http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/2349 A Rare Bird, A Strange Duck, One Funky Blog Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:12:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/2349#comment-10300 Lightwave Fri, 26 May 2006 12:49:54 +0000 http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/2349#comment-10300 I can't buy off on Peter's assessment that "Mexican Immagrants [...] form violent gangs." I think you will find that this is true of every race. Indeed, race tends not to be the determining factor for all the ills we like to attribute to a minority. Instead, it is usually poverty or as I like to say, the socio-economic situation. Pick out a group of WASPs in the same socio-economic situation, and I'll show you a group with a comparable incidence of violence, gang activity, poor education, etc. By the way, this classification works both ways. When leaders of just about any minority group claim that a piece of legislation hurts their minority group, the situation is (almost always) that the legislation impacts most the socio-economic class that, as it so happens, most of the folks they represent occupy. The bottom line: it's not about race, its about class. I can't say I blame the leaders of those communities. There have been so many injustices based on race, that its far easier to cast something as a race issue. Frankly, its hard to get people fired up about class inequities.
Pick out a group of WASPs in the same socio-economic situation, and I'll show you a group with a comparable incidence of violence, gang activity, poor education, etc.

By the way, this classification works both ways. When leaders of just about any minority group claim that a piece of legislation hurts their minority group, the situation is (almost always) that the legislation impacts most the socio-economic class that, as it so happens, most of the folks they represent occupy. The bottom line: it's not about race, its about class.

I can't say I blame the leaders of those communities. There have been so many injustices based on race, that its far easier to cast something as a race issue. Frankly, its hard to get people fired up about class inequities.]]> http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/2349#comment-10192 Musings from a Catholic Bookstore » Blog Archive » Dunk Father in the Tank - It’s Catholic Carnival Time Tue, 23 May 2006 18:57:26 +0000 http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/2349#comment-10192 [...] And for those interested in immigration we have some thoughts on Coming to America from Ales Rarus. [...] http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/2349#comment-10172 advogado de diabo Tue, 23 May 2006 02:14:15 +0000 http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/2349#comment-10172 I'm not sure how any proposed legislation on guest worker status is worded, but according to the 14th amendment, anyone born in the US is a citizen. In Germany many of the 2nd and 3rd generation Turks do not have full citizenship, which is part of the reason they are an underclass. If the children of American guest workers are citizens, then they will not have the same disadvantages as the Turks in Germany. I think we desperately need the guest worker program. The status quo is inhumane.
I think we desperately need the guest worker program. The status quo is inhumane.]]> http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/2349#comment-10103 Peter Sun, 21 May 2006 01:37:32 +0000 http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/2349#comment-10103 Another thing Mexican immigrants do that mirrors what the Irish did in the 19th century is form violent gangs. Law enforcement where I live (central California) is practically drowning in Mexican gang activity. In fact, I've read law enforcement statistics showing that 20% of the population in my very own city are affiliated with one of these gangs (and some people who claim to be in the know have told me that it's actually higher, though I'm skeptical). Local schools are daily confiscating paraphernalia that includes known gang signs and symbols, even from kids in early grades. In some neighborhoods, when a gang-related murder is committed, neighbors refuse to speak to police for fear of retribution. In Fresno, the police have actually gotten injunctions against gangs, such that known members who are seen together in public can be arrested. These gangs are an alternative route to assimilation into American culture, because they are their own culture. Furthermore, many of the gang members have appropriated the idea that the western United States needs to be re-conquered and taken back for some mythical native race (which, so far as I've read, is poorly, if not wholly spuriously, defined), so they believe themselves rightfully outside the law. It's a bizarre situation. So for a lot of people where I live, when you talk about "Mexican immigrants," they're thinking "criminal gangsters who commit violent crimes regularly, believe themselves beyond the law, and raise their children accordingly." It's not just about laborers and people who don't speak English, although we have lots of those, too. On Sunday afternoons I often take walks in a local park and am the only white person there — all the other people are Mexican immigrants speaking Spanish and playing with their kids. Those people don't bother me a bit; I'm glad they're here and I'm sure they're going to follow the three-generation track just fine.
Local schools are daily confiscating paraphernalia that includes known gang signs and symbols, even from kids in early grades. In some neighborhoods, when a gang-related murder is committed, neighbors refuse to speak to police for fear of retribution. In Fresno, the police have actually gotten injunctions against gangs, such that known members who are seen together in public can be arrested.

These gangs are an alternative route to assimilation into American culture, because they are their own culture. Furthermore, many of the gang members have appropriated the idea that the western United States needs to be re-conquered and taken back for some mythical native race (which, so far as I've read, is poorly, if not wholly spuriously, defined), so they believe themselves rightfully outside the law. It's a bizarre situation.

So for a lot of people where I live, when you talk about "Mexican immigrants," they're thinking "criminal gangsters who commit violent crimes regularly, believe themselves beyond the law, and raise their children accordingly." It's not just about laborers and people who don't speak English, although we have lots of those, too. On Sunday afternoons I often take walks in a local park and am the only white person there — all the other people are Mexican immigrants speaking Spanish and playing with their kids. Those people don't bother me a bit; I'm glad they're here and I'm sure they're going to follow the three-generation track just fine.]]> http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/2349#comment-10101 Jerry Sun, 21 May 2006 00:15:49 +0000 http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/2349#comment-10101 Athrakeus, there is a sizable number of Mexican wprlers, who in contrast to other immigrants, are merely coming here for the work. They will often go back home for part of the year. This sometimes means that their children spend a few months in an American school system, only to get yanked and spend the rest of the year in limbo. It's a nice way to create an underclass, since their children don't get jack in terms of a stable family or education. Since these workers send huge amounts of American dollars to their hometowns (often in excess of the local governments' budgets), Senor Fox has very little reason to do anything about this whilst he cracks down on illegal immigrants to Mexico (yep, you read that right. Many are just using Mexico as a way station to the USA). I am pro-immigrant, and don't want to sound xenophobic about this peculiar working-class, but Mexicans workers are often migrants rather than immigrants proper. They do not necessarily intend to stay here, like the German Turks, let alone become "Yanquis", like the traditional American immigrant. We need to apply a different model to this problem.
I am pro-immigrant, and don't want to sound xenophobic about this peculiar working-class, but Mexicans workers are often migrants rather than immigrants proper. They do not necessarily intend to stay here, like the German Turks, let alone become "Yanquis", like the traditional American immigrant. We need to apply a different model to this problem.]]>