The Immigration Debate and Accusations of Bigotry
Tags: illegal immigration, immigration, Bush, Linda Chavez, Hispanics, Latinos, Mexicans
Let me start this by stating clearly that I don’t like the Senate immigration bill, and that I am for enforcement/border security before any guest worker program comes into play. (Yes, I do think documenting non-citizens is a good idea, but the flow of illegals must be stopped.) OK? So I don’t want to hear any stupidity about “open borders” or any of that fallacious nonsense. It’s not an all-or-nothing situation. You don’t need to convince me that illegal immigration is bad; I agree. Are we clear?
Now then. There’s been a lot of screaming going on around the blogosphere and talk radio (or so I’ve read) about President Bush supposedly disparaging opponents of the immigration bill, and about Linda Chavez’ recent column (thanks to raz0r for the tip on that one). There’s been a whole lot of anger spewed by people whenever someone points out the fact that there ARE SOME elements on the pro-security/enforcement side who ARE bigots. I’m sorry, but there ARE. It’s those people who are starting to define our side, because their words are the loudest. It’s no wonder Linda Chavez writes things like:
Some people just don’t like Mexicans — or anyone else from south of the border. They think Latinos are freeloaders and welfare cheats who are too lazy to learn English. They think Latinos have too many babies, and that Latino kids will dumb down our schools. They think Latinos are dirty, diseased, indolent and more prone to criminal behavior. They think Latinos are just too different from us ever to become real Americans.
No amount of hard, empirical evidence to the contrary, and no amount of reasoned argument or appeals to decency and fairness, will convince this small group of Americans — fewer than 10 percent of the general population, at most — otherwise. Unfortunately, among this group is a fair number of Republican members of Congress, almost all influential conservative talk radio hosts, some cable news anchors — most prominently, Lou Dobbs — and a handful of public policy “experts” at organizations such as the Center for Immigration Studies, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, NumbersUSA, in addition to fringe groups like the Minuteman Project.
Nowhere does Chavez say that everyone opposed to illegal immigration is a racist; in fact, as you see, she quite specifically says the opposite. I personally disagree that everyone associated with those she named is a bigot, but they are there, and in far greater proportion than the rest of the population.
Her article, while shocking to some at face value (and containing some things with which I’d disagree), provides the perfect example of the angst surrounding the issue. It explains why President Bush says things like, “That’s empty political rhetoric, trying to frighten our citizens.” And why does it explain this? Well, if you haven’t seen some of the filth spewed in various blogs’ comments, here’s an example–from the comments at Linda Chavez’ article itself. One commenter took a sample:
Real American writes: Wednesday, May, 30, 2007 2:57 PM
LOOK! WE’RE NOT RACISTS! HONEST!
Hey everybody, look! you can see we’re not racists! honest! just look at our comments thus far on this thread as proof that we’re not racists:
“The fact is, 95% of latinos are pigs.”
“They can be referred to as: Human Locusts”
“your correct i believe only 92 % are pigs.”
“one question, do you do windows?”
“why is the country of Mexico such a toilet?”
“Doesn’t matter if they are rich or poor. They spit continually, throw their paper and trash anywhere and everywhere, don’t care about other peoples rights. Most latinos are thieves and are corrupt”
“I take Ms Chavez is of latino culture, does anyone one know if she is in america legally? The way she words her column would make one think not.”
“get over the fact many of us will stop such as you and the racists like Linda Chavez from making America like the hell hole the Mexicans wallow in”
“Quickly, the fact is that we’re being invaded by an inferior culture. Every person of low quality we import plants a family-tree that bears low-quality fruit. The rotten fruit of that tree will rot our own fruit.”
“The Mexicans getting dumped on us are the worst of a corrupt, dysfunctional nation; they’re thieves and criminals the second that they cross our borders.
“Every Mexican who comes here makes America worse, and this article is proof of it.”
“How dare you call us racists when ILLEGAL ALIENS move 20 or 30 into a single family home next door to us and lower our property values. ”
“If Linda thinks Mexicans are so great, then why doesn’t she move to Mexico? ”
“DO have too many babies (paid for OTHER PEOPLES MONEY). DO bring in disease ( T.B. anyone????). ARE PRONE TO CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR,(look at the outstanding warrants in L.A. and Ca. prison population, MS13 gangs..). DO dumb down our schools, CHECK THE STATS, (2nd and 3rd generation aren’t even advancing).”
“most Mexicans, especially men, are lazy good for nothing drunks who only care about sacking as many mujeres that they can.”
That’s the kind of “Latino fear and loathing” she’s talking about. It makes me ashamed to be on the same side of the immigration issue as they are. In fact, it makes me question my own position. I’m not known for being particularly open to changing my mind about anything, either. At the very least, you may have noticed that I have a whole lot less to say about the issue than many (most?) other conservative bloggers because I do not want my motives questioned, and especially because I do NOT want to invite the anti-Latino bigots to comment here. I’ve said it before–that kind of crap is off-limits here.
