I got a mass email this morning. You've probably seen it. Here it is in tiny print:
From the L. A. Times
1. 42% of all workers in L. A.County ( L. A. County has 10.2 million people) are working for cash and not paying taxes. This is because they are predominantly illegal immigrants working without a green card.
2. 96% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.
3. 78% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens.
4. Over 2/3 of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal , whose births were paid for by taxpayers.
5. Nearly 40% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally.
6. Over 350,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages.
7. The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.
8. Nearly 70% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal.
9. 21 radio stations in L.A. are Spanish speaking.
10. In L.A. County 5.1 million people speak English, 4.3 million speak Spanish.
(There are 10.2 million people in L.A. County . )
(All 10 of the above are from the Los Angeles Times)
Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops, but 37% are on welfare.
Over 73% of the United States ' annual population growth (and over 90% of California, Florida , and New York ) results from immigration.
34% of inmates in federal prisons are illegal aliens.
We are a bunch of fools for letting this continue. When will our Government takes responsibility and STOP this.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Send copies of this letter to at least two other people 100 would be even better
Since I didn't really agree with what was being said here, i decided to not only Not foward the email to 100 more people, but chose to write all the original senders back. Here's what i wrote:
I just received a wildly inaccurate, clearly xenophobic email concerned with stopping the unwashed mexican hordes from invading our precious shores. I just wanted to ask the person that originated this spurious piece of irresponsible hatred not to include my name on anymore of this malicious misinformation. And please, before you feel tempted to forward this, i encourage you to do a little research/thinking/soul searching about yourself before helping us out anymore.
Here's the deal:
While I think it's a disgrace for anyone to shirk paying their fair share of taxes--and i'm sure that none of us would ever ever do that--or commit a crime (particular as an act of meanness or greed), I don't think this was the purpose of this email. This email was clearly meant to stir up anger at a culture hardly different from white, middle class, americans. I mean, What the hell is meant by the phrase our crops? Who is this "our?" Americans? White people? Hungry people? Since a huge proportion of the produce the U.S. eats actually comes from Peru, does this mean that we should be picking their crops? What the hell is wrong with radio stations being Spanish speaking? Clear Channel Communications own 1200 radio stations alone. i don't think the English language is under-represented. And are we supposed to be angry that someone is living in a garage? Jeez, man, my heart goes out to anyone having to live like that!
Concerning the rest of the list, please feel behooved to fact check: practically every one of those stats is horribly skewed, taken out of context, a flat out fabrication, or alpha/numerically twisted to misrepresent. I assure you, almost none of those stats appeared in the L.A. Times in the context they are presented in that email. (If for no other reason than it would be bad business practices to alienate--according to the email--nearly 50% of L.A.'s population.)
While i have many suggestions for the author of this misguided writing, i'll keep it limited to this: 1) Please stop fucking up MY America. Stop hatin' on people, man. The many immigrants (legal and illegal) we have in this country are largely here because of the promises the U.S. has to offer. Many of them admire what this country has been able to do and they want to share in that dream. Unless you're a Native of this continent, that promise of a better life is almost assuredly why your family moved here--even if it was 400 years ago. 2) Buy Pointer Brand overalls. They are made in America from American materials. They cost $50, but that's the premium for not financing huge multi-nationals to go rape, plunder and extort as much labor and material as it can from people "south of the border." In other words: buy things responsibly. After all, people are trying to move into this country to escape from the oppression our economic practices have created.
Come on America. We can do better than this hateful crap.
Walter
Here's the first retort i received (and i don't think they're being ironic):
Typical liberal crap. People need to be angry. A foreign culture is multiplying within our borders and is NOT assimilating. More and more come thru everyday unchecked. If allowed to continue indefinitely, they will be legitimized, then legalized and then they will have an equal say in our political process. That is an invasion.
We (as in Americans) built this country. Sure, we enslaved and raped and killed… oh well that’s history. Doesn’t mean we need to lay down and alow any of that to happen to us. Life isn’t fair and we have have been ruleing the roost for a century and a half…..why give it up? Because it makes us seem principled or moral? Because we feel guilty? Fuck that! We do need to secure the things that we have built raped and stolen..or else the next group will cripple us from within and take what’s ours. Look at the riots in France that went on a month last year….. the reason: Unchecked immigration and lack of cultural assimulaton.
