do not “choose†to work such jobs. Those are the only kind of work offered to them under the U.S. capitalist economy, which has become so dependent on the super-exploitation of immigrant labor that it cannot function without it. The immigrants have to work those jobs, or face starvation for themselves and their families.
And the capitalist rulers use the immigrants’ “illegal†status—which is the result of this system’s workings in the first place—to keep them suppressed and under control. “Step out of line,†the immigrants are told, “and you’ll not only lose your job—you’ll be arrested, deported, separated from your children.†Immigrant communities are being terrorized by a fascist crackdown—widespread immigration round-ups, massive deportations, racist vigilantes, more militarization on the border, etc.
The rulers of this country, aided by the mass media, work hard to keep the people ignorant of the truth, in order to use the immigrants as scapegoats for all the insecurities and problems that this capitalist system has forced on the majority of people. Many in the middle class feel their living standards and quality of life under attack, and they are being misled by the mouthpieces for the capitalist-imperialist system that is actually responsible for the bad shape things are in.
The ruining of Mexico’s economy that has driven millions into desperation…horrors for millions of immigrants forced into slavery-like conditions in the U.S….the prejudice against immigrants that is fanned to keep people divided…the fascistic roundups and cruel break-up of families… all of these are the products of this capitalist-imperialist system.
Irma
Analysis of the DNA of the American
Indian suggests that they were an Asiatic people. DNA linkages can trace ancestry of humans, animals, plants etc back thousands of years – indeed hundred of thousands of years.
The shortest distance to the Americas from Asia would be through the Bering
Strait. Of course , a boat was also possible.
My point is that the American Indian was in the Americas much,much longer than
the Europeans. So, why do the European descendants think they have the right to proclaim descendents of
American Indians foreigners?
Frank
Irma, it isn’t about “white people” wanting to keep out “the indigenous.” It is that we are now a sovereign nation, comprised of many different races and ethnicities, which has the right just like any other country in this hemisphere and the world, to regulate immigration into this country.
This country allows very generous immigration, more than any other country in the world. Asians are granted the highest number of visas, with Latinos coming in a close second.
An immigration system based upon race/DNA where only one particular race is given special privileges to immigrate would be racist and discriminatory and would not fly in this day and age.
It is truly amazing the cries of “racism” over this yet it is expected that anyone with “indigenous” DNA, regardless of whether their ancestors ever actually inhabited THIS country, be able to come here, take jobs, receive educations and benefits?? A program BASED COMPLETELY ON RACE AND DNA!! Do you realize that to implement such a policy, we would have to establish a mechanism by which DNA could be analyzed because it would not be adequate to go on appearance alone! Those with the “right” DNA would qualify for the program, those who did not would not! This sounds exactly like something the Nazis would have implemented does it not??!!
I noticed that you COMPLETELY IGNORED THE RESEARCH ON THE KENNEWICK MAN who was discovered to have DNA connections to Europe.
jt
“My point is that the American Indian was in the Americas much,much longer than
the Europeans. So, why do the European descendants think they have the right to proclaim descendents of
American Indians foreigners? ”
Nobody is proclaiming american indians foreigners. The decendents of those american indians who were in what is now the US are still here and full citizens. This has nothing to do with Whites/Mexicans today or migration from Mexico today. Mexico is a seperate country and its’ citizens do NOT have the right to enter unless US citizens give permission.
Flower
“An immigration system based upon race/DNA where only one particular race is given special privileges to immigrate would be racist and discriminatory and would not fly in this day and age. ”
That’s true but unfortunate. What I’m about to say is very, very politically incorrect but the truth. Different races/groups DO build different societies. Black nations do NOT build the same kinds of societies as Asian or White nations. Also, Latin American nations do not build the same kind of societies as Whites,Asians or Blacks.
