I suggest that everyone looking for work also help keep these invaders out of our country, regardless of the job situation, don't you agree? 
Posted on 01/28/2006 5:20:37 PM PST by Sharks
Recently, near the close of a spirited community forum on black and Latino relations in South Los Angeles, a young black man in the audience stood up and proudly, even defiantly, shouted that he was a member of the Minuteman Project. This is the fringe group that has waged a noisy, gun-toting and headline-grabbing campaign to shut down the Mexican border to illegal immigrants.
GOP conservatives and immigration reformers denounce their borderline-racist rants. But the group's rhetoric didn't faze the young man, nor many other blacks in the audience who nodded in agreement as he launched into a finger-pointing tirade against illegal immigrants whom he claimed "steal jobs from blacks." He punctuated his tirade by loudly announcing that he had taken part in a Minuteman border patrol back in April.
Illegal immigration clearly touched a raw nerve with many blacks in the audience. Nationally, some blacks are unabashed in fingering illegal immigrants (mostly Mexicans, although many are from Canada, Europe and Asia) for the poverty and job dislocation in black communities.
Illegal immigration has also touched a national nerve. According to a Pew Research Center survey in November 2005, more than half of Americans believe that illegal immigration should be a top national policy priority.
The first big warning sign of black frustration with illegal immigration came during 1994's battle over Proposition 187 in California. Whites voted by large margins for the proposition, which denied public services to undocumented immigrants. But nearly fifty percent of blacks also backed the measure.
Republican governor Pete Wilson shamelessly pandered to anti-immigrant hysteria, and he rode it to a reelection victory. Wilson also got nearly 20 percent of the black vote that election (double what Republicans in California typically get from blacks).
Blacks have also given substantial support to anti-bilingual ballot measures in California.
Though there is furious dispute over the economic impact of the estimated 11 million illegal U.S. immigrants on the job market, there is no concrete evidence that employers hire Latinos -- and exclude blacks -- for low-end jobs solely because of their race.
The sea of state and federal anti-discrimination laws and labor code sections explicitly ban employment discrimination.
Despite a recent flurry of lawsuits by blacks against major employers for alleged racial favoritism toward Hispanic workers, companies vehemently deny that they shun blacks, maintaining that blacks just don't apply for these jobs.
These aren't just flimsy excuses for discrimination. Many blacks will no longer work the menial, low-skilled factory, restaurant, and custodial jobs that they filled in decades past. The pay is too low, the work too hard, and the indignities too great. On the other hand, blacks that seek these jobs are often given a quick brush-off by employers. The subtle message is that blacks won't be hired, even if they do apply.
An entire category of jobs at the bottom rung of American industry seems to have been marked "Latino only," further deepening suspicion and resentment among poor blacks that illegal immigration is to blame for their economic misery.
The anti-immigrant sentiment among blacks is not new. A century ago, immigration was a hot-button issue among black leaders. Marcus Garvey, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. DuBois railed against Eastern European immigrants that crowded Northern cities. They claimed the new immigrants elbowed blacks out of bottom-rung manufacturing jobs. At times, these leaders, otherwise progressive fighters for civil rights, sounded every bit as hard-line as America's most rabid anti-immigration foes in demanding that the federal government clamp down on immigration.
But then and now, illegal immigration isn't the prime reason that many poor young blacks are on the streets, and why some have turned to gangs, guns, and drug dealing to get ahead. A shrinking economy, failing public schools, savage government cuts to job-training programs, a soaring prison population, and employment discrimination are still the major reasons for the poverty and grim employment prospects in inner-city black neighborhoods.
Civil rights leaders and the Congressional Black Caucus have repeatedly condemned the thinly disguised, race-tinged appeals of the Minuteman Project, Save Our State, and the legions of other anti-immigration fringe groups that have cropped up in nearly every part of the country in recent months. Some openly pitch their anti-immigrant line to blacks.
As the immigration debate heats up in Congress and the states, and with so many young people unemployed (with prison cells staring them in the face), more blacks may find it hard to resist the temptation to join the shout to close down the border.
Most conservatives and immigration activists love the Minutemen.
First of all, the MMP takes great care to keep racists away from their ranks. .....and wisely so. The author has to resort to the "borderline-racist" card knowing full well that the MMP's statements and policies are expressly anti-racist.