From a financial standpoint: There is NO REASON that one dollar of your taxes should pay for the education or emergency healthcare of criminal invaders. Period, end of story. If you believe that it should…set up your own fund! Who said that, I said that
10 years ago
6 comments:
If we aren't careful the Mexican government might just decide to take back California, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Santa Fe, Taos, Las Vegas, and all of Texas from the invaders who came in and were not willing to assimilate.
Oh, yea, Californians were not that friendly to the invaders from Oklahoma when they needed to invade during the Dust Bowl. How dare those Oakies want to have some grapes.
There might be a time when we have to share what we have. It helps to remember who held ownership in the first place.
I'm glad you sent an e-mail back since your America seems much more patriotic to me. Let's all read Grapes of Wrath once more time with feeling.
You know, my dad sends me those things on occasion. I sometimes respond, but usually don't. Why do people think that culture is monolithic and unchanging? Why don't people understand that the really beautiful things about American culture (individual worth and responsibility, suffrage, etc) are what people come here for, even if they want to keep their own cuisines? Whatever happened to "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free?" Sure I love English as a language. I actually think it's superior in terms of nuance and flavor, but it's much more democratic to say that if someday the majority want to speak another language we should do it.
I would say it's all about race, but I really don't think that's the root. I think it's about CLASS. Foreigners with MONEY are exotic. Foreigners without money are undesirable. And that is a distinctly UN-American mindset. In their search to find an US (that's the objective of "we", not U.S.), why does there always have to be a THEM? And why can't THEM be as human and as valid, but different from US?
I'm not outraged about anyone coming to this country for a better life. Our forefathers came because they were debtors and outcasts. What I'm outraged about is that there is so much hate and racism in this country. And I'm outraged that money is still pouring into defense and the war in Iraq. I'm outraged that a large part of US citizens don't have health care. I'm outraged that it's hard to buy anything anymore that's not made in China. The list could go on and on.
Did you even bother to check the numbers? A number of the statistics are very close to actual data. Can anyone say 'clueless liberal who makes Rush Limbaugh look at an intellectual giant?'
Sure, we enslaved and raped and killed… oh well that’s history.
One year ago, reading this e-mail/the above response would have enraged me beyond belief and sent me writing a much angrier response than Walter did.
However, I'm beginning to believe the last nine months of my life in Rocky Mount, NC have been someone's sort of case study on how completely stunned and jaded one woman can become in that period of time.
I'm leaving Rocky Mount ASAP because of opinions like this flying around constantly:
Because a child in my study hall told me she doesn't dislike black people, "I have my nigger friends at the dry cleaners!"
Because a student, in all honesty, explained he shouldn't have to learn Spanish just because Mexicans want to rise up and take over America.
Because parents still teach their children "colored person" is the correct term.
Because a 7th grade boy who prefers friendships with girls and watches televised drama rather than sports has to put up with nightly phone calls and e-mails calling him "fagboy" and "queer" while the administration (who has known about it for nearly two years) does nothing.
I'm done for now (it is not good to get riled up at work, I have realized)...Grr.
Hi, AP and Walter! :)
Why is it a "clueless liberal" trait to expect something like accuracy? While some of the numbers are similar to others reported elsewhere, the distinctions are different. Look at the items point by point.
2. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens-Mostly Truth!
The most commonly quoted source for this is a report by Heather McDonald and published by the Center for Immigration Studies. She repeated her research on April 13, 2005 in testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on "Immigration, Border Security, and Claims" saying that 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide in Los Angeles targeted illegal aliens.
That bolded word indicates an important difference. Whereas the email suggests that 95% of murders in LA County are committed by undocumented workers, the actual testimony is that only the outstanding warrants are for undocumented workers, presumably because they're rather harder to locate.
Oh, but then it turns out that it's entirely crap, because LA doesn't even keep track of the number of outstanding warrants for murder.
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