Rant on illegal immigration.

[pinkpaladin]

I have a gal named Tara in a couple of my classes whom I talk with some, who is a very smart gal and is also going for a career in elementary education. She resembles me in her academic excellence, but our personalities couldn't be more different. She's very blunt with making judgments and opinions, while I try to avoid just that. I sometimes

Comments

[parallax_view]

I don't really think you sound racist, per say. I don't believe there are many who (openly?) support illegal immigration, and so those who are more staunch about it are at times taken the wrong way by others. While I agree with your view on corporations and their spanish language policies to make money(because corporations will do anything for money, they just see what works and do it, regardless of long term impact...which is why we're in this recession), do remember in your future travels that a spanish language saturation isn't because of illegal immigration everywhere. Texas is the best example. While it does have its share of border hopping, the state has a historic mexican-american culture you might be aware of. This is due to the fact that mexicans owned this piece of land before the big war involving, among other things, the Alamo. So, there is a native mexican element here that is different from say, some other states.

One last thought. Yes, I do have hispanic blood, yet I for the most part have no sort of ethic/national/group pride other than fandoms and my beloved friends. So please don't take this as stemming from that.

I've dated two guys who I'm relatively sure had Hispanic blood, so I clearly have no problem with *educated* Hispanic-Americans. So my racism is mostly limited to non-English speaking *illegal* immigrants.

If you talk like that to a Hispanic blooded person who is very prideful(especially the full blooded), many of them will take offense because you'll come off sounding like an uninformed jackass(again, I mean no offense, but this is how many would think - I lived half an hour from Mexico most of my life, and this is how my Argnetinian grandfather was). The thing is, my hispanic blood comes from Argentina, NONE of it from Mexico. You're talking about illegal Mexican immigrants here, and I'm pretty certain the number of illegal Argentinian or other south american illegal immigrants is microscopically small, yet you seemed to loosely group me in with Mexico due to hispanic heritage being one slice of my overall ethnic dna. It's on the lesser end of, but in the same sort of spirit as people who see slanty eyes, and say Chinese, whether the person is Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, or what have you. I know this wasn't your intention and I certainly didn't take offense, but I'm saying keeping this in mind will help you whenever you're speaking to someone with hispanic heritage who isn't Mexican and an illegal immigrant.

Granted, the word Hispanic does cover Mexico and South America, but again, you're talking about illegal Mexican immigrants here. And I for one, nor any of my ancestors fall into that category, educated or not.

That bit of advice having been mentioned, I again do agree with your viewpoint. I don't know spanish, and while I unfortunately wouldn't be above learning it because of the state I live in and the job market, I philosophically would rather not in even the smallest way encourage illegal immigration.

[parallax_view]

Hmm. In hindsight, I guess part of me was a bit bothered, but still not offended. It's not pride in my heritage at all(I don't take pride nor do I disdain it, I'm just me, I don't care...besides, I have too many countries of origin in my blood to get fanatical about anyways, too lazy), more that I don't ever like being grouped in with a bunch that are hurting things because the word hispanic can be used to describe some of my blood. I remember your dad once tried to tell you I'd end up killing you or something because I have latin blood, and while I was temperamental back then, I've never physically hurt you or anyone I've dated, nor anyone at all outside of when people picked fights with me at school. Any temper I had or have is due to my stupid ass emotional issues, shortcomings and possibly upbringing - me, in other words. That was probably the first and so far only time I've ever been racially stereotyped to such an extreme and so unfairly, and it bothered me more than I admitted(I tried to cover it up with silly joking about wanting him to be a bigot about every country in my dna).

But overall, I'm not racially sensitive. I just prefer someone judging me unfairly to at least attribute it to my personality and not my ancestry. Heck, on the flipside, I was also once offended when a friend told me she thought I knew nothing of ethnic culture or differences, pertaining especially to latin culture, despite the fact I'd lived around it for shy of 20 years. XD;

Sigh, overly long rant is long. Summary needed. Ok, again, I wasn't offended by anything you said, but that one line kind of triggered me into saying all that, I guess. While I don't care for being grouped mentally with the Mafia due to having some italian blood, some indian stereotype due to a slive of Native American heritage, or illegal Mexican immigrants because my grandfather was from a country thousands of miles and very different from Mexico, my main point I wanted to get across is that there are alot of hispanics who ARE proud and would be offended if you thought they were Cuban when they're actually Puerto Rican, when you're not including any negative connotations to that group at ALL.

Ok, have a good day! *hugs, and gives you a teriyaki marinated turkey and bean burrito, an asian and latin merger dish the preparation of which he has improved upon greatly since he made it for you years ago! honest!*

[parallax_view]

Oh, it occurs to me that I can no longer count the number of friends I have who are learning Japanese in one hand. You guys need to give me a lesson sometime in the distant future. =P

[pinkpaladin]

"Granted, the word Hispanic does cover Mexico and South America,
but again, you're talking about illegal Mexican immigrants here. And I
for one, nor any of my ancestors fall into that category, educated or
not."