Anybody who denies this is blind to the obvious. Nigeria, Mexico, Japan and Germany are all very different from one another. If we were to take all of the Germans out of Germany and replace them with Nigerians, Germany would cease to exist, only the name. The truth is, race/ethnicity matters as to what type of nation you have. This isn’t about inferiority or superiority, it’s the truth. All non-white nations today know this. Japan allows no immigration unless you are of Japanese ancestry and all non-white nations either do not allow or strictly limit immigration of other races. They know that race and culture matter and value it highly. Whites used to be like non-whites today, yet only we were called racist. In the past, we had racial/cultural quotas just like non-whites do today. As such, we created a certain type of white or mostly white,western nation with all the characteristics that come with white,western nations . If we continue to allow non-white immigration, we will become a non-white mostly Latin American country. In other words we will become the “United States of Mexico” or the “United States of Brazil”. Ever been to Brazil. It’s a huge, mixed race Latin American country. Ok to visit but you wouldn’t want to live there. The question then isn’t should we allow illegal or legal migration from Mexico or 3rd world countries. The question is do you(whites)want your children and grandchildren living in the “United States of Mexico” or the “United States of Brazil” because unless we stop immigration, BOTH illegal and legal from 3rd world countries, that WILL the not-to-distant future of our country.
Evelyn
jt said
Nobody is proclaiming american indians foreigners. The decendents of those american indians who were in what is now the US are still here and full citizens. This has nothing to do with Whites/Mexicans today or migration from Mexico today. Mexico is a seperate country and its’ citizens do NOT have the right to enter unless US citizens give permission.
E
WRONG!
White mans arbitrary borders have no meaning to The Peoples of the Indigenous Nations.
Just like 500 treaties meant nothing to the white man.
Sitting Bull
Including the treaty violated by the U.S. go., signed with mexico after the invasion of Mexico by the U.S. gov..
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
In 1848, at the conclusion of the U.S.- Mexican War, the two countries signed the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. The treaty called for Mexico to give up almost half of its territory, which included modern-day California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and parts of Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. In return, the U.S. paid $15 million in compensation for war-related damage to Mexican land.
Among the notable aspects of the treaty, it set the Texas border at the Rio Grande; it provided for the protection of the property and civil rights of Mexican nationals who would now be living on U.S. soil; the United States agreed to police its side of the border; and both countries agreed to compulsory arbitration of future disputes. However, when the United States Senate ratified the treaty, it erased Article 10, which guaranteed the protection of Mexican land grants; Article 9, which deals with citizenship rights, was also weakened. This in turn created an anti-Mexican atmosphere that spurred the violation of their civil rights. In Texas, Mexicans were restricted from voting. In New Mexico, Mexicans were the victims of violence, while in California, laws against them were passed, some of which were known as the Greaser Laws.
At the time of the treaty, approximately 80,000 Mexicans lived in the ceded territory, which comprised only about 4 percent of Mexico’s population. Only a few people chose to remain Mexican citizens compared to the many that became United States citizens. Most of the 80,000 residents continued to live in the Southwest, believing in the guarantee that their property and civil rights would be protected. Sadly, this would not always be the case. By the end of the 19th century, most Mexicans had lost their land, either through force or fraud.
In the Chicano movement in the late 1960s, New Mexico land rights leader Reies Lopez Tijerina and his Alianza movement cited the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in their fight to regain American-seized Mexican land. In 1972, the Brown Berets youth organization also cited the treaty in their takeover of Catalina Island.
In terms of property ownership, many property rights existing under Spanish and Mexican land grants were not recognized by the United States. In California, approximately 27 percent of land grant claims were rejected; in the territory of New Mexico, some 76 percent of such claims were rejected.
~~~~
Here is Another gross injustice comitted by our gov. to give more “privilege” to whites and violate the rights of other American citizens because of the color of their skin.
The Emergence of Mass Deportation:
Lessons from the Past
Advocates for “enforcement only” would like nothing better than to see a future in which most of the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the US be removed, either through coercive means or voluntarily. In a climate of fear and defensiveness, there is a psychological need to assign blame and fight back against the perceived bad guy. It’s not the first time that fear has triggered the adoption of tough immigration policies. For example, it was economic insecurity that triggered the racism that contributed to the passage of the infamous laws excluding Chinese immigrants from the US in the late 1800s.
The general invisibility of Latina/o civil rights abuses during the last century has left a large majority of Americans unaware of the forced removal of approximately one to two million persons from the United States during the Great Depression. The 1930s marked the first time in the history of international migration between the US and other countries that the federal government sponsored and supported the mass deportation of immigrants.
Unfortunately, throughout US history, when harsh measures are done in the name of national security, it is often directed at unpopular ethnic/racial minorities. It is easy to draw a parallel between the repatriation of the 1930s and the internment of the Japanese to the measures taken by the US government after September 11 because the policies that were passed after 9/11 proved to be no different. Racial profiling in this sense is a tool that Americans turn to when a perceived outsider threatens to damage the status quo.
