A Testament
The following was written by Roberto Reyes, someone I met through the myriad of overlapping activist and progressive circles at Michigan State. I felt it was important enough to share and asked his permission to repost it here.
Please take a moment to read Roberto's thoughts as he reflects on the state of affairs in the US over immigration.
Took a Break from Working
I took the aforementioned break to get a second wind in me, and ended up reading about the results of the protest in LA. One of my favorite comments posted follows [typos included]:
Lee451 2007-05-03 02:01:44 PM
I love how some of the posters in this thread are bending over backwards to make the poor, unloved Mexicans seem like the victims here. I would like to think that every American who is if pro-(illegal)immigration will sponser a taco-twisting family and be held responsible for what the aforementioned Mexicans do. Let these illegal aliens into your home, let them share a room with your kids, if they are so fun-loving, nice and harmless. They have absolutely no respect for American culture, laws or language. I agree with the sentiments that we should round up the Frito Banditos and ship them back.
I would gladly pay more for fruit and vegetables if it will rid the streets of MS-13 (another fine group of "future citizens"), return our street and store signs to something most Americans can read and stop 40 people from living in a single-family residence.
There is another crime wave breaking upon our shores and it is gibbering Spanish.
While I partially understand the general reaction to groups such as MS-13, the rest of the post is so blatantly racist that it would be a waste of time to address it - in a debate at least. What actually bothers me, though, is the frequency with which these anti-immigrant/mexican/mexican hertiage kinds of messages appear.
Now, before the debate even starts, I am tired of hearing the old line of "I'm not against mexicans, I'm against ILLEGAL immigration" or "Why are you making this a race issue?" Because it is a race issue. When I hear of a proposed wall along the canadian border or "those damned irish taking our jobs" I'll reevaluate the situation. Currently, the two are very overtly tied together.
Even taking into account the source of the post, it is not as if these sorts of comments are uncommon. When I see notes from hate groups - such as the National Alliance or Westbourough Baptist Church - I have to actively seek out the material. It's not as if I can walk down the block and find "God Loves IEDs" or whatever filth they're spewing this week. This isn't the case with anti-immigrant/mexican rhetoric. Perhaps this is because I'm a little sensitive to the message and more aware of it. But in any case, this kind of message is appearing more often and the more I see it, the more I can't help but assume that this is a part of the Anglo psyche in the United States.
It is a bad time to be brown in the United States. This may come off as an obvious point, but I feel it bears repeating.
A good number of my white friends don't understand it. When it comes to the immigration debate, most assume that there will be an issue when I'm involved before asking my beliefs on the situation because I'm Mexican, thus my stances are obvious, even though this isn't a "race issue."
You see where I'm going with this.
Again, as an aside, I'm neither pro- nor anti-immigrant. I'm anti-border. I'm pro-human rights. I align myself with pro-immigrant folks because they tend to understand the overall picture a bit better and are generally more concerned with human beings than arbitrary lines. We are all going to be different in multiple ways, that's how life goes. Lines only confound the matter. The planet didn't create lines, what gives people the authority to do so?
But I digress. What I'm worried about here is the prevalence of the anti-mexican(immigrant if you're worried about being called a racist) sentiment in the United States. And it is. From every friend who doesn't ask but somehow knows my opinions to every internet troll who wants to round me up with the other "Frito Banditos," the sentiment, implied or overt, is the same.
There's also the discussion of the rise in racial tension, as if it's any surprise as to why that is. I do not believe, for a second, that my status as a citizen of the United States protects me in any way from this treatment. Because it doesn't. This is not, nor ever has been, an issue of immigration. Of too many citizens in a country. Or of economic hardship. If you want to address the issue of why there aren't enough jobs in this country, stop asking the people trying to work and question the people who control the jobs.
Instead, folks in the U.S turn towards Mexicans, and use the civil rights movement of the 60s to defend themselves. Switch wording. They decry the prevalence of Spanish in the United States, but not of say Italian or French. They attack ILLEGAL immigration and try to build a wall before Mexico to solve the problem. They state that the problem with immigrants is their adherence to previous cultural values, instead of becoming "American."
Because having a quinceañera means the terrorists win, or something to that effect.
And of course, once this happens, the world will be sunshine and red, white, and blue rainbows. The job issue will be solved and..
Spare me.
