Ethnic tension in this Ariz. border town is driving me insane.

My wife and I have lived in Yuma, Ariz. for five years now and while we could have probably purchased a home before now, we have lived those five years in fairly low cost ethnicly-mixed apartment complexes and trailer parks. There has always been a bit of racist tension we have picked up on over the past five years but it really has seemed to crescendo over the past few months. Today alone, (Christmas Ever mind you) I have been confronted with so much of what I can only classify has hate speech by anglos towards Hispanics that I am seething with rage. People I liked. Liked past tense. I am sorry. I am done understanding hate. It's fucking Christmas Eve.



I am a 29 year old monolingual white male - so I am supposed to hate the illegals, the damned dirty mexicans, the mexican whores who come over here to just have their babies and collect WIC and foodstamps, the Wal-Mart worker who can't speak English even though they wear the blue shmock that says "How can I help you?" (this is a big one lately... the big issue, filling up the opinion page with rants and hate and such - and these people, the hate-filled anglos seethe with anger when they talk about it... they are personally offended. It is a personal affront to them).

Today - Christmas Eve, mind you - at work (I work as an insurance agent in a telemarketing place)there was many anti-immigrant, anti-Mexican conversations between the anglo agents even though the bilingual (more highly skilled) agents were near by. They pretend not to hear, but I am sure they hear and they have learned to ignore it. I argue til my face turns red with anger and I need to stop because it is a losing battle, they (the anglos) refuse to listen to me. I get home and my wife is all upset because she was over at our neighbors exchanging presents and our neighbor (an Okie in her upper-fifties) informed my wife that she has decided that "she hates all Mexicans." She told my wife that she always hated some of them but now she hates them all because... she was at Wal-Mart yesterday and she went up to a worker to ask a question and the worker responded "Pardon, no habla ingles." OH MY GOD!!!!! OF ALL THE INJUSTICES!!!!! HOW DARE YOU COME TO MY COUNTRY AND SPEAK A LANGUAGE OTHER THAN MY NATIVE TOUNGUE. Get this, my neighbor tells my wife that she started yelling at this poor girl about how if she wants to work in this country she needs to learn the language, etc. etc.
When I heard this I got so mad I want to go over there and re-exchange presents. I mean, Jesus. Today, also at work this guy I thought I liked and I thought was tolerant declared that "if they declared open season on illegals, that'd be reason enough for him to become a hunter." I was about ready to report him to management to file a complaint but there was no member of managment there today. just a few supervisors.

If the situation keeps getting worse like this, the ethnic tension will be unbearable (and doesn't it take two sides to be tension? just think what will happen in the anglo community if the hispanic-mexican community starts standing up for themselves. It will get ugly. It just tears me apart.

Feliz Navidad, gringos estupido.

hate crimes yet?

and most of that garbage is in the extreme southern part of the state where the Tejanos moved in and built their ranches. Up here, Anglos are a minority, and it's just fine with me. I just don't have that particular prejudice. My neighbors are all Hispano, Asian, black, and a few other Gringos of various flavors are scattered around. It's also statistically the safest area of the city, even though people still call it The War Zone.

Funny, my neighborhood in Boston was much the same, a mix among Irish, black and Puerto Rican with a few other ethnicities thrown in for good measure and maximum confusion. Suburbanites used to roll up their windows and lock the doors if they had to drive through it. Statistically, IT was the safest part of the city, too.

The highest crime areas of this city are the mixed upper end housing and upper end condos and apartments. That's where the Repugs with teenagers live.

You are not responsible for redneck ignorance. Make you own friends and enjoy them. Be civil to assholes and avoid them as much as possible.

It's the only way to stay sane when you're living among racists. I know, I used to live in NC.

I have a good friend who lives in a small town in the middle of Kansas and the same thing is happening there. She sends me some of the most racist emails. I don't think she believes them, but it is her way of asking for a counter argument.

I don't know what to tell her - or you. I live in a big city and teach in a neighborhood full of Hispanics. They have been a huge asset. Their kids are wonderful, more likely to come from 2 parent homes and the parents support the school to the hilt. They never complain and try to keep a low profile; I would imagine this is because many are illegal, but I have no way of knowing for sure.