Within hours of the declaration of war on Japan, all Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans who were in the US were branded “alien enemies.” Approximately 120,000 men, women, elderly, and children of Japanese ancestry, of which 60% were native-born citizens, were sent to interment camps. According to the US Department of Justice’s “Review of the Restrictions on Persons of Italian Ancestry During World War II: Report to the Congress of the United States,” within a few days after President issued Proclamations 2525, 2526 and 2527, 500 aliens of different ancestries were on a train with darkened windows bound for an undisclosed location in Montana.
During the Mexican Repatriation of the 1930s, approximately 60 percent of those deported to Mexico were US citizens; many of them were children forced to leave the country because their immigrant parents were being deported. It is estimated that one to two million people were deported from the US. Twelve states – Colorado, Illinois, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming – all lost over half of its Mexican population, while Indiana lost three-fourths.
In “Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s,†Francisco Balderrama and Raymond RodrÃquez documents the historical events surrounding that time. During the mass deportation campaign of the 1930s, both the Mexican-American and Mexican immigrant communities were profoundly impacted. Families were torn apart; deportees lost their personal property, automobiles, homes, businesses, and other investments in America; and lives were destroyed.
The deportation campaign of the 1930s is part of a long history of “enforcement only” immigration policies that have violated the civil rights of persons of Mexican ancestry in the US. In Operation Wetback, another mass deportation campaign, over one million Mexican immigrants, as well as United States citizens of Mexican ancestry, and undoubtedly other Latinas and Latinos, were deported. The 1996 immigration legislation has resulted in increased border enforcement that has led hundreds, if not thousands, border deaths and a dramatic rise in deportations.
The current fervor against immigrant groups is eerily reminiscent to the anti-Mexican sentiments of the 1930s. FBI reports on domestic hate crimes after 2001 indicate that such crimes against Latinas and Latinos surged from 2003 to 2006.
The vitriolic attacks has succumbed Latinas and Latinos to the worst kind of racial profiling and scapegoating.
Central to these attacks have to do with demographic shift resulting from immigration. Media figures such as Fox Channel talk show host Bill O’Reilly have proclaimed that “the supporters [of immigration reform] hate America and want to flood the country with foreign nationals to change the complexion of our society.†CNN anchor, Lou Dobbs, has repeatedly warned against an “illegal alien invasion†and has included reports from the Council of Conservative Citizens, a national white supremacist organization, for expert opinion.
Currently, immigrants are rounded up and herded into overcrowded detention camps awaiting their deportations. Although “racial profiling is clearly not limited to use in immigration settings, it has profoundly affected legal and undocumented immigrants as well as citizens because they look or speak as if they could be from another country.
The hasty process of providing the necessary documentation to show their legal status to authorities during a raid infringes upon the rights of many Mexican-Americans who are US citizens or lawful permanent residents because some of them are unable to readily provide the documentation at that time. In the latest immigration raid in Houston, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was forced to release 16 detainees because “one was a U.S. citizen and another 15 were here in status and are legally authorized to work.”
For the time being, the tenor of the current immigration debate has thus far not changed sufficiently. Too many non-Latinos believe that this country is in the mist of an invasion that will lead to economic plight and crime-ridden streets. Political leaders and the media need to examine the facts and speak out.
Be it fear of the Japanese in the past or the current fear of the job stealing Mexican, as a nation, we must be most careful in times of severe national stress. The true test of human progress is whether we have the wisdom to see our faults and the strength to acknowledge them. Until we admit this, perhaps legitimate discussions concerning safety and economic growth will lead to an honest approach to immigration reform
TA BASTA! NO MORE!
Evelyn
Flower said
“An immigration system based upon race/DNA where only one particular race is given special privileges to immigrate would be racist and discriminatory and would not fly in this day and age. ”
E
Proof of this can be found in the high amount of racism fueling the immigration debate.
Too many people of European dissent (whites) = racism.
WRONG! What a racist thing to say. Ignorance and fear breed racism not ethnicity or nationality.
There are self hating Hispanics who are racist, there are Black racist who hate all white people instead of judging them as individuals.
