The disunited states

Townhall.com ^ | August 15, 2002 | Cal Thomas

[discostu]

Here's what I know about Atlanta: it's been going through a well documented boom of both ecomony and population, this after years of promoting the city heavily culminating in hosting a very well done olympics. Given that it's safe to assume a lot of the new residents will be immigrants.

I'm not surprised at the clustering. Actually I'd be surprised if they didn't. According to this site: http://www.atlreg.com/resourcecenter/censusdata.html# you've got a lot more black neighborhoods than hispanic, and asian is running a little under hispanic. You're experience doesn't sound any different than mine down in South Tucson, or in the area of Pat's Chili Dogs or the other largely hispanic neighborhoods in Tucson, I learned to say "dos cervesas por favor" a long time ago and that's about all the communicating I really need. Welcome the ethnic neighborhoods, they've been around since the early days of this country. Go to San Fransisco and see how many non-tourists are fluent English speakers in Chinatown or Little Italy.

[TomSmedley]

Pittsburgh, probably the largest metropolitan area that has seen the least of any type of invasion.

You are overlooking the slavic immigrants, like my maternal grandparents, who manned the steel mills in our industrial heartland.

[Phillip Augustus]

I am not anti-immgration.

The problem is not immigration.

The problem is non-European immigration.

[Phillip Augustus]

We need more Slavic immigrants. That's not the issue. The issue is the Third Worlders.

[discostu]

See the post below you. The problem is the color. Your grandparents don't count because they were white immigrants, it's those nast borwn immigrants that have all these guys up in arms. IMHO they just fear spicey food.

[FreedomFriend]

LaRaza has been around 30+ years and done nothing.

I wonder why? Could it be that their contingent wasn't large enough until recently. That is, the people that may buy their message weren't in the numbers in the past as they are today.

Nobody said that brown people are going to destroy the country, rather unassimilated and unassimilatable "immigrants", legal or illegal.

I'm not going to play dumb and act like group-think is not pervasive in all races, from blacks to whites to Asians, to Hispanics. Yes, it is a part of life, and housing patterns are a true reflection of that. Keeping the majority of immigrants within the racial and cultural stock will help keep assimilation up and social cohesion intact. It's not an argument of racism, but of the human condition of most individuals. All groups have different traits, whether it is thinking, acting, etc. It is these differences that most people feel uncomfortable with and play against others to secure their own cultural customs and traditions. While some may assimilate fully, many do not for these reasons, and we have to stop playing that this isn't the way things are.

As far as black Americans go, I do think that there has been a lot of progress in white-black relationships, and I think that there can be even more progress if we don't continue to bring in masses from the third world. Different groups may take one hundred years, or centuries, to develop bonds that aren't reflective of where their ancestors came. However, with massive third world immigration, bonds are not allowed to be made, the massive influx onto a dominant cultural component, playing in with this human nature, will make it an improbability that society will not break down in its cohesion. That is why I have advocated that there needs to be limited immigration with at least eighty percent coming from the countries of Europe, as well as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. With a policy such as this, newcomers outside of the dominant ethnic and cultural stock will have to assimilate, will have to resists social politics and group think. In essence, America will have a much more liklihood of sustaining itself.

[Phillip Augustus]

Don't be ridiculous, now. These are issues of culture and geography, not race. And I love spicy food, particularly Yugoslavian spicy food.

[Phillip Augustus]

Wow! The neo-cons/diversity brigade are hitting this thread pretty hard, all of a sudden, aren't they?

[FreedomFriend]

Pittsburgh is not a bastion of illegal immigration or large legal immigration. Thus, you really don't see what others see. You're much like the "conservatives" spouting the joys of diversity while living in their lilly-white suburban community in the midwest.

As far as H1Bs, that visa program needs to be discontinued until otherwise noted. There are thousands of Americans out of work due to the employment of lower-skilled foreigners. I say that Americans should be first priority, not those from the rest of the world.

[MP5SD]

Pour Some More Peeeeedro! oh, its porfavor?

[discostu]

No. LaRaza has done nothing because it bears a striking resemblance to the rabble rousing organizations made by whites and blacks and everybody else made during the same era. It's filled with stoners, drunkards, losers, and people treating it as a social group. Other than the faculty adviser (gee college profs are stinking commies trying to overthrow the nation, there's news) and the chairman there probably isn't anybody in any local incarnation that actually cares about "the cause".

Problem is there's not that much reason for people not in third world countries to come here. Why has America always been a popular place to come? It's the land of opportunity. If the country doesn't suck people aren't gonna leave it. This is why we're getting a really high quality (if rather small) crop from the European nations and Canada now, the only people leaving are the ones that hate socialism (the ones for whom their home country sucks). The big early 20th century immigration was fed by European poverty, remember Europe was fubar long before the depression. This big immigration boom is also being fed by poverty.

