Is there CONTENTION in the air?

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   gmwilliamsposted 9 years ago

   
   Disclaimer:  I am a Black female. I just want to state this before writing this post lest I be accused of prejudicial behavior.
   
   There is yet another side to the issue regarding illegal immigration to this country.   Some Blacks contend that illegals are going to take away their jobs.  Other Blacks further assert that illegals which add to the Latino population which outnumber them as the largest non-Caucasian minority and are going to receive more preferential treatment than they will in terms of political representation and socioeconomic opportunities.  There are even a few Blacks who maintain that the illegals will put them at the very bottom of the American totempole.  What is your position regarding  the impact of illegals on the Black community?

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      WillStarrposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I look forward to the day we're all just Americans, and we all pull together to make this the greatest nation on Earth again. I'm not opposed to the illegal invasion because of color. I'm opposed to anyone coming here illegally. We should control our borders like any other nation.
      
      I do think we need to stop ignoring inner-city America, and find a way to stop the out-of-wedlock births that doom both moms and babies to poverty. I think we need to work on reinstating the moral standard of man and wife raising their family together, and apply that to all Americans regardless of race. That alone would bring millions out of poverty and misery.
      
      Good question Grace!

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      1. 57

         retief2000posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I believe that we all are, except those who are not - that would be those here illegally or those here with legal residence status. My own father wanted me to wear an "I'm Irish" shirt for St. Patrick's Day. I said, "No I am not, I am an American and that is better."
         
         I sincerely believe the reason we all aren't just Americans is that we do not believe that is better.  Imagine what life would have been like for every American if there had never been an America. The Indians native to this continent did not live some sweet, idyllic life. Europeans who came usually came from rigid class structures in which little improvement for oneself or one's family was possible. The Africans brought here by force usually had been taken in war and again, did not live a sweet, idyllic life - though their great-great-grandchildren would learn to read and write, own farms and businesses, be free to go and do as they liked. That is a complex and emotional history but look at what those martyred people purchased for their descendants with their suffering.
         
         It is better to be an American. If it wasn't why do so many work so hard to come here, legally and illegally.

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   2. 73

      Quilligrapherposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Grace. Another interesting topic. Thank you so much for launching this discussion.
      
      I think the use of the word “illegals” is inappropriate because the current demographic trends in the US population began long before “legal” vs “illegal” became a hot-button issue in our society.
      
      Every 10 years, the US Census Bureau takes a shot at counting heads and calculating the population mix based upon murky jargon or race and ethnic overlap. Data compiled since 2008 place everyone in America in the minority sub-basement except Asians (4.4%), Blacks (12.4%), White-Hispanics (14%), and Whites-Non-Hispanics (66%). When combined, the latter four groups accounted for 96.8% of the population. (1)
      
      However, by the year 2050, Whites-Non-Hispanic will maintain their majority status only when included with White-Hispanics. Disturbing to some, the 2010 census indicated the Hispanic population grew at a rate of about 43% during the last decade or four times faster than the 10% growth rate seen in the total US population. (2)
      
      When my grandfather arrived at Ellis Island, he carried in his pocket the address of a relative who had made the journey before him. The United States is a nation of foreigners. Throughout our history, each new wave of immigrants sought a better life in America. With time, they prospered. They turned their dreams, their jobs, their neighborhoods and their towns over to the next wave of immigrants.
      
      America also has a history of discrimination aimed against the group clinging to the lower rungs of the social ladder. I doubt that will ever change. For the targeted group, the discrimination only wanes when the next group of immigrants comes along.
      
      Here is a page from this history
      
      In 1880, the elite New York Times reported the existence of “a powerful ‘dangerous class,’ who care nothing for our liberty or civilization.” The paper warned that they “burrow at the roots of society, and only come forth in the darkness and in times of disturbance.” This lowest of life forms, The Times wrote, seeks only “to plunder and prey on the good things which surround them, but which they never reach.” They are  “the poorest and lowest laboring class [who] drudge year after year in fruitless labor [but] never rise above their position.... They hate the rich.... They are densely ignorant, and easily aroused by prejudice or passion.” Nor did The NY Times mask its disdain when it added that the members of this worthless class “are mainly Irish Catholics.” {3}
      
      Eighty years later, October 27, 1960, The New York Times endorsed John F. Kennedy for President of the United States.
      
      (1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_of_ … ted_States
      (2) http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/brie … 0br-04.pdf
      {3} http://scholar.harvard.edu/jlhochschild … trends-u-s

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      1. 85

         gmwilliamsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thank YOU for your answer and links.   The hyperbole regarding Caucasians becoming a minority from 2030-50 is just that.........hyperbole.    The idea of non-Caucasians will be the majority in America by the mid-20th century is another hyperbole.  As non-Caucasians become more educated and more affluent, their birth rate will decrease.   Continue with the discussion.

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            retief2000posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            One might also conclude that rising levels of education and wealth will bring diverse racial populations into closer proximity to each other resulting in more families of mixed racial and national heritage. If anything the grotesque and antiquated notions of race will fade, in reality, if not in popular media. Let's look at our President as an example. Abandoned by his African father and White middle class mother to be raised by older, White, middle class, middle American grand parents who sent him to private schools. Can one make the argument that Barack Obama's own cultural roots are vastly different then if he were raised in Chicago by two Black parents in a working class, urban household attending only Chicago public schools and Illinois public universities?
            
            All of us are far more than the color of our skin, but when nominating and supporting a President that can be a handy tool for quieting opposition.

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      2. 57

         retief2000posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         And that is a salient difference between the illegal immigration of now and the legal immigration of then. My Irish Catholic family passed through Ellis Island in 1893. The total of all immigration through Ellis Island during its operation from 1892 to 1954 was 12 million, give or take. That is over a 62 year period. In the past 50 years nearly that many illegal immigrants have come to America. There are 15 million legal immigrants who have become citizens(and celebrated for doing so) and 13 million with legal residence status, in that same period.
         
         Seems to me, America is more than open for legal immigration.
         
         http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/ … n-today-3/
         
         http://www.history.com/topics/ellis-island

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