I keep hearing people throw around statistics about how many Americans want this or that regarding illegal immigration. OK, fine. I just can’t help but think if I–a blogger who doesn’t usually hold back what I think and who is firm in my opinions–won’t be bothered to advocate for immigration reform, neither will all those x percent of Americans who also want immigration reform. You wonder why Mitch McConnell thinks nobody will lose their seats over this? I hate to break it to the world, but bloggers and blog readers do not make up the bulk of the voting population. If the loud-mouthed bigots have completely turned me off the issue, I’m certain they’ve turned many, if not most, others off of it.
Why aren’t people screaming as loudly about things like expired visas from other countries? (Fort Dix Six? 9/11 hijackers?) Why are so few talking about the ease with which people who aren’t looking for work can travel from Canada? Is this really about national security, or is it about our “cultural identity,” as some say? (I wonder, what is our “cultural identity?” Are the “cultural identity” people going to tell the 30 percent of non-European-white American citizens that they aren’t really Americans?)
Wouldn’t you rather have people who aren’t tossing out filth (like the comments above from Townhall, not to mention quite a few other blogs) making the argument for immigration reform? Yes? Then please, shut these clowns up. They are NOT helping.
UPDATE: Added link to Hot Air in the second paragraph.
Rob Taylor says:
I agree with you about the overblown reaction, but I do think she’s trying to claim I’m a racist, for example, because of my concerns about Latino hate crimes against Blacks in L.A. and other big cities. She’s broad brushing a whole group of people and covering herself by say “it’s only 10%”. The southern poverty law center released a report detailing what they call ethnic cleansing of Blacks by Latino gangs. I’m Bi-racial and most of my family is Black, and I got the impression that she was lumping people with my concerns, or any concerns, in with Lou Dobbs and “Cable News hosts.”
Linda Chavez: Racist : “7.62mm Justice” ™ says:
[...] Beth at MVRWC [...]
MCPO Airdale says:
Mira chica, no soy un bigot. Treye este mierda por tu amigas.
michael andreyakovich says:
My only statement on the case is this: The current administration’s support for this bill will neither help close the book on illegal immigration nor endear the Hispanic vote to the Republican party - the Dems have that demographic locked up tighter than Nancy Pelosi’s last facelift, with the exception of those Hispanics who came into the country legally…and who will be deserting us in large numbers after this controversy has died down. Legalizing 12 million Hispanics will only give the Democrats a massive voting bloc.
One wonders if W has ever heard of the concept of ‘idiot compassion.’
JunkYardBlog says:
“Quit Lying About My Record!”…
Somehow this meeting of the Wall Street Journal editorial board makes me even angrier than President Bush’s casual dismissal of opponents of the new immigration bill as not “wanting what’s best for America”. Like Linda Chavez, they go whole hog……
Steven says:
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
That was the most well thought out, intelligent words about this entire issue I have read in a while. Thank you to this website, to Beth, and to Linda Chavez.
Linda Chavez is one of the smartest woman in this country. That is a fact.
Steven says:
meant to say Linda Chavez is one of the smartest womEn!
She is a genius as far as I’m concerned.
Joe says:
Actually, if they don’t let these Latinos in, who’s going to fight all these wars against terrorism in the future? With the birth rates of Whites, Blacks and other groups in relative decline, some other ethnic group will have to step up to the plate to fight the terrorists. While certain people may not like Latinos, they should remember that they are fighting and dying for America in Iraq. Just look at the CNN casualty list website for Iraq.
While much of Western civilization is experiencing stagnant population growth (as the Islamic population worldwide surges), Latin America continues to be one of the few regions of the West with consistent population growth. While illegal Latino immigrants with large families may not be what everyone wants, at least it helps to provide the fresh recruits needed for the armed forces. Like it or not, these people will be needed.
The Anchoress says:
Good post, Beth. I’m trying to find a way to write sensibly about all of this and will link when and if I ever get coherent. Those quotes out of Townhall are pretty awful, but I still want to believe they are a minority opinion. My email, however, does demonstrate to me that - for SOME - bigotry is a factor, whether they’ll admit it or not. I mean, when my email is reading, “hey, Mexecali Rosita why don’t you go like in Mexico and let your 14 children run out into the streets to sell chiclets” or something along those lines, you know some people are pretty much on Neptune about this issue. Good work.
Scott Allan says:
I’m with you Beth. Nice to see another conservative blogger taking a practical approach to this problem. This is one of the very few issues where many conservative bloggers are acting like whiny liberals complaining about the solution without coming up with a realistic solution of their own. So far the only solution I’ve heard from them is to punish employers and landlords until you starve them out and they self-deport. That isn’t much of a solution. It also doesn’t make sense to only secure the southern border unless of course only care about latin immigrants and not terrorists.
The Anchoress says:
It also doesn’t make sense to only secure the southern border unless of course only care about latin immigrants and not terrorists.
I made that point on my blog once and was told, “but they’re not coming in from Canada!”
To which I replied, “They will! And the one we caught on the eve of the millenium came in from Canada.”
At which point I just got called names! :plugears: :plugears:
michael andreyakovich says:
Dear Beth and Anchoress: I understand your position entirely. I too hope these racist pricks are the minority over here… just as I hope that the kind of people who go to Mexico-vs-USA soccer matches and chant “OSAMA! OSAMA!” are the minority in Mexico. I think that, for a lot of people here, THAT is the only image of Mexico that has stuck in their minds: a bunch of bad sports, hooligans on a level that makes the average English chav-on-the-street seem a mere piker.