It is a bad time to be brown in this country. What matters is how we take it.
-- Roberto Reyes
Please take a moment to read Roberto's thoughts as he reflects on the state of affairs in the US over immigration.
Took a Break from Working
I took the aforementioned break to get a second wind in me, and ended up reading about the results of the protest in LA. One of my favorite comments posted follows [typos included]:
Lee451 2007-05-03 02:01:44 PM
I love how some of the posters in this thread are bending over backwards to make the poor, unloved Mexicans seem like the victims here. I would like to think that every American who is if pro-(illegal)immigration will sponser a taco-twisting family and be held responsible for what the aforementioned Mexicans do. Let these illegal aliens into your home, let them share a room with your kids, if they are so fun-loving, nice and harmless. They have absolutely no respect for American culture, laws or language. I agree with the sentiments that we should round up the Frito Banditos and ship them back.
I would gladly pay more for fruit and vegetables if it will rid the streets of MS-13 (another fine group of "future citizens"), return our street and store signs to something most Americans can read and stop 40 people from living in a single-family residence.
There is another crime wave breaking upon our shores and it is gibbering Spanish.
While I partially understand the general reaction to groups such as MS-13, the rest of the post is so blatantly racist that it would be a waste of time to address it - in a debate at least. What actually bothers me, though, is the frequency with which these anti-immigrant/mexican/mexican hertiage kinds of messages appear.
Now, before the debate even starts, I am tired of hearing the old line of "I'm not against mexicans, I'm against ILLEGAL immigration" or "Why are you making this a race issue?" Because it is a race issue. When I hear of a proposed wall along the canadian border or "those damned irish taking our jobs" I'll reevaluate the situation. Currently, the two are very overtly tied together.
Even taking into account the source of the post, it is not as if these sorts of comments are uncommon. When I see notes from hate groups - such as the National Alliance or Westbourough Baptist Church - I have to actively seek out the material. It's not as if I can walk down the block and find "God Loves IEDs" or whatever filth they're spewing this week. This isn't the case with anti-immigrant/mexican rhetoric. Perhaps this is because I'm a little sensitive to the message and more aware of it. But in any case, this kind of message is appearing more often and the more I see it, the more I can't help but assume that this is a part of the Anglo psyche in the United States.
It is a bad time to be brown in the United States. This may come off as an obvious point, but I feel it bears repeating.
A good number of my white friends don't understand it. When it comes to the immigration debate, most assume that there will be an issue when I'm involved before asking my beliefs on the situation because I'm Mexican, thus my stances are obvious, even though this isn't a "race issue."
You see where I'm going with this.
Again, as an aside, I'm neither pro- nor anti-immigrant. I'm anti-border. I'm pro-human rights. I align myself with pro-immigrant folks because they tend to understand the overall picture a bit better and are generally more concerned with human beings than arbitrary lines. We are all going to be different in multiple ways, that's how life goes. Lines only confound the matter. The planet didn't create lines, what gives people the authority to do so?
But I digress. What I'm worried about here is the prevalence of the anti-mexican(immigrant if you're worried about being called a racist) sentiment in the United States. And it is. From every friend who doesn't ask but somehow knows my opinions to every internet troll who wants to round me up with the other "Frito Banditos," the sentiment, implied or overt, is the same.
There's also the discussion of the rise in racial tension, as if it's any surprise as to why that is. I do not believe, for a second, that my status as a citizen of the United States protects me in any way from this treatment. Because it doesn't. This is not, nor ever has been, an issue of immigration. Of too many citizens in a country. Or of economic hardship. If you want to address the issue of why there aren't enough jobs in this country, stop asking the people trying to work and question the people who control the jobs.
Instead, folks in the U.S turn towards Mexicans, and use the civil rights movement of the 60s to defend themselves. Switch wording. They decry the prevalence of Spanish in the United States, but not of say Italian or French. They attack ILLEGAL immigration and try to build a wall before Mexico to solve the problem. They state that the problem with immigrants is their adherence to previous cultural values, instead of becoming "American."
Because having a quinceañera means the terrorists win, or something to that effect.
And of course, once this happens, the world will be sunshine and red, white, and blue rainbows. The job issue will be solved and..
Spare me.
It is a bad time to be brown in this country. What matters is how we take it.
-- Roberto Reyes