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.

[wardaddy]

I was in LA about 7 or 8 years ago and went to the Inglewood Area and to a Western Union in of all places ...Compton. I was suprised that Boys in da Hood turf looked more like lower middle class blue collar suburbia than the Cabrini Green/South Bronx/East St Louis setting I had imagined. It doesn't exactly look like ghetto (except Watts).

Here in Nashville, there are still a few black "hoods" that are relatively dangerous usually around housing projects. The working black class operating slightly above the poverty line is more and more melding with the like oriented white class. The hardest core black hoods are still almost universally black here.

The Mexican and Central American barrios are displacing working class older white hoods much like this article describes. We also have a decidedly Moose-Limb contingent which is displacing middle-middle white neighborhoods and borders the barrios area.

Indians, Asians, Russians(quite a few), and affluent blacks live anywhere they can afford the rent or home cost and nobody notices and there is no white flight except those who go to the metro counties for better public schools. Many of the Indians do use a peculiar blue shade they seem to prefer for their shutters..lol...periwinkle or something. Nashville has an extremely large white trash element....they are not so much rednecks anymore unless over 30-35 but rather seemed to have embraced the same culture as black "gangstas"....a troubling trend. I know...my office is in the thick of it and they compose a plurality of my tenants.

I did not know that any townships on Long Island outside of the Boroughs were suffering from this stuff.

When I was a boy, the Feds built projects within a half mile of our house....ah the wisdom of it all...lol...we were gone in a year at a loss for our home....it's full blown Dodge City there now....burned out cars, abandoned homes, thugs on every stoop all day long not working...a damned war zone. "Stroke of a pen...kinda cool"..NOT!

[LO_IQ]

Still am afraid to post on these kind of threads for fear of being banned.

Exactly.

It's difficult to have any frank discussion on race, crime, and immigration when people start throwing the R word around so quickly.

Ironically, the author complains about such treatment when discussing immigration issues.

[wardaddy]

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

No you're not. You're simply an idealist a bit. I was too once...a long time ago.

[rdb3]

I thought he/she was going to leave the thread. But apparently, he/she has some ax to grind and has to keep an eye on the thread. Gee, I wonder why.

How about just asking instead of wondering? And this would be your number what reincarnation?

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

[Polybius]

I maintained a residence in Miami from 1988 till the mid 90s. First on Brickell and then to the Gables.....I can see how old timey Florida folks whether Southron or Yankee would resent becoming cultural strangers in their hometown..... 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.

We lived in a little apartment at the corner of LeJeune and Alcazar when we first came from Cuba in 1960.

Now, it is my opinion that Cubans and Southrons have a lot in common. After all, we are both pretty Conservative, we all love America and we all love a good Pig Pickin'.

If your old neighbor really wants to feel culturally isolated, she should move out here to the Left Coast. There is no way in h#ll I'm ever going to "assimilate" with the tofu-eating, Birkenstock-wearing, chrystal-channneling, ultra-Liberals that define "American culture" in this neck of the woods.

When I spent a two year Navy tour of duty in Charleston, South Carolina, my California-born-and-raised wife spent the whole two years complaining about the South this and the South that and about being culturally isolated. I, on the other hand, felt right at home. :-)

[uncbob]

Those same first immigrants who sometimes spoke broken English shared the same culture that eventually became America's culture

Actually is was mainly their offspring who did that.
A lot of the original immigrants stayed with their culture as much as they were able

[wardaddy]

My mom lives in Murfreesboro TN outside Nashville where a large group of Laotians and Vietnamese were settled. The Laotians are much more clannish and have some gang problems in their youth culture. The Vietnamese have still retained a lot of their "identity" but do indeed assimilate more although I have known several of the girls whose fathers in particular were loathe for them to date or marry outside their community.

Not that I care, it's their business. They didn't express quite the same vaunted social engineering views so touted by many on this forum.

It's all rather complex and inevitable.

In race and ethnicity matters today in America I see two big issues looming over all others. First is the plague or black illegitimacy and second is the imminent proliferation of Mexican illegals. What everyone plans to do about those two issues is crucial....and I mean "everyone".

[freedumb2003]

>>The american working class sits and watches reality shows on tv, they are out of the loop and it is easy for the tv keepers to manipulate them.<<

Tinfoil hat time!

I think that TV today is certainly the biggest cesspool of all time, but I don't think they are responsible for the general abdication of reasoning that leads to liberal leaning (its easier to feed someone than figure out how to have them feed themselves). TV is just a symptom of the larger malaise.

[uncbob]

In race and ethnicity matters today in America I see two big issues looming over all others

Biggest problems are
WELFARE
Liberal America hating educational system

Illegitimacy is directly caused by WELFARE

[wardaddy]

Now, it is my opinion that Cubans and Southrons have a lot in common. After all, we are both pretty Conservative, we all love America and we all love a good Pig Pickin'.

We also both have an abundance of good looking women who ENJOY being female. Ah....Coconut Grove in the late 80s on a weekend night....100s of example of Latin America's finest babes...um um.

If your old neighbor really wants to feel culturally isolated, she should move out here to the Left Coast. There is no way in h#ll I'm ever going to "assimilate" with the tofu-eating, Birkenstock-wearing, chrystal-channneling, ultra-Liberals that define "American culture" in this neck of the woods.

I feel the same way when I go to the Wild Oats grocery here in Green Hills in Nashville...lol....I actually saw a bumpersticker there tonight that said "Pro Child-Pro Choice"...lol...I wanted to ask the Birkie/Dykie what exactly she meant but my wife restrained me...we've been keyed enough already.

[uncbob]

In addition with WELFARE these groups don't have to become mainstream to survive

[frontdeboeuf]

We should count our blessings...

1-a....Mexicans at least work or try to.
1-b....Muslims in Europe are just about ALL on welfare (95%),
.......at $100,000 a year each(4 wives&10 brats each wife)

2-a....Mexicans are Christians.
2-b....Muslims in Europe are determined to kill Christians, .......its their religion,(300millions dead already)

3-a....Mexicans immigrants will alway be a minority because
.......most of them integrate and turn into regular .......Americans.
3-b....In five to ten years, Muslims will be the majority in
.......Europe and will institute the Sharia.(it is started)

THEN, THEY WILL MOVE ON AMERICA......

[kaylar]

I agree with you. I'd rather have 1000 Mexicans than 1 Muslim, for precisely the reasons you've outlined. And a glance at some of the horrific stories (links available upon request) coming out of Holland, Norway, France, and lately , Australia, supports our point of view, IMHHO.

[wardaddy]

Illegitimacy is directly caused by WELFARE

I'm sorry but I don't completely buy that. No doubt welfare has horrible unintended(or maybe not)consequences which are too numerous to list here and it has all but destroyed the black working class in discussion here BUT....at some point folks have to be held accountable for their own personal actions. To blame personal failure on institutional governance alone gets awfully close to the standard liberal excuses.....with all due respect. The sad irony is that teenaged black girls are now proportionately the highest group of girls having abortions and yet this problem is still an epidemic. Black men and women have simply got to step up to the plate on this issue. It is as crucial as breathing.

Blacks need a new Moses. There are a few honorable black men and women out there trumpeting this cause but few are listening. We will all pay the consequences down the line. Abolishing welfare would help no doubt but who's got the cajones to do that .....and still get elected.

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

A 17-year-old kid on my street couldn't get a job at McDonald's because he didn't speak Spanish

If English were the national language of the USA (which it isn't), there would be legal grounds for discrimination.

But remember........America has no national language.