They have also cleaned up the neighborhood. They take good care of their property and seem to love to rehab older houses.

So I see them as an asset instead of a liability.

I also don't blame them for coming here. I was talking to my neighbor just yesterday about this. He just got back from a vacation in Mexico and was stunned by how poor many of the people were. We agreed that if we lived in the conditions many of the Mexicans do we would also risk anything to come to the USA to give our families a better standard of living.

This is the problem of the problem of race relations. The real question should be where did we really come from, some other part of the world or the same place way back when. Our DNA says the ladder!

People who come here from other parts of the world also have their prejudices, it is not a one-way street. It comes down to how we deal with our prejudices, positively or in a negative fashion. A lot of the negative connotations can be dealt with by learning other cultures on their concerns, wants and needs. On liberal radio today, the host of the show was going on about how bin Laden's niece was able to pose with very little clothing because she lived in this country and she did not have to conform to the "religious nuts", having to wear a br-aka (sp?) all the time. In many ways this true, but the real reason for that attire was the climate of the Middle East and surrounding area. In todays modern world this seems a bit much but it has been incorporated into the prevailing religions of the area. There are reasons for what people do. One can read about this in Joseph Campbell's "Power of Myth".

Unfortunately for Mexico, the country was left in the dust. They have their own culture problems in the southern area. The country also has on-going economic problems. There are the few super-rich, and the many dirt poor and fortunately a growing middle class. NAFTA was suppose to help Mexico and in some ways it did help, in other ways it has been a hindrance. With the growth of new political parties the Mexico will be improving.

As a side note: Not all people coming from South of the Boarder who speak spanish are from Mexico. Those countries also have economic problem directly related to policies of the United States.

Many are not from Mexico. We have quite a few families from Guatemala and Costa Rica and Honduras.

and have told us how poor many people in Mexico are. Our local public school has an ESL program, so there are many children from Mexico there. I've noticed that their parents tend to be more interested, and more involved in what is happening in the school, compared to the other parents. (That makes sense to me, since they probably came here to give their children better opportunities.) The school has accomodated them with several staff members who speak Spanish, so that they can participate fully while they adapt to their new setting. It's not at all easy for new immigrants to establish themselves here. I think that many people just don't realise how tough it is for them.

None of it makes any sense to me. I am sorry you are feeling the tension, like things aren't bad enough? Keep on being yourself and perhaps you can influence some people.

Feliz Navidad mi amigo! (I think that is correct, ;))

Merry Ho Ho!!

:hi:

:toast:

:yourock:

Opening my Christmas cards was a trial this year, as many of my family members worked something about the war on Christmas into their damned holiday newsletters. I hate to see people I care about falling for such divisive BS. It makes me wonder what's in store for the years ahead.

I think the Bushies are looking for a scapegoat demographic that they can incarcerate in labor camps. Making illegal immigrants stateless takes away any remaining rights they might have had. Having those prison labor camps also makes it easy to throw anyone who is Arab looking in them as well.

It's only a supposition on my part, but there is a reason that the flames of this racial bigotry are being fanned now. I think the undocumented workers are in a place now that the Jews were in Nazi Germany.

is already bad and will only get worse. O'LOOFAH and MALKIN have been flogging it for a couple of years. The rest of the bandwagon---TANCREDO, the White Supremacists, the Minutemen (substituting for the Swiftbots) and the rest---will be shouting their fool heads off more and more. They won't stop until they militarize the border and fence it.

What we've got to stay clear on is to separate out the MIXED issues the wingnuts are pushing. They claim to be interested ONLY in illegal immigration and national security---but why is it that their numbers are swollen with Nazi and Confederate flags. We have to stay CLEAR: As with Choice (we are for CHOICE, NOT abortion), we are NOT for illegal immigration and we ARE for national security, but we are also FOR social justice, humane treatment, and civil rights.

The Minutemen tried to act like they were EQUAL with the north and south borders and sent THREE Minutemen to Vermont, where the good people of Vermont ushered them out of town with the slogan, "Take your hate out of our state." The Minutemen bozos got LOST in the woods, couldn't find the border, and actually CROSSED it, becoming illegal aliens themselves.