Attention.
Attention:
This is for anyone and everyone out there who complains incessantly about illegal immigrants but has never had their job threatened by them. This is for everyone out there who says "Why don't they learn to speak English?" This is for everyone who complained when the "Star Spangled Banner" was translated into Spanish.
You are bigots. If these people looked and talked like you, you would welcome them with open arms. I don't care what you're saying- but if you have no sympathy whatsoever for "illegals" (god forbid we should think of them as people!), you're not seeing them as humans. You're a racist. You're classist. I don't know who did this to you- who filled you up with this hate, the self-righteous rage, this blind anger- but it needs to stop. You need to remember who you Americans are: the children of dirt poor immigrants yourself.
Signed,
Candy, the feminist without clothes. As well as the child of an immigrant- as are you, whether you choose to recognize it or not.
Photography by Domenic. January, 2006.
This is for anyone and everyone out there who complains incessantly about illegal immigrants but has never had their job threatened by them. This is for everyone out there who says "Why don't they learn to speak English?" This is for everyone who complained when the "Star Spangled Banner" was translated into Spanish.
You are bigots. If these people looked and talked like you, you would welcome them with open arms. I don't care what you're saying- but if you have no sympathy whatsoever for "illegals" (god forbid we should think of them as people!), you're not seeing them as humans. You're a racist. You're classist. I don't know who did this to you- who filled you up with this hate, the self-righteous rage, this blind anger- but it needs to stop. You need to remember who you Americans are: the children of dirt poor immigrants yourself.
Signed,
Candy, the feminist without clothes. As well as the child of an immigrant- as are you, whether you choose to recognize it or not.
Photography by Domenic. January, 2006.
13 Comments:
you are so right.
thank you for saying these things.
As the husband of an immigrant, the son-in-law of immigrants, and the brother-in-law of five immigrants, I agree with you to a point.
Immigrants made this country great. However, my in-laws have waited years and spent thousands of dollars to do things the right way so that they could be permanent residents and citizens. And now, they are.
I don't think this country can take an infinite number of people who come across the border illegally.
There has to be a compromise between shutting the doors and taking the doors off the hinges.
bredan- I'm in agreement with you. I don't believe that we should just allow a massive amount of people to flow into the US from any other country without any plan or thought.
It's just this hatred and anger towards "illegals" that gets to me.
Amen, amen, amen.
I have to take note with brendan's comment, however. Personally, I think the whole "illegal immigrant" issue is hype. I've yet to see one cost comparison as to the gains vs. losses due to this population.
But your point on bigotry? Spot on and hella righteous.
Thanks. It seems that if you bother to call this what it is...bigotry...a lot of people get really, really upset. Good. They should be upset.
wow...that was an excellent point on bigotry and i can vouch for it definitely...I've heard stuff like that so much ever since I moved up to Illinois. Thanks for putting what I see and hear into words for everyone else to stop and think about.
(found this through furry girl...)
I've been too angry about this topic to put my thoughts as eloquently as you have. Thank you so much for stating what I've wanted to.
Human and civil rights should apply to everyone who comes here, regardless of their immigrant status. It's a fundamental of how our country's supposed to be run.
Demandra,
Illegal immigrants take more out of the system than they put in.
It is estimated that illegal immigrants cost state and local governments $11 billion to $22 billion per year because of the higher consumption of government services by relatively low-paid undocumented workers.
There are also numerous studies that show that in southern California, illegal immigrants make up a disproportionate number of welfare recipients and inmates in jails.
The Mara Salvatrucha 13 gang, for example, is one of the most vicious organized crime families in the U.S. They are spirited into the country by "coyotes". In my wife's home country (Honduras), they have cut the heads off of children to send a message to the police to back off their crackdowns.
That is not to say that illegal immigrants here are composed largely of violent criminals (although coming here without papers is technically a non-violent crime). Rather, the point is that unless you are allowed to protect your right to monitor and choose who comes in here, you are going to have lots of problems.
I don't see what's racist about wanting them to be able to speak English. I work in retail, and let me tell you it's HELL not being able to understand what a customer wants and then being yelled at as though it's my fault we're miscommunicating. Conversely, it's hell being the customer who can't make herself understood to the non-English-speaking crew! There's an Arby's right up the road that I love but won't go to because they never, EVER get my order right.
I mean, if anything, wouldn't that be languist?
There's nothing racist per se about wishing people spoke the same language as you. It's when people develope an us vs. them mentality, and have no sympathy for other people(especially those who can't afford books and tapes and lessons in order to learn English more quickly) that things become -ist.
The thing is though, that the "us" you refer to in the "us versus them" are people of all races, sexes, creeds, ethnicities, etc.. There are hispanic people in the US who also oppose the illegal aspect of illegal immigration from the southern border. This is a very broad "us" you speak of.
As for simply learning to speak the language it just makes communication easier and costs us less in printing mulitple languages on official documents or signs.
I've been to about 17 different countries. The longer I stayed in each the more of the language I picked up. I was visiting their home and as a guest I felt it was my duty to abide by their way of life to include daily communication. No one expected me to learn the language in 3-12 weeks and no one expects anyone coming here to do so that quickly either.
But if you have a home and a set of rules that are applicable to your home, then you tend to expect guests to be invited, to abide by the rules of your house, and to communicate with you in a manner in which you can understand them, not just for your own comfort and safety but for their own as well.
Don't let the name mislead you. I had the nickname before there was an intenet.
Troll: Any us vs. them mentality is sad, regarderless of who the sides are.
So an us, as in the free Americans who don't rob banks, rape women or children, commit murder, etc., versus the them as in those who do is a bad thing?
I've no doubt you would view it, and be pleased with an us versus them if it pertained to you holding a party at your house and a bunch of drunken frat boys crashed the party and started making life difficult for your invited guests.
And it isn't so much an us, as in a single group or race or sex, opposing another. It is a country of many races and countries of origin who simply want people to follow the law. My mom is a legal immigrant from Germany, my grandfather onmy dad's side a legal immigrant from Spain. Obviously I would have to be pro-immigration and I am, but the emphasis is on the legal aspect of it.
My point is that it isn't a race based thing or even a country of origin thing. It is a societal thing based simply on lawfulness. Flag burning, sex entertainment, immigration are all fine so long as they are done in a legal manner.
It is never a good sign or a great start to things when you have to do it in a clandestine manner
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