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Well I have commented on how they stare you down - I guess I am really naive but I didn't think they were hateful even if I had waved and they just kept staring..maybe they are.
Speaking of blocking things (other than driveways) I was recently in a drug store and a couple of ladies speaking Spanish loudly had the aisle blocked with a cart and several kids running loose.
I had several things in my hands and was trying to get through -- even though I said,"excuse me" about three times they would not let me by. So I finally just sort of squeezed by, moving the cart a bit. They acted like I had violated them! ARGGGG....
Yeah - what's up with that? There's some sort of tendency to block people from moving, as if they're in a contest to get somewhere first.
I don't have the problem in my local grocery store, but when I visit one friend of mine, it's like that - hispanics with 10 kids, letting the kids eat the food before it's bought, blocking aisles, shouting at each other, etc. Is this the "culture" they've brought from home?
And, we're not talking illegals here, necessarily. I don't see this adding positively to our "multiculturalism". Yes, I'm dissing another culture, if this is what you call "culture". But, for me, and many others on here, it seems to be a trend among the hispanic population. Any explanations for this rude behavior?
(And, don't tell me that "everyone" does this, 'cause it ain't so).
I know of what you speak of; just the same.......my father immigrated from Hungary ca. 1951 and my mother is a generic White woman. I wound up legally changing my whole name ca. 1989 for several reasons------one being it sounds 'Hispanic' yet I am White, literally.
My father is from Portugal. He came here in the late 1960s as a teenager. They settled in a "Portuguese ghetto" in Newark, and my father got flack for marrying an American (along with two of his brothers who married non-Portuguese women - another American and Cuban woman).
To be fair, my grandfather (mother's father) wasn't too happy about my mother being with my father at first either for ethnic reasons, (even though he himself was dating a Colombian woman that would later become my step-grandmother!)
But anyway, my mother would routinely be "shut out" of group functions involving lots of Portuguese people. They'd ignore her, speak Portuguese in front of her, etc. I was closer to my mother's side anyway, so I identify as American first and foremost. My brothers, on the other hand, have periodically suffered "minority chic" bouts in school, and have had to try to parlay their almost-Spanish roots and unusual last name (which is not obviously Iberian - most people think it's Greek or even Arabic) to gain "cred" amongst minority friends who try desperately to be "not white." I've had to explain the hard reality of ethnic politics to them many many times!
You live in Iowa and can do something about it. Please, for the sake of America, vote for Tancredo!!!
Actually I am signed up for the Tancredo campaign... but it's not doing so hot. Ron Paul has some good views on immigration and I think I might end up voting for him though.
I just hope we don't get another neo-con who is going to do everything he can to accommodate these people and try to unsuccessfully court the Hispanic vote by doing so...
Well, in other words, no one is a "native" of anywhere. The Mexicans say they are natives of our southwest - not so. In fact, their ancestors conquered their lands from the previous "natives". And, then we won the land in a war, and also paid money for it. The point being - that there ARE borders between each country, although the Mexicans say there should not be.
Quite right. My wife is about as "native" as it's possible to be, yet she seems happy to live in the "now" situation, rather than the "back then". She's pretty much a realist, as far as I can tell...She knows there are lots of problems now, but has no desire to "trade places" with her ancestors...
Location: The world, where will fate take me this time?
3,162 posts, read 11,434,626 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TriMT7
My father is from Portugal. He came here in the late 1960s as a teenager. They settled in a "Portuguese ghetto" in Newark, and my father got flack for marrying an American (along with two of his brothers who married non-Portuguese women - another American and Cuban woman).
To be fair, my grandfather (mother's father) wasn't too happy about my mother being with my father at first either for ethnic reasons, (even though he himself was dating a Colombian woman that would later become my step-grandmother!)
But anyway, my mother would routinely be "shut out" of group functions involving lots of Portuguese people. They'd ignore her, speak Portuguese in front of her, etc. I was closer to my mother's side anyway, so I identify as American first and foremost. My brothers, on the other hand, have periodically suffered "minority chic" bouts in school, and have had to try to parlay their almost-Spanish roots and unusual last name (which is not obviously Iberian - most people think it's Greek or even Arabic) to gain "cred" amongst minority friends who try desperately to be "not white." I've had to explain the hard reality of ethnic politics to them many many times!
The original question was what bothers you most about illegal immigrants.
I'd have to say all the ill-founded hate directed their way as a result of the lies, the falsehoods, the hyperbole, the exaggerations, the overestimates, the aggrandizing, the embellishments and the over-amplifications.
