Are blue collar whites and rural folks the MOST discriminated against group today? (Iraq, Mexicans)

[Tom Lennox 70]

I just saw movie last night based on a famous novel. The film opens in a blue collar neighorhood in the border town of Laredo, Texas. The 9 year old blond daughter of a local rancher is walking to the 7-Eleven when a yellow Hummer driven by two Cuban American gang members pulls up. Previous scenes had shown these two gangsters rampaging through the neighborhood tossing beer cans at residents and trashing a store. The drunken Mexicans attack the girl and rape her and leave her to die but she survives. The local white sheriff tracks the two men into a mariachi bar and is showered with racial slurs like cracker and gringo before he arrests them.

The girl's father learns that recently in El Paso, 4 Mexicans were acquitted for raping a young white girl. Knowing justice will not be served, the father steals a gun and opens fire in the courthouse, killing the two rapists on their way to trial. This father is charged with murder, and despite the fact that a white man can't get a fair trial in 80% Hispanic South Texas, the judge removes to move the trial. The father is strung up before an all-Hispanic jury in Laredo who have already made up their mind that the "cracker" is going to the gas chamber.

This father's only hope now is a somewhat assimilated Mexican American lawyer who believes that the borderlands need to move beyond the self segregation and anti-American racism and believes in integrating with the rest of the state. Meanwhile, one of the dead rapists' brother, a member of a radical Aztlan group, summons his friends and the Brown Berets march in Laredo, leading to violence against the white residents and terroize the lawyer and his staff, burning his house down. An idealistic Christian female law student from a Missouri heartland town arrives and offers to help the case for free. In the end, as national guard troops patrol Laredo's streets to separate the Hispanics and whites, the defense attorney makes a final appeal to the Mexicans on the jury, asking them what they would do if the raped girl was Mexican and not white. Would Hollywood make this filM?

Not in a thousand years, but this exactly summarizes the plot of A Time to Kill which is set in MODERN DAY Mississippi and deals with blacks and whites. The point with Hollywood can't make a movie like this about any other ethnic group and get away with it. The film was based on John Grisham's novel which is set back in the 1970s when it would have been realistic but not today. I am a minority and has spent a lot of time down South and in small town America and it is nothing like how this movie portrays it, also with the constatn sweating and people with fans in the courtroom like there's no air conditioning, which was actually invented in Houston. This film is so preposterous yet foreign viewers on IMDB seem to believe this is what the South today is really like.

It seems like stereotypes and prejudice against small town folks, CHristians, and Southerners are acceptable and even encouraged in today's liberal America when everyone else is protected. I am Asian American but have many friends from small towns and the south and I have to say this trned is very disturbing. Yes there is still racism there but no more than anywhere else I've visited and it exists among all races, not just white on black. It is NOTHING like how Time to Kill and other movies portray it. A jury will NOT acquit two men of raping a girl with that much evidence no matter what the race of either side and a jury foreman will definitely not use the N word in deliberations. And segregation in Louisiana, NC, VA and rural parts of Maryland at least is actually much less than I've seen in New Jersey and California.

Also every time Hollywood has country music in a movie its always the stereotypical stuff from decades ago, nothing like the Nashville stuff today that is so popular. It seems lke our society is tolerant toward gays, lesbians, Muslims, Jews, blacks, Mexicans (even illegals) but people won't hesitate to say things like hicks, rednecks, hillbillies and make jokes about marrying cousins and sisters etc. (while it IS true that there are many arranged cousin marriages in Iraq and Afghanistan). Everyone's religious beliefs are tolerated except if you are Christian. We have affirmative action programs and all these outreach programs for inner city and immigrant communities but nothing to help out people in struggling farming towns or declining steel communities. If anything, all this PC emphasis only increases polarization in our country.

[MIKEETC]

Ashley Judd was hot in that movie.

[vicket]

Not. Even. Close.

[Tom Lennox 70]

Originally Posted by MIKEETC

Ashley Judd was hot in that movie.