I did not intend to lump you with the Mexican population, as you have mentioned to me your Argentinian ancestry. I thought I had been pretty careful with my prolific use of the term Hispanic, but the examples I used in regards to Mexico clearly was confusing. The best way I can put it is that I have a problem with a certain group not because of their culture, but because of their actions regarding illegal immigration. I used you and John to prove my point; I loved you guys for your personality, and I was certainly not deterred by ethnicity. I can't be positive on this, but it's more likely that John's father has Cuban-Hispanic background, and not Mexican, being in Florida. Or he could be Arab for all I know. I don't like many Arabs either, but that wouldn't have stopped me from dating one that shared my values and beliefs. Illegal Hispanic immigrants, by mere definition, do NOT share my beliefs, so I meant only to emphasize that my bias against Hispanic immigration is not ethnicity-related, but value-related. Had you and John both been Mexican, my feelings would not differ. I hate Columbia for its smuggling of cocaine into our country, but that doesn't mean we don't have honest Columbian immigrants here. (The smuggling of drugs and the corruption it feeds into origin countries is another big reason I hate our lack of border security). I could go on and on about Venezuela too, and the general poverty issues that strikes the South American continent. They all share the same history of colonization, and their poor economic situation is in many ways tied to that history of being extractive industries for their mother countries. They are struggling to build an economic structure that works effectively. By all means they are very much victims of circumstance, and will continue to struggle. But the people there have been freed from colonialism, thus I think it's up to them to correct their country's problems. Sucking our resources is not going to solve the problem, so my wrath against Hispanic immigrants is very much extended to the South American continent as well. The use of the word Hispanic was meant to be all-encompasing for this very reason, so I am not accusing one ethnicity for another's crime, as my attack is against all Hispanics who share in that crime. But you need not fear, as who's over here currently is a matter that is water under the bridge, in my opinion. Even if your ancestors were illegal, it would not have changed my relationship with you. I just want the U.S. to prevent illegal immigration for the future, to force other countries to finally work on their problems.

I can see why this is a sensitive topic for you. My parent's reaction to this day regarding ethnicity never failed to abhore me. I realize now that race, ethnicity, is largely a sense of belonging for people, and it's hard for them to tolerate customs that are odd to them. I think I understand the origins of racial discrimination better. Knowing that, I group with people on basis of merit and common beliefs, and not race. So in my own way, I'm creating my own ethnicity and culture. It's human nature. At least I know I can say it includes a Black friend, a Cherokee Indian, Hispanics, Koreans, and many others. So again I stress that my biases on illegal immigration was only meant to be portrayed as a bias against merit, and not specifically towards Mexicans.

[parallax_view]

Even though I was academic and not angry in my replies, I still feel bad for such a long rant. I know you weren't grouping me in with anyone, and I know you were speaking specifically about illegal immigration. I really shouldn't have posted such a long thesis. I feel ridiculous. I'm sorry.

So in my own way, I'm creating my own ethnicity and culture. It's human nature.

This is pretty much how I am, too. I'm kind of the opposite of prideful any ethnicity. As you know, I never felt like I belonged anywhere or with anyone, until I met you, Autumn, Brooke and others at YSRMB. I have never thought of myself specifically as hispanic, italian, native american, english, or even american outside of the fact I live here. So when I'm brought up in an ethnic context, I'm never quite certain how to react, even if it has no negativity to it like with what you said. I'm not really sensitive to it, moreso to being seen in an inaccurate way or something, as you can recount from experience.

I always thought my level of not caring was low, but I should maybe try to lower it to Amber level. She has mocha skin and dark hair due to strong native american ancestry, but is most often mistaken for being hispanic, yet she doesn't care in the least. XDDD

[pinkpaladin]

You were very respectful, so no worries. I just hope I was respectful too. ^_^

My strongest bloodline is Czech...my dad mentioned something about our ethnicity that may have raped some Asian people, or married them, so thus we have Asian in our bloodline. It randomly shows up in the kids, too. So somewhere I may have a super evil ancestor I'd like to smack. But, this further proves my point that we need not be imprisoned by our heritage.

My black friend is the only one that I can say has referred to me as "white" recently. It feels awkward to be stereotyped like he sometimes does, but a lot of blacks talk this way. He has felt the racial prejudice and seen the cultural differences, so it affects him a lot more. Whereas I grew up loving all ethnicities, and getting pissed whenever my parents seemed to act otherwise. (My mom said something negative about having too many blacks in a certain neighborhood once).

So yeah. It's a different experience for everybody.