(no subject)
About a week ago I watched a documentary called "Farmingville". It was on PBS at 3 am, there was nothing else on so I watched it.
What I saw disgusted me.
Here's the basic synopsis of it.
About 20 years ago, a lot of illegal immigrants started moving to a town called Farmingville in Long Island, NY. There's about 15,000 people in the town and about 1500 illegal immigrants or day laborers as they're called.
Supposedly, there's a lot of industrial and agricultural work in this part of New York. Every day the day laborers stand on a corner and wait for contractors to come pick them up to work. Basically, they don't have an every day job, they do different things every day with different contractors. They usually get paid in cash at the end of the day by these contractors.
The non-immigrant people in this town have a huge problem with this.
A woman (with a hideous troll doll collection in a glass china case behind her in the interviews) leads the movement to drive the day laborers out of town. For some reason a majority of the town follows this gluttonous woman. They have town meetings, which resemble skin head rallies, they harass the day laborers on the street. Here's an example of what they do, besides protesting every single day. The fat lady, we'll call her "La Gorda" from here, will take pictures of the contractors as they come to pick up the laborers, thus scaring the contractors off. This causes the laborers to lose work, because the contractors are afraid they'll somehow get in trouble.
There have been several incidents of rock throwing and beatings against the laborers. How many incidents again the non-immigrant population? Zero. People will run them off the road as they're riding their bikes, yell at them, and one family had their home burned to the ground.
Here's some of the main complaints by the non-immigrants: (loosely quoted)
1. "I'm afraid to have my kids walk down the street. They're rapists"
2. "I don't like having 30 mexicans living in a house"
3. "They evade taxes"
After a year of so of unsuccessful legislation, La Gorda enlists the help of some national anti-immigration organizations.
The same month these organizations set up shop in Farmingville, white supremacists groups sent delegates to recruit new members.
Basically, the rest of the documentary was the legislative battles between La Gorda's side and the day laborers small group of supporters. The day laborers won a small victory when the town's council let them use the soccer fields two hours a week. As of now, talks are still going on and white people are still complaining.
Here's how I feel about it.
I live in South Florida. I see illegal immigrants every single day of my life. I work at a grocery store which is right next to a laundromat. I see hundreds of them a day at work. I send their money to their families via Western Union every day. None of them speak English, so I learned spanish. I'm not fluent but I know how to say what I need to say. These people are the nicest group of people you'll ever come across.
Like Farmingville, South Florida has a lot of agricultural work whether it be the citrus groves or the sugar cane fields. I have not once seen a white person in the fields. I have not once seen a white person digging an irrigation ditch in the middle of the summer. Earlier today, I found myself complaining because I was doing yard work for four hours. Americans would never do what the illegal immigrants do. If they weren't here where would Florida get sugar and oranges? Who would pave the roads that we drive on or build the houses we live in? Not white people.
Who cares if there's 30 people living in a house? As long as they don't make a ton of noise or destroy the rest of the neighborhood why is it anybody else's concern? These immigrants work in the sun all day, I doubt they have the energy to commit any crimes, rape women, much less make noise. They come home, eat, go to sleep, and get ready for the next day of work.
People need to be more tolerant and think before they take up radical stances.