Come up with a reason other than "they're stealing our culture" and maybe I'll back you. But all this ranting paranoia about Mexicans is just dopey. They aren't a threat, and if they are it's because we're so damn pathetic not because they're so powerful.

[Phillip Augustus]

You aren't showing a great deal of credibility on this particular issue when you confuse a well-respected organization like La Raza, which is essentially the Latino equivalent of the NAACP (and an organization to which Republicans and Democrats alike are now beginning to pay homage), with fringe organizations like MECHA. Sure, MECHA is a joke, not that it's joke status means that we should tolerate one bit of it's call for Atzlan; but La Raza is a well-oiled Latino identity politics machine that shouldn't be easily dismissed.

[discostu]

No, sorry, it's a matter of race. You like Europeans, which would conceivably include the Spanish and Portugeuse, but you don't like Mexicans or other "third worlders". They languages are the same (there are Portugeuse speaking nation in the third world), the food is similar, the ties to the Catholic church are the same. Heck they're home countries are even poor. But the skin color is different. I notice nobody on these threads complain about African immigration, they're coming from the third world two you know? But they don't speak Spanish so it's OK.

[discostu]

Well respected organization like La Raza?!?!? Please. LaRaza is a joke, it's a joke in the hispanic community, it should be a joke in the white community, except we've got paranoids like you running around playing chicken little.

[pittsburgh gop guy]

"Pittsburgh is not a bastion of illegal immigration or large legal immigration. Thus, you really don't see what others see."

Uh - for about the 3rd or 4th time, I am not from here. And I have traveled a lot on the East Coast. So, you have a problem with the East Coast, and then you attack the midwest. If you have so many personal problems with immigrants on the West Coast, move away.

And your statement:
"There are thousands of Americans out of work due to the employment of lower-skilled foreigners."

makes no sense. If the foreign workers do not have the skills to do the job, they would not be hired, or they would not be kept on.

And to those that are unemployed and blame immigrants and the government - quit your bitching and get more skills.

[Phillip Augustus]

Europeans don't "conceivably" include Spanish and Portuguese; they do include Spanish and Portuguese, and it's ridiculous to even suggest otherwise. Obviously, as such, I would delight in increased Spanish/Portuguese immigration, but, I reiterate, it's not about race, it's about culture and geography. Spain and Portugal both have European cultures (while most Latin American culture have hybrid Euro-indigenous cultures) and are geographically located in Europe.

Your comment that Europeans only "conceivably" (and thus not necessarily) include Spanish and Portuguese, baffling as it was, did not baffle nearly as much as two other comments.

First, Spanish and Portuguese food are as different from Mexican food as night and day. Have you ever eaten at an authentic Spanish restaurant?

And Spain and Portugal are both First World, successful, European Union members, and Western democracies; so, no, their home countries are hardly "poor".

[discostu]

you ever actually gone thorugh the paperwork to get hire an H1B? Believe me, you don't go through that crap to hire somebody less skilled. Unemployement is still hovering around 6%, I remember a time when that was considered full employment... and it wasn't that long ago (Reagan era).

[discostu]

Whatever dude. One of your big complaints with the "third worlders" is their language, yet Europeans that use the same langauge are OK. But you're not a racist. Honest.

[ecomcon]

Shame. The straw man. Yeah "gop" guy, you got me, I'm an ignorant Nazi, afraid of Mexican immigrants. My grandmother-in-law is an Mexican immigrant, my Mother in law is the daughter of that Mexican immigrant, and my wife is the daughter of the daughter of that Mexican immigrant. That makes my kids 1/4 "Mexican". But wait, I forgot, I don't like "their kind". By the way, my grandmother in law speaks English as well as I do. Why is that?

Now that that is over with, remember one thing. I'm talking about illegal immigration. Legal immigration is fine, within reason. Perhaps you misunderstood me, or I didn't make myself clear.

[philosofy123]

Imagine this: The prettiest woman in the world should be the most selective woman in finding a mate? All she has to do is look and see that there is a line of people begging for her attention, willing to worship her, and declare how much they adore her, and would never cheat on her!...Stay with me, please----

Then imagine some liberal congressmen ordering this trophy of a woman to mate with any stinking worthless bum in order that she will give EQUAL OPPORTUNITY to all people. The congressmen say, your mate does not have to tell you I love you, does not have to declare his faithfulness to you!

Now, I bet you got what I am trying to say. The US is the most desirable country in the world. Millions who are qualified and willing to die for this country and its noble principles are rejected in order that we may give visas to worthless Moslems who hate us, and will never assimilate in our society? What a stupid congress, and what a stupid INS!