Daily Kos

People can say it's not about race

Sat Sep 08, 2007 at 07:37:18 AM PDT

When that is all it is about.  
Before all you labor leaning people jump all over me, let me say that as a teacher I have belonged to a union and am pro labor. Even though many folks don't think that being prepared as a teacher has value. In many situations people can walk off the street with a degree in anything and be employed as a teacher on a temporary basis for some time as long as the schools can't locate anyone. So the argument of stealing jobs by other workers happens to teachers, too.  Emergency certification, etc.
     I have never supported illegal immigration.  It is an anathema to me as a Mexican American that poor folks come in paying a huge amount of money to go through risky travel to get here.  We went to school with the children of these pobres.  We didn't have much as kids, but the other kids had no shoes and we had a house, a back yard and a big plastic swimming pool that my parents would put up in the summer.

But after reading the comments made by Ed Martin about Mexicans gave me a chill.

http://kcblueblog.blogspot.com/...

The illegal alien problem is not just about corporations taking advantage of people but also regular everyday folks that don't think they are racist.
    In areas that have had Hispanic Americans for a long time , the race question is very blurry.  Because the Americas were settled by Europeans that also blended their "genes" with the locals folks there, there are differing amounts of "whiteness" to the Hispanics. Some are very pale and blue eyed, other very dark and many some mix along the way.  Add the historical movement of people of Sephardic descent fleeing the inquisition and you have a large population in the Americas with individuals that sometimes blend in and sometimes not. So what this did was allow some folks in the U.S. to bypass the use of African Americans in certain situations because with certain prejudice they preferred to work with people who looked a little more like them.  
   When I was to marry, my mother in law refused to offer the San Antonio country club as the location for the after rehearsal dinner because it wold be "uncomfortable" for all parties, however I wasn't Black so it was ok for me to marry her son.  As the wife of a wealthy doctor they had entertained rich Mexicans in their home so a Mexican daughter in law was ok. only not for the country club. I loved her so I am not saying anything against her.  It was a wonderful affair.

So When a person says

" I'll tell you what's available to every developer in order to figure out who's illegal. When there's a bunch of Mexicans out there, there's probably some of them who are not legal."

Good lord! I went to school with 99.9% Mexican Americans. Of course you would find some illegal aliens there, but most of us are not!!!!!!!!
The only blue eyed kid in my school was named Lomas ( a Spanish name) we had a small amount of Black kids, too. My part of town was gerrymandered by people in power at the time into an area for Mexicans only by prejudicial housing discrimination and school district lines.  Black people in San Antonio were on the east-side and whites on the north.  San Antonio has grown tremendously and there is more mixing however as a child I grew up knowing I was a citizen but not equal.

And don't tell me that the Irish were mistreated, too so get over it.  My folks came over around the time of the Mexican revolution , the same time as the Irish came over.  But now the Irish Americans are no longer "pig shit",  but my family still has to wonder when someone looks our way they see illegals.
The comment made by Ed. Martin intimated a visual signal of appearance.
When there's a bunch = when you see a group of Mexican looking people.........
Gee, how exactly should I take that?
It sounds like making judgments on appearance to me.  Some of you are worried about the many illegals coming in a suppressing wages.

I am worried about the loss of by rights as a American Citizen because I have been blessed with beautiful skin color.

Tags: immigrants (all tags) :: Previous Tag Versions

Permalink | 22 comments

  •  There are SO many (2+ / 0-)

    Recommended by:
    akeitz, balancedscales

    reasons that Ed Martin should be forced to go.  This is yet another one.  But he works for a wingnut governor (Matt Blunt) who believes only in helping people exactly like himself and Blunt will never get rid of him.

    Thanks for this good diary. You've made an excellent response to Martin.  

  •  racism (3+ / 0-)

    The US was founded on racism--slavery is in the constitution.  The only way it's going to end is if there is a surge in intermarriages.  I think the government should encourage this by giving a double tax exemption for each "haldbred."  The cure will take a hundred years, but the problem is much older than that.

  •  I hear you (3+ / 0-)

    Tucson is a very Hispanic town, and the racism here is a scary undercurrent. If you read the online version of the Arizona Daily Star, and are brave enough (or foolhardy enough) to read the comments readers post to the LTE, you will see that undercurrent out on the surface.

    Now, I am not Hispanic; my ancestors apparently all came from Europe (mostly England). My husband is a second-generation Polish-American. Racism is not something directed at us very often, but I believe that it is harmful to our society as a whole, no matter what race is being targeted.

    -8.00, -7.08

    It isn't easy being green.

    by emeraldmaiden on Sat Sep 08, 2007 at 07:50:55 AM PDT

  •  Republicans have been very effective (1+ / 0-)

    Recommended by:
    skywriter

    with race-baiting politics.

    They will continue with such tactics until voters resoundingly say "Enough!"

  •  my tip jar question (11+ / 0-)

    So people see Kos standing around with his wife and family..........
    "Look, there's got to be some illegals there!"

    brown = foreign ???

    Since when?
    Damn it we were here first!

    donate to a shelter box please http://www.shelterboxusa.org/

    by TexMex on Sat Sep 08, 2007 at 07:53:32 AM PDT

    •  I've told this story before ... (11+ / 0-)

      but it is worth repeating. Now keep in mind that I am the quintescential white guy. Even with a tan I still look real white. My wife on the other hand, a Mexican-American, tans to a deep luxurious brown.

