I was looking at the right side of the Daou Report this morning when I came across a post from a site called the Right Wing Howler. Looking at their site, I noticed that they have littered it with the cartoons of Mohammed, they have bumper stickers displayed that say, “I Love Gitmo” and “War is NOT the answer: just nuke the bastards” and they ask “Why not root for America for a change? You liberal scumbags.”
They are clearly not fans of Muslims or liberals, but the post concerns hispanics and illegal immigration. And I only highlight their thoughts here (below the fold) because I think overt racism of this type is becoming fashionable again, and someone needs to call these people on it.
For those of you old enough to remember what happened in 1986 when we gave the first blanket amnesty to illegals, our borders were flooded with illegal trying to make their way in so as to get in under the deadline and win a ticket to riches via the US taxpayer.
Lately we’ve been thanked for allowing those scumbags in when they hit the streets in protest demanding new laws allowing even more of these rat bastards to stay in the US.
Of course, our Congress-critters, those yellow-bellied c**ksuckers who are supposed to uphold and defend the Constitution of the US, do so by saying that the crimes illegals commit in violating our laws by entering here without papers are not really crimes anymore.
So is it any wonder there is another surge of illegals trying to enter?
At a shelter overflowing with migrants airing their blistered feet, Francisco Ramirez nursed muscles sore from trekking through the Arizona desert – a trip that failed when his wife did not have the strength to go on.
He said the couple would rest for a few days, then try again, a plan echoed by dozens reclining on rickety bunk beds and carpets tossed on the floor after risking violent bandits and the harsh desert in unsuccessful attempts to get into the United States.
And what? I’m supposed to feel sorry for these lawbreakers? I’d just as soon they dropped dead from heat exhaustion. Look, I know it sounds cruel but I am tired of all this crap. Something serious needs to happen and if some of them start dying they might stop. If not, maybe more need to die. I seem to recall there are often rattlesnake festivals where bounties are given for the rattlesnakes shot. We should alter that a bit. CAPTURE the snakes. Don’t shoot them. Then release them into the desert.
Then we have this from our own Border Patrol:
Maria Valencia, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the rise in detentions did not necessarily mean more people were crossing. She attributed at least some of the additional detentions to an increase in the number of Border Patrol agents.
Maria Valencia? Border patrol? And she’s going to admit more are coming? Hell no! She wouldn’t want to sound the alarm bells on her “brothers and sisters” would she?
It’s hard to pack so much racism into such a short post.
He thinks Maria Velencia is not honest. But, he bases that on her name, not the fact that she is a spokesperson for the Bush administration.
He actually wants these illegal immigrants to die of heat exhaustion or snakebite. He thinks of them as scumbags and rat bastards.
The author, Vilmar, is a racist. He’s a racist every bit as contemptible as the Jim Crow racists of 1960’s Mississippi. He’s not racist because he cares about the issue of illegal immigration. He’s racist because he speaks of hispanics as if they were nothing more than animals…to be hunted down and shot.
Overt racism is indeed increasing and it’s focused as usual on blacks, gays, hispanics and arabs.
Hate radio and Fox news surely don’t help and an entire southern culture that embraces the Confederate flag says it all.
You have to be racist to inflict on Iraq the kind of suffering these right thinkers have. When the torture of the Iraqis at Abu Graib prison is justified because other Iraqis burned the bodies of some mercenaries thats racism. That justification was from Joe Lieberman during the original hearings on Abu Graib. So its back and even mainstream.
I’ll be bothered to pay attention to them frothing over Mexican flags when the wingnuts stop waving confederate battle flags.
Yeah, why can’t they wave an American flag, indeed.
Perusing this neanderthal’s site, it’s interesting to note that the about Vilmar section contains a photo of him wearing a t-shirt from that island of Texas liberalism, Austin. Irony truly is lost on some poeple.
You’re right. The author is also ignorant of the fact that hundreds of people each year die attempting to cross the border. 460 last year:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002927517_immig13.html
This is a really underreported issue and should be driving the progressive stance on immigration.
what drives my stance.