Sandra Bullock was hotter, when she was more sexy vs a serious actress. Btw her new movie Blind Side is a much more accurate depiction of the South today and its based on a true story. Michael Oher actually is here in Baltimore now playing for the Ravens.

[floridasandy]

i think that ALL blue collar workers are currently being discriminated against. the fact that all workers had to allegedly bail out the banking system speaks volumes. also, the fact that this administration (and the last administration) refused to address the issue of illegal immigration and, in fact, encouraged illegal immigration to drive the housing scheme and to drive the wall street profits also speaks volumes.

i found an interesting statistic that i hadn't known before. i think most people assume that wall street drives the funding of new businesses in america and is necessary for new business creation. the truth is that business firms finance almost all their investment internally. In myth, common both to academics and New York Stock Exchange PR officers, the capital markets - where debt and stock certificates openly trade - transfer the capital of savers to cash-short investors, who in turn thrust the proceeds into productive activity, which will make the paper promises worthwhile and make the economy as a whole grow.

In fact, little real investment is funded on the markets. Corporations fund almost all their capital expenditures internally, through profits and depreciation credits. Since 1952, internal funds have covered 91% of capital expenditure; since 1990, 96%, so internal funding is actually rising. (which means wall street funding is actually shrinking).

[harborlady]

Originally Posted by floridasandy

i think that ALL blue collar workers are currently being discriminated against. the fact that all workers had to allegedly bail out the banking system speaks volumes. also, the fact that this administration (and the last administration) refused to address the issue of illegal immigration and, in fact, encouraged illegal immigration to drive the housing scheme and to drive the wall street profits also speaks volumes.

i found an interesting statistic that i hadn't known before. i think most people assume that wall street drives the funding of new businesses in america and is necessary for new business creation. the truth is that business firms finance almost all their investment internally. In myth, common both to academics and New York Stock Exchange PR officers, the capital markets - where debt and stock certificates openly trade - transfer the capital of savers to cash-short investors, who in turn thrust the proceeds into productive activity, which will make the paper promises worthwhile and make the economy as a whole grow.

In fact, little real investment is funded on the markets. Corporations fund almost all their capital expenditures internally, through profits and depreciation credits. Since 1952, internal funds have covered 91% of capital expenditure; since 1990, 96%, so internal funding is actually rising. (which means wall street funding is actually shrinking).

First paragraph, you really need to look at the long view because blue collar workers have seen a steady decline since the 50s. Use benchmark of pay ratio between the big boss and company employees. Blue collar has had some abatements, and some false gains (artificial wealth we're paying back now), but it really has been a slide. This didn't start with Obama or Bush. I can point at symptoms, and guess a hundred reasons for the causes, but I don't know anything definitively as to root causes. Everyone knows without being able to methodically piece it together or break it down to pure logic- there's something rotten in Denmark.

2nd paragraph- your observations about the changes in bank function and how wall street retooled itself started picking up steam in the 70's reacting to inflation and malaise (attributed to carter, but had been going on for a decade). Deregulation was implemented by Reagan in dramatic steps but it was birthed during Nixon years in a think tank. Additional observations of that greater picture- corporations kept getting larger and the volume of small businesses reduced per capita. Then the number of large corporations started shrinking. Corporations were cannibalized in Reagan/ Bush Sr era, cashing out daddy's reputation, chopped up, sold off for parts, and our own manufacturing started going overseas the moment we let go of the work balancing global trade deficit and lifted the import tarrifs.

That's when walmart started taking off on it's steady ascent, but the price was american mfg and small business. Just about all legislation created has been geared towards assisting large corporations reaping larger harvests, and little to nothing for small business. Government representation has been estranged for small biz for the better part of my lifetime. Family farmers- listen to the declaration of foul by a republican plains state senator-- the farm bill benefited agrabiz 80% or better. When red and blue state citizens can agree nearly unanimously that we ought to support family farms, then watch haplessly as a big fish comes along and swallows whole what would feed a small nation all for itself--- Houston we have a problem.

