African-Americans drowning in wave of illegal immigration

Houston Chronicle ^ | February 2, 2003 | TERRY ANDERSON

[Dog Gone]

THE black community has made great strides in the last few decades. Racism has certainly not been eradicated, but it is no longer accepted with a wink and a nod as it once was. We are proud to see Secretary of State Colin Powell, even when we do not agree with everything he does. The same with Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, and many others.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that in some regions we black folks are so overwhelmed by the huge numbers of immigrants that we are being displaced in our schools, jobs and neighborhoods.

That may seem a harsh thing for a black person to say against brown people, but I don't see it that way. I am an American, proud of both my nation and my race. What I see in my community of South Central Los Angeles -- where I have lived nearly all my life -- is thousands of Mexicans who care nothing about our traditions and culture, and only want to impose their way on us. That's not immigration, that is invasion.

It is sad what has happened in my neighborhood. This was a respectable, blue-collar area of hard-working black folks living in their bungalows and going to their jobs. In just a couple decades it has become almost entirely Mexican. They live several families to a three-bedroom house and keep chickens in the yard, but the city doesn't care about the zoning violations or the noise of having so many crowded into a small space.

According to the Census Bureau, nearby Watts is now 60 percent Hispanic, and it was previously the black community on the West Coast. No longer.

The immigration situation is really hard on our young people. A 17-year-old kid on my street couldn't get a job at McDonald's because he didn't speak Spanish. Another young neighbor boy was thrown into a bilingual classroom at age 8 and was forced to listen to Spanish all day long. His six-hour school day was turned into three hours. When his mother asked for an English-only class, she was told "there are none."

Would you believe that I, a black man, have been called a racist many times for speaking up against this invasion? I have a radio program on the subject and therefore hear from a lot of people, even some in Mexico.

When they call me a racist, I put this question to them: What if a hundred thousand Vietnamese were suddenly dropped into Guadalajara? And what if those newcomers didn't speak Spanish, and further insisted that their children be taught in Vietnamese? What would you think if they were happy to work for half the normal wages for any job they could get, thereby putting thousands of your local Guadalajarans out of work? Would it be racist to say there was a problem?

When people of good will and good sense hear the situation put that way, nearly all understand and respect my viewpoint.

Now if only they would listen in Washington. America's political leaders are the problem. They have been selling out this great nation for real and imaginary political benefits while ignoring the dangers. Even after Sept. 11, nothing has been done to plug up our borders. Another terrorist attack could be 10 times worse, and it would likely happen because Congress and the president learned nothing about the need to keep the nation's borders secure.

If I sound angry, you hear right. Like other Americans, I want immigration to be legal, controlled and reduced. But as a black American, I see that the burden my people must carry is heavier than for many others. I am sure that if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., were alive, he would understand the fundamental unfairness to the black community of allowing more immigration than the nation can handle.

---

Anderson is an auto mechanic living in South Central Los Angeles. He is the host of The Terry Anderson Show on radio station KRLA airing on Sunday nights. He testified before Congress in 1999 about the effects of mass immigration on his community. Anderson can be e-mailed at terrry@theterryandersonshow.com.

[visualops]

He still identifies himself as a hyphenated-american

uh, where?
This is what I read:
The black community
we black folks
for a black person
I am an American
I, a black man,
Like other Americans, I
as a black American, I

The only mention of African-Americans is the title. I can't say if that's his title, or one given by the paper.
I don't think it's sour grapes, looks like realism to me. Expecting immigrants to obey housing codes and learn English doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

[Torie]

What's the word here on this thread? Are the villians blacks, or Hispanic immigrants, or both, or neither, or black immigrants, or Arab immigrants, or leftist European immigrants, or who? Or is it those damn Asians who are poaching on computer software stuff even without moving here? I am so confused, and I just want the bottom line.

[cyborg]

Sometimes we write things without thinking we have to explain everything to the world. At first when I read your post, I was like.. um he doesn't believe that there are areas of hard working black folk? THEN... I reread the article. I had to laugh when the author wrote that. South Central LA is an area of hard working black folk? Esp. with the big boom of gangsta rap... He seems bitter to me. There is a lot of envy against immigrants in general by black Americans. He tries to blame the downturn of the neighborhood on hispanics when it's really 'his own proud race's fault'. I didn't care for how he continually separated himself from the rest of society. Being so-called "proud of one's race" means also being able to admit problems of one's own "race".

So I think I agree with you...

[rdb3]

Hold up.

I traced the replies back to #134, but that is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about this statement made by you. Out of context? Hardly.

IF you meant what you say you meant, then you sure have one heck of a way of explaining it.