Racism comes in all colors and flavors. I know several Native Americans who hate all white people. That is racism.
People must be judged as individuals not in groups. That is racism.
~~~~~
That’s true but unfortunate. What I’m about to say is very, very politically incorrect but the truth. Different races/groups DO build different societies. Black nations do NOT build the same kinds of societies as Asian or White nations. Also, Latin American nations do not build the same kind of societies as Whites,Asians or Blacks.
Anybody who denies this is blind to the obvious. Nigeria, Mexico, Japan and Germany are all very different from one another. If we were to take all of the Germans out of Germany and replace them with Nigerians, Germany would cease to exist, only the name. The truth is, race/ethnicity matters as to what type of nation you have. This isn’t about inferiority or superiority, it’s the truth. All non-white nations today know this. Japan allows no immigration unless you are of Japanese ancestry and all non-white nations either do not allow or strictly limit immigration of other races. They know that race and culture matter and value it highly. Whites used to be like non-whites today, yet only we were called racist. In the past, we had racial/cultural quotas just like non-whites do today. As such, we created a certain type of white or mostly white,western nation with all the characteristics that come with white,western nations . If we continue to allow non-white immigration, we will become a non-white mostly Latin American country. In other words we will become the “United States of Mexico” or the “United States of Brazil”. Ever been to Brazil. It’s a huge, mixed race Latin American country. Ok to visit but you wouldn’t want to live there. The question then isn’t should we allow illegal or legal migration from Mexico or 3rd world countries. The question is do you(whites)want your children and grandchildren living in the “United States of Mexico” or the “United States of Brazil” because unless we stop immigration, BOTH illegal and legal from 3rd world countries, that WILL the not-to-distant future of our country.
E
This article could have been written by the father of racism himself, Tanton!
If what you say is true, being that the U.S. is the most diverse nation on the planet, how is it that she is also the richest, best, most wonderful, country to live in.
Diversity is what has given her strength.
Most of the immigrants came from Europe and they all assimilated, perhaps a little slower then today’s immigrants, but within 2 generations they no longer considered themselves Irish or German they considered themselves Americans.
In fact it is even harder for immigrants from Mexico and Latin America to assimilate because they are not included and accepted like immigrants from Europe.
They have to fight to become assimilated. For that we can only blame ourselves.
Immigration and assimilation
Modern America stands in the way of immigrants who would embrace our way of life.
A new report on immigrant assimilation offers some reassurance to Americans who are as worried about the cultural impact of immigrants, legal and illegal, as about the number who have come to the United States illegally in the past quarter century.
Overall, the new immigrants are assimilating at a faster rate than immigrants of previous generations. This is good. With all due respect to multiculturalism, newcomers benefit from becoming Americanized and from becoming full participants in the civic life of a country whose identity is rooted not in religion or ethnicity but in laws and common principles.
Still, the study found that the gap these new immigrants have to close is wider than in earlier generations in terms of their English-speaking ability and earning power. And, worse, the largest foreign-born segment of the population — Mexicans — has been slow to assimilate.
That’s bad news, indeed. The study’s author theorized it might be due in large part to the high percentage of Mexican immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. As Duke University economist Jacob Vigdor explained in The Washington Post: “If you’re in the country illegally, a lot of the avenues of assimilation are cut off to you. There are a lot of jobs you can’t get, and you can’t become a citizen.”
The Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank in New York, sponsored the study and drew from it a curious conclusion. The institute’s vice president for policy research, Howard Husock, argued in a commentary Tuesday in The New York Sun that the country can’t “discount the possibility that immigrant assimilation is lagging because, unlike our predecessors, we have not made it a conscious national policy.”
During the immigration wave of the 1890s, he points out, the nation’s “cultural elite” led a pro-assimilation movement that included establishing settlement houses that as part of their mission helped new arrivals become Americanized.
“Lately,” he asserts, “discussing immigrant assimilation has become less than acceptable in polite company out of a concern that assimilation imposes Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture on others.”
Maybe that’s all the talk wherever that cultural elite meets. But as Husock notes, average Americans still overwhelmingly embrace the idea of a melting pot. And as he must not have noticed, average Americans — not any cultural elite — for years have been dominating the national conversation about immigration.
That conversation has focused on keeping low-skilled, undocumented workers out of the U.S. — oh, and making English the official language.
