The Takeover

Okay:

I'm on vacation this week so I may be posting a little later than usual. Hope you don't mind, but sleeping in is one of my favorite past times.

Anywho. Bill Richardson just endorsed my man Barack, which should deliver a lot of Hispanic votes. Apparently, Barack is pretty weak with the Hispanics. Which brings me to the topic of this blog.

Hispanics.

I saw a cute little Latina at the mall the other day wearing a t-shirt that said HIS-PANIC! You get it?

Certainly one of the biggest stories in the news as of late has been the surge of immigrants from our southern border. You can hear the white trash collectively screaming, "They're takin' all the jobs and they don't even speak American."

Black people, however, seem to be primarily concerned with losing their position as the largest minority group in the country. "They're takin' over," we say. Apparently, it's something like if your parents have a new baby and stop paying attention to you.

The only people who aren't worried about immigration are wealthy white people. For them, it works out just fine. A cheap labor force, more tax dollars, more votes. What's to complain about? And since they control everything, expect border policies and immigration laws to become even more lax.

And, if you're smart, learn Spanish.

My father used to balk at the thought of learning a new language. When we would cross paths with Latinos in malls or grocery stores, he seemed annoyed when they spoke Spanish in public. "You can't understand what they're saying," he'd say. "It's rude."

"But they're not talking to you, Dad. What difference does it make?"

"I don't think they're saying anything at all. It's just a bunch of gibberish. Listen to how fast they talk. They ain't sayin' nothin'. Can't nobody understand that. They're messing with us."


I personally don't see anything wrong with it. A lot of these people come from the kind of impoverished conditions you and I have only seen in movies. America is a beacon of hope to them. If they plan to be hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens, why should they be denied entrance?

Of course, you can't argue that point of view without acknowledging that America does seem to have an aversion to darker-skinned immigrants. Within a few generations, like the Irish and the Germans, these Latinos will be barely distinguishable from the white majority. Haitians, for example, would have a harder time blending in.

But as objective as I try to be, I must cop to my own prejudices. Just the other night I was at the grocery store buying some wine. Or trying to buy some wine. I was in line behind a Latin family. There were two men, one woman and two babies. They had at least a dozen WIC vouchers and what looked like sixty dollars worth of baby food: formula, juice, cereal, etc.

From what I could tell, none of the three spoke any English. And none of them understood exactly how WIC works. They kept having to call the manager and run back to the aisle for different products. All-told, they held up the line for thirty minutes.

I found myself thinking, "Learn to speak English, why don't you. I bet you're not even citizens. You shouldn't even have those vouchers. Matter of fact, you probably hustled those off somebody and now I'm missing my goddamn Law & Order marathon. And why are you all smiling so hard? And why do you all have gold caps? And why are you all exactly 5'4" tall?"

Of course, I didn't say any of those things. I just thought them, then immediately felt guilty. Then I began wondering, "What kind of racist thoughts does the average tolerant American have when in stressful situations such as these?"

Do you have racist thoughts sometimes?

Share them with me. I promise I won't tell anyone.


Thanks for reading.

GOBAMA!

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http://www.blackbroadway-online.com

Factoid: Did you know that in LA the Latin gangs outnumber the black gangs? Apparently they're having an all out street/race war.