Paupers’ Field here in Tucson, where unidentified immigrants are buried constantly.
I would also like to mention that it is because of the policies of the United States government that the numbers of migrant deaths have soared over the past decade or so, you can thank Operation Gatekeeper for that.
I’ve come back to this picture about 5 times now Manny-there isn’t anything I can say but it’s so gdamn sad–I keep thinking of all the hopes and dreams that those unadorned markers represent- never to come to fruition and relatives who may wonder what happened to one of there loved ones.
very pleased you posted on this topic.
The venom trickles down and can be found at senior levels, including this related by Sy Hersh, highlighted by Josh Marshall
humiliate. shoot. nuke. It’s that easy. Nazi mindset? not just close, we’re there.
From Josh
What a waste of breath to even consider these kinds of ppl even intellectual! I consider them evil and for the most part hypocrital. they all came from immigrants whether legal or not, they must be taken down a notch or two. I suppose that they who preach this type of hatred is without the bounds of legal too. Maybe a little time out there hunting the rattlesnakes for him would make him feels somewhat better for his words he speaks…I call him chicken shit. Why is he not in Iraq fighting the good fight, is my question, if he is so brave with his words.
This kind of talk always comes from fear… and while I never codone racism or hatred, I do understand the fear.
The truth is that the Spanish language is creeping into American English at an unprecedented way. The avg American doesn’t realize just how much Spanish there is on TV and advertisements, which you probably understand yet would baffle most Brits. Even Bush still throws out a few lines in his crappy Spanish.
In most towns and cities in America, you can hear Spanish being spoken. You see Spanish newspapers, esp in the lobby of your Mexican restaurant. You see those dark brown faces driving around listening to their music. You hear the white children listening to that reggaeton, mouthing the words even if they can’t understand them. There’s a Latino grammy award. Singers like Shakira are becoming commonplace on the top 40 pop stations.
And suddenly, suddenly, there you are, becoming a “foreigner” in your own land, no longer able to understand 1000% of what’s being said. You used to think “tacos” were wild and exotic and now there’s quesadillas and chipotle and chimichangas and salsa is the #1 condiment and guacamole and flan and carne asada and you think you know carne means “meat” but what the hell does asada mean?
And the devil takes the hindmost, and it used to be a given that these brown devils from across the border were far, far behind you but they’re gaining on you. They’re electing members of Congress. They’re on your radio airwaves, speaking and you can’t understand ’em. The grocery store’s shelves are bulging with products you can’t even understand what it is. You flip through cable and wince at Univision because you WANT to understand the jokes but you can’t. They’re gaining in influence and they work harder than you and there’s so damn many of them… and they’re bringing their creepy candles with saints with em.
So yeah I understand the fear. There are two choices of how to handle it. One is to let go of this token boost to your ego, that being monolingual in English is something to be proud of, to understand that perhaps people from other cultures can teach you something wonderful. Or you can dig in your heels and fight and kick and scream and cuss and rain down electronic hate and hope that somehow they all go away… while knowing deep in your heart that they never will…
Pax
Umm, Spanish has always been widely spoken in the United States, especially out here in the Western U.S. The Colorado Constitution of 1876 was promulgated in three languages: English, German and Spanish and was considered valid in all three. The myth of the USA as an exclusively English speaking country is just that: a myth. People who think hearing Spanish makes them a foreigner in their own land have the wrong idea of what it means to be American — they think it means having a white monolingual ethnicity. So in that sense, they should feel like foreigners.
I like to say: This is America, speak Spanish!
lyrics. And so do the black kids, and the other beige and brown kids from Indonesia and VietNam and Pakistan and Yemen and Palestine and India and the Philippines, etc etc etc.
I think your post is very insightful, and while parents who come from other places don’t mind this a bit, people from all over are learning Spanish with the same or more rapidity that they learn English, but for US born whites, and to a degree, US born blacks who buy into the divide and conquer propaganda, they also are becoming foreigners in their own homes.