That's what bothers me the most, .....the thinly veiled racism, xenophobia, hypocrisy,and bigotry. All that hate being projected under the guise of being patriotic or supposedly caring about one's countrymen.
Is immigration policy something to understand and attempt to improve?
Always has been and always will be.
But sane immigration policy is the furthest thing from most people's minds today when they push 'immigration reform' as an issue. Far too many of the people pushing 'immigration' as an issue, wish it to be nothing more than a wedge issue, and a chance to politely and acceptably give notice of what is running underneath all their forced civility.
It's merely an opportunity for them to pursue what they imagine to be a 'politically correct' form of hate speech and eliminationism.
I went to Portugal for about three months when I was 11. I learned a LOT during that time - enough to get me around without a translator. Since then, however, I have lost my abilities! My father never spoke to us or taught us any (I wish he did, to be honest) Now I only remember a few phrases and words (and of course the swear words, courtesy of my father!). The problem was made worse after taking Spanish in middle and highschool. Now whenever I try to speak any Portuguese, Spanish words creep in!! I know 10 times as much Spanish as Portuguese.
One of my best friends is Brazilian though, so he's promised to teach me again sometime (though he laughs at my "continental" accent!)
The original question was what bothers you most about illegal immigrants.
I'd have to say all the ill-founded hate directed their way as a result of the lies, the falsehoods, the hyperbole, the exaggerations, the overestimates, the aggrandizing, the embellishments and the over-amplifications.
That's what bothers me the most, .....the thinly veiled racism, xenophobia, hypocrisy,and bigotry. All that hate being projected under the guise of being patriotic or supposedly caring about one's countrymen.
Is immigration policy something to understand and attempt to improve?
Always has been and always will be.
But sane immigration policy is the furthest thing from most people's minds today when they push 'immigration reform' as an issue. Far too many of the people pushing 'immigration' as an issue, wish it to be nothing more than a wedge issue, and a chance to politely and acceptably give notice of what is running underneath all their forced civility.
It's merely an opportunity for them to pursue what they imagine to be a 'politically correct' form of hate speech and eliminationism.
..
That's nice, but what about those of us who are at least partly first generation Americans, and who have Latino family members?
Are WE racist/xenophobic/ ___ist as well?
I for one don't WANT the United States to become Latinized. "Anglo" culture and tradition, in my opinion, is what makes the US a decent place to live, and I will readily admit to being a culturalist. Don't get me wrong, I believe people are free to bring all the "shallow" and superficial accoutrements of their cultures to the United States. I just don't see any value in living in a balkanized nation divided by culture and language barriers. IT may work for individual cities, but I don't see it working on a national scale. Unfortunately, those on the "front lines" of culture wars tend to be the underprivileged - the poor and working class, and African Americans who are (literally) fighting to keep their neighborhoods.
But anyway, why is it ok for "other" cultures to lament and preserve their cultures, yet Americans are denied the same privilege? Do you shoot off angry letters to the French cultural preservation agency? Wring your hands when countries around the world decry and try to resist encroaching Americanism on their local cultures?
Location: The world, where will fate take me this time?
3,162 posts, read 11,434,626 times
Reputation: 1463
Quote:
Originally Posted by TriMT7
I went to Portugal for about three months when I was 11. I learned a LOT during that time - enough to get me around without a translator. Since then, however, I have lost my abilities! My father never spoke to us or taught us any (I wish he did, to be honest) Now I only remember a few phrases and words (and of course the swear words, courtesy of my father!). The problem was made worse after taking Spanish in middle and highschool. Now whenever I try to speak any Portuguese, Spanish words creep in!! I know 10 times as much Spanish as Portuguese.
One of my best friends is Brazilian though, so he's promised to teach me again sometime (though he laughs at my "continental" accent!)
Hehehehehe Brazilian Portuguese is very different, obviously you can still understand it, but the way sentences are built changes a bit
Spanish and Portuguese tend to create confusions huh? hehehe
I for one don't WANT the United States to become Latinized.
What you don't want isn't something you're likely to have much control over, and it's not central to what I was stating.
This nation is already a conglomerate of various cultural pressures or influences, that process won't ever stop. You can't make it stop, or reverse that process, just because you prefer some idea that where the cultural mix is at right now is preferable to you.
Whether it's your fear of becoming influenced by Latinos, or some other era being worried about Poles, or Italians, etc, ...none of those earlier people with 'fears' were able to be keep others from influencing what our cultural mix is today, nor will your 'fear' stop influences from happening because of impacts from whatever other cultural influences that may arise in the future.
The only thing you can do is keep alive the cultural influences that you feel are worth saving, ......just the same as anyone else has that same chance.
At the end of the day, we all become a part of the whole.
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