Secondly, the GOPers who've been denouncing the MMP are no conservatives.
Good article, ignore the flamers. Guess multiculturalism isn't everything the Democrats promised it would be.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1566865/posts
A previous posting of this under a different title.
Tell me anything that any RAT has promised that is.
"There are too many lies and falsehoods in this article to even begin to address them all."
Having spent a few weeks in Mexico (very far off of the tourist trails), I assure you that I have nothing but the highest regards for the Mexicans that I met. I'd love to have many of them as neighbors.
And, as soon as they fill out the paperwork and wait for INS to process them, I'll welcome them to the neighborhood.
The problem is that we're so busy trying to cope w/ all of the illegals that we don't have a dignified, effient way of finding out who would make good neighbors, and who wouldn't.
I suggest that everyone looking for work also help keep these invaders out of our country, regardless of the job situation, don't you agree?
Working manual-labor jobs is not undigified. In fact, it's just as dignified as any other work if you show up regularly and work hard/responsibly.
.....a helluva lot more dignified that hanging out on street corners drinking malt liquor and collecting welfare checks. ....or resorting to a life of crime. Seems many confuse dignity with wearing tons of bling bling and rolling in pimped-out rides with hos on each arm.
A shrinking economy, failing public schools, savage government cuts to job-training programs, a soaring prison population, and employment discrimination are still the major reasons for the poverty and grim employment prospects in inner-city black neighborhoods.
So according to the author the reason "many poor young blacks are on the streets and have turned to gangs and drug dealing to get ahead" is not because of the breakdown of the black family but because of the usual -- "the white man's holding the black man down." Hutchinson and his blame-whitey-first brothers/sisters would do well to look in the mirror.
The illegal immigrant is taking jobs away from any person working in the labor industry,no matter what his or her color.There are a lot of companies that hire two or three illegal aliens and pay all three a combined wage equal to one American worker.I've talked to a few people in the construction industry who lost a job that paid between four and six hundred dollars a week because the company replaced them with illegal immigrants.
Wilson also got nearly 20 percent of the black vote that election (double what Republicans in California typically get from blacks).
Nary a word about the other Americans (of Hispanic descent) -- 25% of the "Latino" vote was for Wilson in 1994 and about 30% of the "Latino" vote was for Prop 187.
Arizona's Prop 200 got almost 50 percent of the vote of Americans of Hispanic origin.
Why do so many think that being against ILLEGAL immigration will alienate Americans of Latino origin? Go figure.
BTW, speaking of Gov. Wilson -- if he "destroyed" the California Republican Party by supporting Prop 187, why did he have his highest approval rating (55%) when he was termed out of office four years later?
Recently, near the close of a spirited community forum on black and Latino relations in South Los Angeles, a young black man in the audience stood up and proudly, even defiantly, shouted that he was a member of the Minuteman Project. This is the fringe group that has waged a noisy, gun-toting and headline-grabbing campaign to shut down the Mexican border to illegal immigrants.
GOP conservatives and immigration reformers denounce their borderline-racist rants.
Uh...no...only the OBL-morons and the current occupants of La Hacienda Blanco and their lickspittles "denounce" the Minutemen...the rest of America not only praises, but absolutely SUPPORTS them!
But thanks for trying, you left-wing pultroons!
He must be stealing his material from Morris Dees and the FROBLs.
Blah, blah, blah. If you don't agree with me on immigration policy, you're a racist. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
"An entire category of jobs at the bottom rung of American industry seems to have been marked "Latino only,"
True, and before long it wont just be "bottom rung" that's "Latino only".
Another thing, many here on FR have said for a long time that if the GOP would embrace true immigration reform, the net increase in voters would far outweigh any loss from the OBL.
"Wilson also got nearly 20 percent of the black vote that election (double what Republicans in California typically get from blacks)."
http://www.theterryandersonshow.com/
Enough said.
Well, almost the rest. We'll have to exclude the city of Laguna Beach which is now being sued by the Minutemen for excluding them from participation in the Laguna Beach Patriot's Day parade to be held on March 4. Of course Laguna Beach is pretty much a collection of left wing anti-war appeasers, liberals, environmental wackos, and artsy types, none of whom would lift a finger to defend the United States.
So now Blacks are racists?
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