Their children have friends from everywhere, their children speak enough Spanish to buy those tacos, and sing the songs, and next year they will speak more. And they are also coming home with words and phrases in several other languages, and deciding they like Urdu or Bahasa Indonesia, and making an effort to learn more of that.
Their children are learning other customs, other foods, ways of dressing, other music, they are learning about other religions.
And being children, they think it is uberkewl!
Some will teach their parents by their example, in some homes there will be conflict. And some parents will succeed in teaching their children to hate.
But those will, I think, be in the minority.
That will be the outcome of that aspect of the conflict in the larger society as US adjusts to the demographic shift.
And most of them, eventually, I hope, will open their eyes and realize that having the whole world next door and across the street, and downstairs in the playroom of their own kids, is more than a good thing, it is one of the most wonderful and valuable gifts that life can bestow on a child, and on his parents, if they will simply reach out their hands and accept it with a smile and a Thank You!
Red Regime mentality.
For those who say Bush didn’t accomplish anything… he has. He has deliberately destroy everything that was decent about this country. Everything.
He has empowered the worst.
Just ran across this diary on the Progressive Bloggers newsbox and apparently we’re were on the same wavelength.
See: Serious American Terrorist Threats Ignored by the MSM and DHS about recent threats to protesters and congresspeople over the immigration issue.
Let’s not forget the radio guys:
As usual, he claims “satire”. Almost as valid as “intelligent”.
To a large extent these ‘hard-core’ sites are the worker bees of the larger right wingnuttia; the less (un) restrained voice of what they really believe and what ‘turns the crank’ of the unrepentant base.
Gavin M. has a great, tongue-in-cheek send up of these clowns, as well as some excellent links to other well written pieces re: RW Racism, at Late Nite FDL
Scroll to bottom for links to a great deal more on this, and especially, David Neiwert’s essay from a few nights back.
Peace
The comments in freeperland are full of rascist bullshit, often involving killing brown people. It’s pretty scary. But, on the plus side, they are also really pissed off at the Rethugs for not wanting to kill brown people more vehemently and making cries of voting against the party.
I took a quick trip to Little Green Footballs the other day (and just now in prep for this post) and I noticed that the majority of frontpage stories are anti-arab/islamic. I find this growing trend to hate muslims just as scary as the growing trend to hate Hispanics. Hating brown people is truly in vogue these days and I think we are going to see some very scary repercussions from it.
Wonder who they are going to hate next?
Oh, um,… never mind.
Actually I think it is going to be people w/disabilities who receive SSD/I, such as chocolate ink and myself.
People with disabilities are so marginalized in this country-many many people with disabilities could work but the workplaces aren’t set up for it nor do many want to bother with anyone with a disability.
Considering how many millions have a disability yet could work this is an incredible waste-instead of a small disability check that is poverty level income they could be working and supporting themselves…and don’t get me started on how stores/streets etc aren’t set up for people in wheelchairs when it would really be very simple.
And I did know one person who flat out stated that anyone who has a disability should basically be left to fend for themselves and preferably die..survival of the fittest you know-took my breath away it did.
People with disabilities are so marginalized in this country-many many people with disabilities could work but the workplaces aren’t set up for it nor do many want to bother with anyone with a disability.
And God help you if you even ask for an accomodation, businesses use that one as an excuse to fire you!
Been there, done that!
I remember one place I worked at, actually got written up and later fired because 1) my handwriting is illegible–I have a tough time writing since the tbi, and 2) I had to close my office door because of the noise–it was too distracting and I couldn’t concentrate.
Canned for closing a door? Wow.
If you or ci have written about the issues facing people w/ disabilites, please point me to it – this is something I’m pretty ignorant of.
If not, I’m probably not the only person who would like to learn more.
Dang…it’s racist, not rascist…I know that really. Sorry for the typo.
“I think overt racism of this type is becoming fashionable again, and someone needs to call these people on it.”
I agree. This is something that’s been getting worse and worse over the last few years. (probably decades, actually)
But the place to call them on it is on the streets.