Sadly lacking has been talk about how the absence of rational immigration policy traps so many Mexicans and other Latinos in an illegal underground workforce that bars full integration into society and easy assimilation. The result is a parallel, unequal economy that does, indeed, eat at the nation’s foundations
Flower
“This article could have been written by the father of racism himself, Tanton!”
The truth isn’t racist.
“If what you say is true, being that the U.S. is the most diverse nation on the planet, how is it that she is also the richest, best, most wonderful, country to live in. Diversity is what has given her strength.”
Up until fairly recently, the US was 90% white. The “diversity” you talk of was of different white ehtnic groups and she became the richest and best because of whites. Now that we are getting more non-whites, our country is deteriorating. Our cities are beginning to resemble the third world. Just look at California, especially Los Angeles. Sixty years ago, it was truly the Golden State and mostly white. Great schools, clean air, low cost of living, low crime. Now look at it sixty years on after racial diversity. Overcrowed, full of gangs and crime, lousy schools, smoggy, state went broke due to the high cost of illegals,high taxes for all of the social costs and ethnic strife between blacks and mexicans. People are leaving in droves. Just compare all-white parts of town to black or other parts of town. White areas are clean, safe and nice. The difference is night and day. I take no pleasure in saying this and have nothing against other races. Yes, there are many decent and intelligent blacks and latinos as well as dumb and lousy whites. However, when you look at the groups as a whole, each creates a different society and some not for the better.
Just a note. Speaking of racism, why do mexicans have to come to the USA. After all, if there are no differences and everyone is the same, then why isn’t mexico sucessful. After all, mexico is loaded with natural resources, oil,minerals,ocean, farming land. It should be a huge success. If everyone is the same and there are no differences, then why do mexicans have to come to a “white run” country? Why don’t they make a success of their own country?
Alessandra
Flower, I believe our country is what it is due to the Constitution and the economic and legal system upon which it was founded.
At the time of its founding, the principles set forth by our founding fathers were unheard of. “All men are created equal” and deriving rights not from some king or potentate but from the Creator himself were revolutionary ideas never before set forth by any society.
As newcomers came to this country, they assimilated into the cultural values of those who founded this nation. I do believe that our country is unique among nations and that due to this special “recipe for success” set forth that those coming to our country are able to achieve successes that they do not in their native lands. That is what is known as the “American Dream.” Anyone willing to sacrifice and work hard can achieve a measure of success in this country.
I do not think it is a matter of race, but of culture. For example, 100 years ago, Italians came here in great numbers. At the time, their society resembled Mexico and other Latin American countries. There was a culture of corruption, poverty, and little opportunity for the poor. If you were born poor, you most likely died poor.
There was little justice for poor people. Without any connections to the powerful, a poor person had little chance of ever seeing justice for atrocities or crimes committed against them or their families. That is why the Mafia was formed; it was a parallel justice system to try to render some justice in some manner. Like many other things, it became corrupted.
When Italian immigrants came here mainly from the poorer Southern parts and Sicily, they brought with them their distrust of law enforcement and judicial system. They brought the Mafia with them. Did that mean that most Italian immigrants were Mafioso? No, but the facts are that the U.S. government expended much effort, lives, and dollar resources in just about an all-out war against organized crime.
Also, when they first came, they retained their culture, language, and way of living. Guido kept goats in the back yard. Guido had to be told, “hey, Guido, get the goats out of the house and yard!” Eventually, Guido’s kids went to school and learned English and assimilated. The key is assimilation.
Russian society is another example of a total basket case. Russians are a people who have never had an opportunity to live in a Democratic society; hence, they have trouble doing so. They have either lived under Czars or under Communist rule. They do not know how to govern themselves with Democracy and freedom. Corruption is rife in Russia and the Eastern European countries who were once part of the Soviet Union. They are “white countries” also.
So, again, I see this not as a matter of race, but one of culture. The culture that this country was built on developed over centuries; our laws and system based on Judeo-Christian principles and those articulated in the Magna Carta. Not saying it is not special, just that it is not necessarily a “white” thing as other white countries did not develop it either.
I believe that anyone of any race or ethnicity who comes to this country and assimilates into the value system can be successful. It is the push for nonassimilation (a Marxist philosophy meant to weaken our cohesion as a nation) which is the problem IMO.
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