T-minus 41 days until the girth of Tha SYNDICATE, the philosophical heir to William Lloyd Garrison.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.

[wardaddy]

I maintained a residence in Miami from 1988 till the mid 90s. First on Brickell and then to the Gables and then to South Miami as my family grew. I speak Spanish and Portugese relatively fluent (or used to) so the cultural thingie never bothered me much but in all fairness now matter how much I like Cubans or Colombians or Brasilians etc (quite a bit), I can see how old timey Florida folks whether Southron or Yankee would resent becoming cultural strangers in their hometown. That's a long ago fait accompli now anyhow isn't it?

I had a next door neighbor on Sorolla off of Granada ave in the Gables who had been there since the 40s and still called it My-Am-Uh....lol.....she felt isolated...sadly.

Miami is the real capital of the Latin American Basin for sure.

[FreeTheHostages]

ping -- just taking you to places where I've seen mhking pinged to

[LO_IQ]

I had to laugh when the author wrote that. South Central LA is an area of hard working black folk?

I apologize for not being clear enough in my first reply to the author's comments about South Central.

I thought that quoting a snippet about South Central LA was enough to make it clear that I don't buy the author's assertion that South Central LA is being "run down" by Hispanics.

The black neighborhoods being taken over by Hispanics were not great to begin with.

[Arkinsaw]

A "respectable" area of "hard-working" black folks?

You obviously don't spend much time in any respectable areas and perhaps don't know what hard-working means. Thats all I can figure based on your post.

Like your sign-in name by the way.

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

True enough, but what about the pied pipers of the Republican party, who delude white voters just as surely as the Democrats delude black voters? Bush and most of the Congressional GOP are just as complicit in this nation-wrecking as are the liberal Democrats.

[wardaddy]

A "respectable" area of "hard-working" black folks?

Where I grew up there were large swathes of areas precisely like that. Now, they too have "escaped" to safer environs. Anybody of any color should be careful where they buy homes. Very few areas outside of solidly affluent environs or rural areas are immune to the constantly changing demographic pattterns.....the ebb and flow has a mind of it's own. Initial-Degentrification-Regentrification and so forth....as they say....follow the money.

[LO_IQ]

It is sad what has happened in my neighborhood [South Central LA]. This was a respectable, blue-collar area of hard-working black folks living in their bungalows and going to their jobs

Sorry, I don't buy it.

[my neighborhood] A "respectable" area of "hard-working" black folks?

[LO_IQ]

Context is everything.

It is sad what has happened in my neighborhood [South Central LA]. This was a respectable, blue-collar area of hard-working black folks living in their bungalows and going to their jobs

Sorry, I don't buy it.

[South Central LA] A "respectable" area of "hard-working" black folks?

[Torie]

I don't understand why you harbor such hate for the people who build this country from the very wilderness and made it the best country in the world.

I am one sick self loathing puppy, that's why. I hope that helps.

[angkor]

His "Vietnamese" example is disgusting. Vietnamese people have assimlated gratefully into American culture.

Yes, that is true.

Anderson is stuck in a racist view of immigration, rather than examining illegal immigration as a violation of the law.

That he uses Vietnamese people in his example indicts him as both confused and a racist.

[uncbob]

Ethnic groups have always had their own neighborhoods when they first came to America and they continued to speak their own language and in some cases if they spoke English it was referred to as BROKEN ENGLISH.
Some never became citizens and they had their own churches and newspapers etc etc

This has always been so

What is different today is
1. They were here legally
2. There was no WELFARE
3. There was no FREE MEDICAL CARE
4.They kids attended school where English was taught as was REAL American History and patriotism was inculcated
5. Eventually their offspring assimilated and spread out

[cyborg]

Is that Hempstead, Long Guy Land?

DG: It sure is. And I'm about to make some caw-fee before I do homework and watch The Patriot. Let me be honest and FRANK. I used to hate living in Hempstead. I tried to fit in with the same black kids who called me zebra and whitey by acting like them. I realized that I would never fit in so I became my own person and basically had no friends. My father and mother ripped me a new one about curryfavoring with street urchins and ghetto people. Now among all the black kids I tried to be friends with, I'm the only one who doesn't have kids, still a virgin, and hasn't smoked weed. Actually I'm not a native Long Islander. I used to live in Rochdale before it turned into a roach infested ghetto.

And you are right about things getting worse before it gets better. At first I was really against illegal immigration and all that. Now I don't care. Now I actually like it! It's the el salvadoreans and other central americans that are cleaning up the place. After 9-11, they were the first ones to put up the American flags even though I'm sure not every house had legal immigrants.