Its real easy for them to pretend that they represent popular opinion when no one is calling them on it.
When there’s 1,000,000 people in the streets opposing their opinions, thats not so easy.
Think about these smug bastards driving around in the desert, making good on their nazi-inspired death-threats.
Then think about 5 lonely clansmen being shouted down by a crowd of protesters, relying on a handful of police for their protection.
I’ll never forget at Sept 24 in DC, marching with hundereds of thousands, and passing by a handful of right-wingers, with pro-war and racist placards. The only reason they even had the courage to stand there was the mostly-black DC police protecting them.
It was probably the most pathetic thing i’ve ever seen in my life. And they fucking knew it.
yes he’s a racist, but lets not put animals down either
– we are ALL earthings on this planet and by looking at the results of all our actions, humans are superior to no one.
situation the USA poses for poor people from Mexico and Central America whose only crime is looking for work, really. On the one hand we have been hearing about the dangers of jumping the border for ages.
I remember a 1983 movie “El Norte” which showed that the great white north was not such a paradise for immigrants after all. [in this case refugees from Guatemala.]
On the other hand the word in Mexico to the job-seekers is if you survive the border crossing you are almost guaranteed a job at TEN times what you can make for hard labour in Mexico. At present we have two sides, those who want no border at all and those who want a high security fenced, armed, impenetrable border. Both are impossible goals. Where are the heros who will come forward with a reasonable third option beginning with an end to the hypocrisy and the lying? We know it will not come from the Bush administration.
“Divide and Conquer” is their motto — if they can keep us focused on our differences, we’ll continue to barricade ourselves in our fortress homes and watch FOX News to find out what’s happening out in the Bad Bad World.
If we reach out and start to get to know our neighbors, we might find we have more in common than we think, and even (horrors!) start uniting to enact positive change in our communities and our country. And that idea scares them shitless…
Racists are creatures of fear and ignorance. Fear of the times, the unknown, hell you name, racists are scared little people. And ignorance of anyone other then themselves. More pathetic than dangerous but fodder in the hands of dangerous leaders.
It is fine to be proud of one’s heritage, but quite another to base one’s self-worth on it.
Racists love nothing about themselves but their ethnicity. It is only there that they find anything of value, they do not appreciate the good qualities they have as individuals, nor understand that had they been born as a different race, a different ethnicity, nationality, religion, etc, they would still be the same people that they are.
While all those things undeniably affect people, in the personalities and ways of behavior, their culture, the essential personality, the talents, the defects, would not be changed. A white man who is a good singer, terrible at spelling, with a natural knack for auto mechanics and entertaining small children would still have all those basic attributes were he born a black man, or a brown one!
But if he is racist, he will neither comprehend that truth, nor love himself for those good qualities he possesses!
I’ve got a whole rant on the fact that transcendence, the ability to get the hell outside of oneself and look at things from another’s point of view, is the political virtue par excellence. I think this point is what Jesus and Socrates are both all about. Jesus ….Live in this world as if you are a citizen of the kingdom and God and this world will go a long way toward looking like God actually has something to do with it. Socrates….we will have no end to the ills of society unless people he called philsophers become rulers or those who rule become philosophers. Socrates didn’t mean the pointy heads in the University as philosophers. Philsophy (love of wisdom) is not a profession but a mode of judging and acting in the world.
All of us have particularities, accidents of birth if you will, that may give our lives a lot of private meaning but don’t mean shit when it comes to deciding what’s best for our society, for our lives together. These particularities are race, gender, age, nation of birth or residence, sexual orientation, etc. All these things are the things that we make fetishes of and keep us divided. We must basically ignore those parts of ourselves when we make “political” or “governing” decisions. These particularities don’t count as criteria for judgement and action for the direction of society.. Only what we have in common does.
So what do we have in common? That we all love, that we all experience the world and life, that we can share the fact that we have those experiences and their stories with one another, that we want our children to be good human beings, and that we want to make an impact on this world before we’re forced to escape it.