I support better control of our borders and stronger immigration laws, but I can't support racism.
Posted on 07/16/2005 2:26:29 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
It started with the spray-painted, misspelled "Rapest" on the house of a Hispanic man accused of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old white girl. Then the house went up in flames in a suspected arson. Confrontations, name-calling and threats against Hispanics followed. Men roamed the streets wearing pillowcases with eye holes, and Ku Klux Klansmen in hoods and robes showed up to pass out pamphlets. There were rumors of assaults and beatings.
Now this small Ohio river city's booming Hispanic population is cowed, the streets in their neighborhoods nearly deserted.
Outside the office of the Living Water Ministry, which two months ago drew hundreds of people to its first Cinco de Mayo festival, there is still a smell of charred wood from the June 21 fire that gutted the house next door and caused damage to the outside of the ministry's office.
"Before, the street would be covered with people, people out all over the place," said Sasha Amen, community outreach coordinator for Living Water. "There's a lot of fear now. People are shutting themselves in their homes."
Hamilton has been a hotbed for Hispanic growth in a state that has lagged behind much of the nation in Hispanic population. The number of Hispanics here jumped fivefold in the 1990s, to 1,566, and is now estimated at 4,000 or more in a city of some 61,000.
For the most part, the immigrants had settled in without much controversy in Hamilton, whose mayor in the 1990s was of Cuban descent. But life here was transformed on June 19, when a 9-year-old Caucasian girl was raped, allegedly by a Hispanic man who has apparently fled the city.
"Yes, there is fear," said Ramona Ramirez, who owns a corner deli-supermarket where she says business is off and her bread delivery man is now afraid to come. "They are attacking all the Hispanics, and it is only one person. We don't know what will happen."
Lupe Galvan, a Mexican-born woman who has been here five years, said some neighbors are talking about moving away.
City and community leaders are trying to heal the wounds, beefing up patrols and trying to calm the community, Mayor Don Ryan said Friday. Ryan said authorities are stressing that the rape was "strictly a random act of violence" and not racially motivated.
"We're continuing to be a melting pot in this country," he said. "Assimilating into our culture is tough; I firmly believe that it will take time."
While the anti-Hispanic backlash has stunned many of the immigrants, some say they've felt racial prejudice here before. The Rev. Eustaquio Recalde, a native of Paraguay, says he was often harassed and ridiculed while working a factory job as the lone Hispanic employee.
"I think it's been around," Recalde said. "This was an opportunity for a few people to express it."
Ezra Escudero, executive director of the Ohio Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs in Columbus, says Hamilton is not alone in feeling tension in a state where the Hispanic population has doubled to nearly 280,000 since 1990.
"The challenge for the community is whether the tragedy will bring out the best or the worst in people," he said.
Shelly Jarrett Bromberg, an assistant professor of Spanish and Latin American studies at Miami University in Oxford, has helped organize two community forums since the fire. She called the Hamilton unrest an important moment for local Hispanics, churches, police and public officials.
"I think everyone realizes that we need to have a dialogue ... to make the community feel safe and feel that they have a voice," Bromberg said. "I think there are a lot of people who want to make this work out."
"...Now this small Ohio river city's booming Hispanic population is cowed, the streets in their neighborhoods nearly deserted."
Sounds like it's working to me
There is no evidence that this vandalism was racially motivated. Next,
Then the house went up in flames in a suspected arson.
The morality of vigilanteism notwithstanding, again, no evidence of racism. But then,
Confrontations, name-calling and threats against Hispanics followed.
Okay, now what happened to get to that point? I don't mean to sound insensitive to racism, and it is certainly possible that there are a bunch of ignorant stupid racists using this as an opportunity to target all "Hispanics", but how did it get to this? I'm just suspicious. I would think the ENTIRE community, including the Hispanic members of the community, should have been outraged and angry over the rape of a child.
I think it is very interesting that it is assumed that the vandal and the arsonist were white, and not outraged Hispanics. Did the Hispanic community in any way try to defend the perpetrator? Hide him? Assist him in getting out of town?
At first the outrage was NOT racially motivated, as the evidence clearly shows. The vigilante acts were directed against the perpetrator, and not any particular racial group. What made the attitudes change to the point that the whole community is antagonistic towards Hispanics as a group, and not just this one perpetrator?
Rape spurs anger.....wow can you imagine that? (sarcasm)
As long as the anger is focused upon the guilty I'm not concerned.
An anti-hispanic backlash in general is dangerous. The skin head types among the population will never see us coming because they can't tell us from themselves.
I'm not hispanic but my children and family are. Like I said, those who hate won't see us coming.
I support better control of our borders and stronger immigration laws, but I can't support racism.
Excellent points!
It's amazing how people of the Liberal mental bent can turn anything to a discussion about their favorite topics: racism and a need for "dialouge".
Yeah and I can really do without the KKK outfits.
A threat.....what's the difference between you and the "hooded vigilantes"?
Well, sure, racism is real--or as real as anything intangible and immeasurable can be.
But the question is: is it real in this case?
What this boils down to and really all the immigration and African-American discussion boil down to is does someone or a group of someones want to integrate into the US or not. Yes there are a few people who might be against immigrants just because they are immigrants, but most people have no problem with people coming here to work IF THEY ADOPT THE CULTURE THAT LEADS TO ALL THESE JOBS BEING AVAILABLE. That is what the Irish, Italians, Jews ect over the years have done. That is not what is being done when you are told "it is a black thing, you would not understand."
Unfortunately the Dims have found political advantage to pitting groups against each other and maintaining group identity. This is evidenced by Dims always bowing and scraping and saying I can not fully appreciate what it is like to be a member of this or that group. Pitting groups against each other rather than inviting them to adopt US culture and values is harmful to the country and bad for the culture.
I'd say yes.
And don't forget, "There were rumors of assaults and beatings."
Rumors?
I'm just saying I don't believe everything I read.
No it's not, shmuck! You learn the language, get legal citizenship, swear one's allegiance to THIS country (and mean it!) and become a useful and integral part of the community at-large. THAT's only hard for people who don't want to do it!
***Yeah and I can really do without the KKK outfits.**
When someone burns a cross on your lawn, the best firehose is an AK-47.
"Ku Klux Klansmen in hoods and robes showed up"
Where was Senator Byrd on that day???
....BINGO!....it happens all time here in this little town that is almost 50% Hispanic.
They lie for them, hide them and help them flee!
Hispanic immigrants, by the thousands in Ohio? Are we accepting that many immigrants from south of the border?
Living in California, it has gotten to the point where there is no distinction between illegal immigration and the immigration this country experienced at the turn of the 20th century. Both of my father's parents were immigrants - documented, sponsered, and assimmilatd in less than a generation. Funny how that works when you come into the country legally with the intention, no the dream, of becoming Americans.
With the census of 2002 setting the Hispanic population at just under 38 million, and estimates of 5 million or more illegal Mexican immigrants in the country, at what point do you stop being labelled a racist when you question where someone came from and begin being recognized as a realist?
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