Personal entry- Double Standards and perceived hate. Where does it come from?

So this is a sligthly different blog. Current events have been interesting to say the least. I found myself asking how did we get here? Read this link to see what I mean, http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/08/arizona-sheriff-greeted-protesters-las-vegas/

So the Sheriff see’s himself as a hero, to them the protesters. His comment almost sounded disappointed in nature, how did we get here? Why is someone like him seen as a racist for wanting to deport Illegals? Personally, I think it is displacement. Displacement is a term used in psychology when a person transfers his stress and anger and vents it out on a third party that may or may not be related to the problem. In other words the person is unable to target the cause of the problem thus they look for a more viable target. In this case, people are displacing an anger that has been around for a long time on the Sheriff and on this new bill in Arizona.

So what is the cause of this anger and why should you care? First you should care since obviously anyone who supports this law is the target of this displaced anger, second the cause is a double standard and the struggles of the forgotten minority.

We may live in a “Post Racial” society, but if that is so, how come I have memories of experiencing racism first hand more than I can count in an area of the country where there isn’t much racism? I have been asked countless times since as far back as I can remember to prove my legality, my “Americaness” I have been told more times than I care to remember to “Go Back to Mexico.” I have plenty of stories about relatives who were treated unfairly by the police and not just because the cop was a jerk. Once an uncle of mine was at a stop light, the light went green and he started to pass it as we all do. Then out of nowhere this car crashes into his car. The officer decided to hassle my uncle, who did nothing wrong, just because his English was bad. Never mind the 200 dollars he has spent on English learning products, never mind the struggle millions like him go through attempting their best to learn the language at such an advanced age with little to no understanding of Spanish Grammar to begin with. That officer decided that my uncle like so many others just did not want to learn English.

So when I, when we, the children of these people who struggle to learn how to live in a different world and learn its language are faced with English only Laws, how are we to react? When we are mocked and ridiculed for having the audacity to display our culture like so many European descendants do in this nation, how are we to react? Where are those that would say “They are American?”  This is the double standard that the forgotten minority faces. You can celebrate Saint Patrick’s day, an Irish holiday, but the moment you get out your party gear for 5 of May you are told that this is America and you should go back home…funny, I thought I was home.

Once I was on a school bus I had a shirt with the American flag on it, the ridicule I faced from the same people who would want me to be shipped off to a land that I do not know, a land that is not my home. But being the skin color that I am, the name that I have, and the Language that I am able to speak seems to be enough for them to want to kick me out of my real home. Would you blame me if I don’t see myself as a full blooded American? Where were the kids that did see me that way? Where were they? I was forgotten.

When a Mexican or Salvadorian decides to raise the flag of their nationality, or their heritage people demand that they “Go back home” or “that they raise the American Flag because this is America.” Yet there are people who raise the Confederate battle flag for the same reasons and don’t even own a US flag. While some would call them racists, the same people that would hassle me and that have would not even care. Why should they? It’s just displaying their heritage, there’s nothing wrong with that. As long as you don’t display Hispanic or Asian Heritage that is. Never mind that the Confederate Battle flag was a rallying point for the KKK and for those who fought against the civil rights movement.

So would you forgive me if I am not too invested in the American flag? A flag that seems to have betrayed me? A home that doesn’t want me? And what of those who gladly go to Irish, German, Italian establishments and restaurants. But the minute that a Mexican or Peruvian place opens…oh those darn illegals. Oh those wetbacks don’t want to be American. I hear this with my own ears, yet where are the people who would say, “Hey look, there’s a tan skinned fella he must be American too?” When new immigrants arrive fresh off the boat as the idiom goes, where is the welcome party with English lessons and American flags? It’s nothing but “Go back home” and “We don’t want you here” and even though they’ve been here for a few weeks, “Why haven’t you learned English you beaner?” Despite the fact that they are from Venezuela, they seem to be lumped with Mexicans which are vastly different cultures in every way.

Humans are rational beings, ask anyone who studied abroad. If they ever had the luck to meet another English speaker, with out a doubt they stuck with that English speaker like white on rice. I have asked, and everyone of them has said the same, they never left the sight of the Australian, or the Brit, or the Canadian or the fellow American that they met because it made them feel more at ease. This is what humans do and what immigrants have done since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Today though, the numbers of Spanish speaking immigrants are much bigger thus harder to break apart with the forces of assimilation. So something has to be done, but nothing is. Just yelling at people saying “Go back home” and “Learn English.” They would go back home, if they weren’t shunned back there that is…and if there was a job…seems no one wants us here.

