I haven’t heard people talk about it lately, but back when The Sopranos was a hit show on HBO, a lot of Italian-Americans spoke up about what they considered to be negative stereotyping. It was even an issue that was dealt with on the show itself. And it was a legitimate conversation to have in spite of the fact that La Cosa Nostra is a real organization with a real presence in New Jersey. I’m reminded of this when I listen to Rep. Steve King (R-IA) say that we can’t have immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for Latinos because some of them might be (or have been) drug smugglers. Certainly, drug smuggling is a real thing, and there are Mexican gang members in this country who are heavily involved in the drug trade. We can talk honestly and frankly about that, and even have entertaining television shows like Weeds that portray Mexican drug gangs, without it being some kind of slur against all Latinos.
But Rep. King is ignoring the fact that all the immigration reform bills that are circulating require that potential citizens have a clean criminal record and pass a background check. If they are known to belong to certain criminal organizations (including foreign organizations) they cannot receive citizenship.
If the Senate bill had been law during the first half of the 20th-Century, it would made it difficult for members of the mafia to immigrate here or to gain citizenship, but it wouldn’t have prevented millions of law-abiding Italians from coming here and voting.
That’s why Steve King’s argument is so offensive. Because, if you apply that kind of argument to any “white” group of immigrants, you can immediately see how disrespectful (and disreputable) it is.
I’m reminded of this when I listen to Rep. Steve King (R-IA) say that we can’t have immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for Latinos because some of them might be (or have been) drug smugglers.
I looked up King’s Wikipedia page. According to it, he owes his allegiance to Frankie Baby(aka Pope Francis)Has that raving idiot ever seen Goodfellas? Or The Godfather? Both movies involve drug smuggling. Both movies involve white(Irish and Italian) Catholics. We know Goodfellas is based on a true story. Will King disavow that?
And California was run by white Spanish Catholics before the US annexed it. White Spanish Catholics who mostly wanted to join the Union, for that matter. You’d have to be out of your mind to want to live under the government in Mexico City at that point in history.
One of the most ridiculous and offensive things in all this anti-Latino bigotry is the idea that Latinos are foreign when in a number of states they were here first. (One of my favorite historical facts is that a lot of the first gabachos in California were illegal immigrants.)
I wonder Steve King knows the origin of such all American words as bandana, bronco, buckaroo, canyon, chaps, corral, lariat, lasso, mesa, ranch, rodeo, and vamoose.
Just FYI.
Everything We “Know” About Illegal Immigration Is Wrong
Interesting. It makes perfect sense, too. Of course people are going to stay away from the border, but which side are they going to stay on? The side where it’s most advantageous for them to be.
Excellent argument, backed up by data. Also to be considered is that NAFTA with it’s massive infusion of American corn into Mexico impoverished Mexican farmers, most of whom farmed Middle Ages sized three acre parcels with Middle Ages technology. It was a natural for those starving peasants to go North and earn money laying sod and trimming bushes. Certainly the demand was there for cheap (at USA standards) cash-paid labor.
They probably weren’t fouling the environment by planting seed of questionable parentage and spraying Roundup all over the countryside, either. Can’t have that, now can we?
Life is weird.
People especially.
All brown people are Mexicans, don’t speak English and are here illegally. Ergo, there’s no political cost to saying stupid shit.
In Western Iowa, maybe.
Logic would dictate that BooMan’s completely valid point, that the Senate bill prevents The Canteloupe-Calved Ones from gaining citizenship or temporary legal status, should be reported. If this Actual True Fact were to gain traction (very doubtful, because Liberal Media), we could expect Republicans to counter with their current official Talking Point B: “We can’t trust Obama to enforce the law!!!!”
Also, too, they’re colored, so the idea that Boo would even try to claim a comparison between Hispanic immigrants and previous generations of European immigrants Does Not Compute for the wingnut base. Sure, many “patriotic” Americans viewed Italian/Irish/Portugese/Polish/etcetera immigrants with similar suspicions to their Brown-hating today, but hasn’t Boo heard? Europeans are all white now.
Finally, there’s a current attempt by the Ghomertians to create a Talking Point C: Islamist Fascist Radical Islamist Arabs are learning Spanish so they can sneak over the border by being mistaken for Mexicans. So, no immigration reform or The Terrorists Will Have Won.
Boy, today’s national politics are extra stupid and tiresome. I know they’ve been bad before, but they’ve gotten worse lately.
Under those terms, the colony of Georgia would not exist.
On the pro side, we wouldn’t have Newt Gingrich.
Steve King is a racist. Period. Let’s stop dancing around that. The opposition to comprehensive immigration reform on the right is fueled by racism and is why they’re incapable of reaching out to people of color.