      My wife and I were on a cycling trip several years ago and in Canada we stopped at a winery. I struck up a conversation with a man from Michigan. He indicated that he lived in Grand Rapids which is where my son also lives. I told him that my son lived in Easttown. "Oh that's a dangerous area", he said. I repled that it seemed like a rather nice part of town. He says, "Oh there's a lot of Mexicans in that part of town. You know how they are." Just at that moment my wife walks up. Without missing a beat she says, "I don't know. Exactly how are they?"

      He looks at her and then it hits him. We had been on the road for a couple of weeks and she was a dark beautiful brown. His jaw drops. "Enjoy your trip", she says as he walks away.

      It was absolutely perfect. Every once in a while there is justice.

      Excess ain't rebellion. You're drinking what they're selling. - Cake

      by slatsg on Sat Sep 08, 2007 at 08:15:25 AM PDT

      [ Parent ]

  •  Please consider crossposting (1+ / 0-)

    Recommended by:
    MarketTrustee

    Please consider signing up at Culture Kitchen and posting there (either simply crossposting material or original material). We have been called "the place to go for discussions of racial issues" by many bloggers and we have been called "a sociologist's dream" by a Pacifica radio host in Austin. We get about a million hits a month, so we qualify as a moderate sized blog.

    If you are interested, please sign up and post in the forums. I can promote to the front page partly depending on what else is on the front page...I like keeping a good mix when I can. If you have any technical problems let me know.

  •  I grew up in SA (2+ / 0-)

    Recommended by:
    TexMex, peaceloveandkucinich

    Graduated from South San HS, didn`t notice too much prejudice. Most classes were full of American Mexicans, very few Blacks, few Anglos. Probably has not changed much in 30 years.

    " Resistance is NOT futile, it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling." Wino

    by Wino on Sat Sep 08, 2007 at 07:59:33 AM PDT

    •  you didn't go to Edgewood school district then (2+ / 0-)

      Recommended by:
      Nightprowlkitty, drmah

      http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/...

      I did.
      Many of the families in that district had parents take worked at Kelly air force base.  That is why those war time homes were built there. The base served the military industrial complex during the Viet Nam war.
      Jonathon Kozol's book "savage Inequalities" had a chapter devoted to Edgewood school district .

      donate to a shelter box please http://www.shelterboxusa.org/

      by TexMex on Sat Sep 08, 2007 at 08:08:05 AM PDT

      [ Parent ]

      •  Closer to Harlandale (1+ / 0-)

        Recommended by:
        TexMex

        My father worked on Security Hill 67-72, then civil service till 88. In some of my classes I was the only Anglo,but I married well. My wifes family was there before it was Texas.

        " Resistance is NOT futile, it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling." Wino

        by Wino on Sat Sep 08, 2007 at 09:02:58 AM PDT

        [ Parent ]

  •  Recommended -- it IS all about racism! (5+ / 0-)

    I live in Northern Virginia where many seem to think that our current growing pains and straining infrastructure is due to an influx of illegals. The first words outta their mouths, "It's not about racism...."  If you have to say that, um yeah, it's ALL about racism.

    The irony in their pronouncements is that a majority of the influx of Hispanic folks in this area are from El Salvador -- they were given amnesty in the late 1990s after the devastating earthquake there.  So most are here legally!

    For me the telltale clue about the motivation behind this panic over illegals is the fact that back in the late 1980s and early 1990s the single largest ethnic group among illegal immigrants was the Irish. Really.  This was back before the Celtic tiger kicked into high gear and many young Irish sneaked into the US looking for work.  Nobody seemed particularly upset about the Irish illegals, nor the incoming Poles who came in large numbers to Chicago.

    Suddenly we're faced with a batch of newcomers who don't look like us and now our very way of life is threatened.  Give me a fucking break.

  •  Still the haves and have mores (4+ / 0-)

    The "haves and have mores", what W (correctly, for a change) refers to as his core constituency, have a vested interest in playing the diverse groups comprising the "unwashed masses" against one another.  The Mexicans are stealing your jobs, the Cubans are stealing Florida, the African-Americans are stealing your tax dollars, the Jews are stealing your money, the Asians are stealing your cities, the IRS agents are stealing your wages, the elderly are stealing your healthcare, the Liberals are stealing your soul.  The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the rich is getting worse continually, while the common folk fight each other for scraps.

  •  point your finger! (1+ / 0-)

    Recommended by:
    TexMex

    There has always been racism, and it's always stupid, someone has to elevate themselves by being 'better' than someone else, and it's always a kind of denial of human status to other humans. Blacks win the racism content, other immigrant groups get assimilated over time, but Blacks are excluded to the extent that law allows it. It's deplorable, and it gives the racists a kind of smirky pleasure that is unpleasant to witness. But, we all have racism in us, or it's form, sexism, poorism, or in Briton red-headedism. Racism can be fought with laws against discrimination and that's where the 'backlash' Mexican immigrants are receiving work, because law gives cover to racists who can claim they are for law and order, and give them a chance to be high on themselves as well as better than some other humans.  It's very ugly.  The first step in legalizing racism is denying equal protection under the law.

    But it has to be encountered individual by individual. Who is against Hillary because she's too ambitious, or the wife of Bill, or has too much baggage, or any number of so-called ' plausible' reasons that may mask sexism?  Until we can be open minded about our own personal prejudices and sense of outrage that someone 'undeserving' is getting something good, we'll be hypocrites when we put other racists down.  

    Hillary - Alternative Energy

    by anna shane on Sat Sep 08, 2007 at 10:50:11 AM PDT

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