One more thing about wall street in case it hasn't occurred to folks. They are hating life when prices are stable. They're going broke when shares stop selling. Their existence hinges upon prices going up and down, because every time something is bought or sold they make their money on commission. Contrast this w/ main street who would otherwise have a normal life without outrageous highs and lows. The price of milk stays reasonable. The value of their homes is steady, and so are their neighborhoods. That stability provides a basis for real equity rising as slow and steady improvements within a community compound.

False equity is playing a game of musical chairs and leaving your kid with the bill. They can't afford to live in the neighborhood they grew up in because mom and dad cashed it out to live the lifestyles of the rich and famous in costa rica. That was a real story BTW. Their own parents gave them an inheritance but they left their children with a debt. They also did it on a national scale endorsing policies to serve their short term gains to the detriment of all (including themselves!). Inflated housing prices aren't the fault of illegal immigrants. This was the greed of americans all too happy to throw the country under the bus if they could fool themselves into believing they were getting ahead. These are the very same people who hire illegals. Think about it.

Deregulation of finance industry allowed day trading in areas of bare necessity, destabilizing prices and whole neighborhoods. Deregulation also wrecked havoc on other nations buying up their water supply as commodity and holding a poor population hostage with the price tag- the inevitable revolt and destabilization of the country followed. Retrospect- care to watch the thinking of years worth of HGTV selling the ideas of ubber wealthy trading up, and goading young couples to compete for a hovel at insanely inflated prices? Have they retooled their show post meltdown?

[mateo45]

Originally Posted by Tom Lennox 70

It seems like stereotypes and prejudice against small town folks, CHristians, and Southerners are acceptable and even encouraged in today's liberal America when everyone else is protected. I am Asian American but have many friends from small towns and the south and I have to say this trned is very disturbing. Yes there is still racism there but no more than anywhere else I've visited and it exists among all races, not just white on black. It is NOTHING like how Time to Kill and other movies portray it. A jury will NOT acquit two men of raping a girl with that much evidence no matter what the race of either side and a jury foreman will definitely not use the N word in deliberations. And segregation in Louisiana, NC, VA and rural parts of Maryland at least is actually much less than I've seen in New Jersey and California.

Also every time Hollywood has country music in a movie its always the stereotypical stuff from decades ago, nothing like the Nashville stuff today that is so popular. It seems lke our society is tolerant toward gays, lesbians, Muslims, Jews, blacks, Mexicans (even illegals) but people won't hesitate to say things like hicks, rednecks, hillbillies and make jokes about marrying cousins and sisters etc.

Everyone's religious beliefs are tolerated except if you are Christian. We have affirmative action programs and all these outreach programs for inner city and immigrant communities but nothing to help out people in struggling farming towns or declining steel communities. If anything, all this PC emphasis only increases polarization in our country.

I hear 'ya re: "double standards" and "Hollywood stereotypes", or that things have "changed". But are you saying that the South, Rednecks, Hillbillies, "Christians", etc. have had NO responsibility in starting, let alone perpetuating these "myths"?

[trnsplntfrmNV]

Ohhhh the Blind Side, Tom said it, that is what we small town redneck hillbillies are like. Trust me they, small town bread and raised, are the snobbiest people ( except me) in the world. If they do not want you here they will have you run out of town or wished that you had been.
unless you have run into me..Sandra Bullock..I wish. serioulsy I am that way I have taken kids in before. I love being in a small town

[mateo45]

Originally Posted by trnsplntfrmNV

Ohhhh the Blind Side, Tom said it, that is what we small town redneck hillbillies are like. Trust me they, small town bread and raised, are the snobbiest people ( except me) in the world. If they do not want you here they will have you run out of town or wished that you had been.
unless you have run into me..Sandra Bullock..I wish. serioulsy I am that way I have taken kids in before. I love being in a small town

No offense, but I think what you're describing is basically a "ghetto".... mono-racial/mono-cultural, clannish, largely low-income and low-education, insular, & hostile to "outsiders".... pretty much the same thing, except it's a "white" ghetto.

[Visvaldis]

God has a special place in his heart for all the white, uneducated, blue-collar bumpkins. On the Day Of Reckoning God will smite all those educated, white collar elitists.