So when you pass a law, all of these emotions, these experiences surface and boil over. You don’t hear “Illegal Immigrants” you just hear “immigrants.” When laws are passed without considering the legal immigrants as a problem that must be dealt with, such as providing public English courses on a much larger scale, or selling immigrants homes in nearly white neighbor hoods in ways that would encourage interaction with people that they, and I stress that word, they consider to be American to the fullest. Yes, many immigrants consider American to be a race just like you consider Mexican, though erroneously, to be a race. Dispelling that error is a necessary act. To show Americans as brown, black, yellow etc is what should have been included with that Arizona bill. For the Sheriff to shake the hands of naturalized citizens welcoming them to the nation that doesn’t seem to want them would probably be better than for him to just say “I am supposed to be their hero.”

Maybe even dispelling the notion that a Mexican or Chilean restaurant doesn’t have as much right to be there as a Italian restaurant or that “Cinco de Mayo” is less American than Saint Patrick’s Day. Maybe all it takes is for you to stand up next time you see someone having a hard time saying something in English and teach them how to say it rather than allowing some prick to give them a hard time because they had the audacity to not learn English in a private school back in their nation of origin since they were to busy eating dirt (What else was there for them?). Maybe cracking down on unfair practices, not tolerating anyone who would even suggest racial profiling, oh My parents were recently racially profiled by two different airports and asked to show their immigration forms while not at customs. Not that there was even a customs port, since they were transferring in domestic flights. And they were not at the gates where the flight attendants ask all to show proper identification including resident cards before boarding even starts.

The first time they didn’t have any luggage since it was a connecting flight, domestic once again. And they were asked for green cards. Not for IDs not if they were residents or citizens or tourists or anything of the like. They complained about it to another security officer and where issued an apology since no one was supposed to be doing any such thing that day. And once again, they weren’t at the gate nor at customs.

You can imagine the frustration, and this frustration is exactly what causes such an opposition to the AZ law. It’s displaced anger, displaced hurt. Another case where the forgotten minority are left in the shadows, in a legal void ignored and overshadowed by Illegal immigrants. God forbid that they ask to be given any special help lest they be told to “Go Home” where ever that is.

To sum this all up let me show you something, a comment posted in that Fox News article by reno62 of Florida on Sunday, May 09, 2010 at 7:29 PM

I just love to read what people write on here…some are educated some are NOT…It seem the ones who are protesting for ILLEGAL ALIENS are the latter. Not one of you came up with any intelligent reason why we should not stop ILLEGAL immigration. I’m half Cuban my wife is 100% Peruvian. She came here Legally costing us money and a lot of time. She is happy to work and pay her taxes. She gets nothing from this Government only freedom to be an American thats all she ask for. And by the way i was born here so i’m 100% American only with Cuban descent. My ex wife was Dominican. I just love Latina women. So i’m not a racist like you try to make anyone against you a racist.

Sounds good huh? Not much I can say against that, not much any of us can really complain about. This is the part that we, the forgotten minority feel that supporters of that law see…the only part of his comment. This following part is the stuff we feel that not only supporters of this law seem to ignore, but conservatives in general seem to support people like this ignoring what they say…just read his last portion

People of any nationality who enter this country ILLEGALLY should be shot at the boarder like in any other country. At Least arrest them and place them into labor camps until you can deport them to make up for the money they cost us to protect our country. This is a war if you want to believe it or not. I hope soon someone like Sheriff Joe Arpaio will be President and clean up this country.

That is the only part that protesters of the AZ law pay attention to. Should be shot? Joe the Plumber the symbolic conservative said something similar to that. I always knew there was something strange about him. Tom Savage probably would agree to that, since he did say ALL immigrants, note that regardless of legality, today are lazy. Where’s the conservative outrage? Where are those that are pro legal immigrant? We are forgotten, it seems that only liberals have this in mind…we might as well make a pact with the devil then. But there is another, Libertarians like Judge Napolitano. Grant it I don’t think we are as far as Antebellum south our East Germany, I think he is using hyperbole. Look, the bill itself is not the problem, its all of the pent up frustration in living in a home that according to many people, is not your home.

Oh, here is a vid that shows discrimination already happening it’s about two minutes in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6AradppFx4&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Wow, I guess my parents weren’t the only ones…that way too many and the law hasn’t even come into effect.

So what do we do? What else does a human being do, displacement. This Bill is the perfect target, and sadly, so is Sheriff Joe. I sympathize with him, but I doubt he does the same. Who sympathizes with a forgotten minority?

Tags: Arizona Law, Immigration