Perhaps someone within the party élite needs to remind Alaska Congressman Don Young of this fact (yeah, where are you, Reince Priebus?). I know trying to forget the fact that 71% of Hispanic-Americans voted for President Obama in November can be hard. But, I’d like to think that America’s shifting demographics — you know, it’s browning? — should make a seasoned politician mindful when speaking on the issue of immigration.

This from The Hill:

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) issued an apology Thursday after using the term “wetbacks” to describe Latino workers on his family farm.

During a sit down interview with Ketchikan Public Radio this week, I used a term that was commonly used during my days growing up on a farm in Central California. I know that this term is not used in the same way nowadays and I meant no disrespect,” Young said in a statement to the Alaska Dispatch.

Young made the comment during an interview with KRDB-FM radio in Alaska about the current immigration reform legislation being debated in Congress. Young said he feared that the country had exported too many vital industry jobs, while agreeing that automation and technological advances had reduced the number of labor positions available.

“My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,” he told the station. “It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.”

In the statement to the Dispatch apologizing for his remarks, Young says that he believes Congress should “once and for all tackle the issue of immigration reform.”

“Migrant workers play an important role in America’s workforce, and earlier in the said interview, I discussed the compassion and understanding I have for these workers and the hurdles they face in obtaining citizenship,” Young said.

Listen here:

This from POLITICO:

“During a sit-down interview with Ketchikan Public Radio this week, I used a term that was commonly used during my days growing up on a farm in Central California,” he said later Thursday, according to reports. “I know that this term is not used in the same way nowadays, and I meant no disrespect.”

Young went on to praise the role migrant workers play in society and called for the country to address immigration reform.

Oh well, it’s not like he “blacked out” like Alabama State Rep. Joe Mitchell did recently (more on that soon). That said, maybe as an act of contrition Don Young makes a strong push for immigration reform by getting his fellow Congressional Republican cohorts in line, yes?

The post Rep. Don Young Apologizes for “Wetbacks” Radio Comment appeared first on Madness & Reality.

As of late, we’ve seen a resurgence of the labor movement of sorts. Unionized workers all across the country have banded together in a show of solidarity. As they fight to maintain not only their collective bargaining agreements, in most cases, they’re also fighting to maintain their dignity hearkening back to Martin Luther King Jr’s show of support for Memphis sanitation workers. As these various movements across the country grows, the story of one particular group of workers paramount to the success of our future isn’t being heard.
Hundreds of teachers from the Caribbean claim that New York’s Department of Education (DOE) lured them to city schools with false promises of green cards and financial aid. In a massive rally on the steps of City Hall in lower Manhattan on Sunday, the teachers, supported by the New York-based Association of International Educators (AIE) and the Black Institute, demanded immediate action and response to what they described as “the lack of support from the DOE, which has resulted in the 10-year uphill battle to get on the right path to permanent residency.”

AIE chair, Judith Hall, said that the teachers have been treated as “indentured servants.”

“How is this possible when we were chosen because we were the best and brightest our countries had to offer?” she asked.

“This is an egregious situation, and we are demanding redress on the city, state, federal and international levels,” she added.

A report released on Sunday by the Black Institute on behalf of the AIE, entitled, Broken Promises: The Story of Caribbean International Teachers in New York City’s Public Schools, claimed that the Caribbean teachers were first lured to New York by promises of continued educational opportunities, housing assistance, and a path to permanent residency in the United States.

It said the teachers “uprooted their families in the hopes of redefining a better future.”

Recruited by New York City Public Schools, beginning in 2001, the AIE said it was formed by Caribbean teachers, “who continue to feel victimized.”

The association provides them with a support group, as well as the opportunity to combine efforts to find a solution.

The AIE said, in early 2001, when the U.S. economy was booming and there was a teacher shortage, more than 500 teachers from the Caribbean came to New York City schools to work.

After almost 10 years, the AIE said most of the teachers still lack green cards, adding their immigration status “makes it impossible for their spouses and children to work.”

The teachers are, therefore, demanding a meeting with Schools Chancellor Cathie Black and legal assistance from the Education Department.

President and founder of the Black Institute, Bertha Lewis, said the Broken Promises report highlights the “hidden nexus of education and immigration reform.

“These teachers were recruited to teach in some the most difficult and poorest school districts.  They did what was asked of them, and they deserve to be treated fairly and humanely,” she said, adding, “promises were made, promises were broken; this report calls upon the DOE to keep its promises.”

Trinidad-born Antoinette Nesbitt, who came to New York in August 2001, said she is frustrated and outraged by the lack of respect shown to Caribbean teachers.

“Teachers are professional role models for school children every day in the classroom, yet this process of our teachers obtaining green cards has been drawn out over many years because the Department of Education chosen attorneys have classified us as unskilled workers,” said Nesbitt, who has been teaching special education at Public School 276 in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn ever since her arrival here.

“This classification is costing us financially. We have to pay visa-related fees annually, and we experience lost income because our spouses and dependents are unable to work,” she added, fearing that she and her colleagues would be deported back to the Caribbean if they are laid off because of a lack of green card. (source)In any discussion centered on education or education reform, it is always noted that our teachers are undervalued. Which is a shame in itself here in these United States of America, supposedly in the wealthiest nation in the world. But to recruit teachers from other countries – the best of the best in their field of occupation – and not hold up on your end of the bargain, only to have them existing pretty much as undocumented workers is just down right ridiculous. It’s especially ridiculous in this supposed land of opportunity and the free.

Yet in 2011, these teachers are treated like slave labor, fresh off the Middle Passage. The difference being, they were invited here, and are actually card-carrying union members. It’s a shame they’re good enough to educate children, but not worthy of being respected as professionals. Instead, by virtue of being from third world countries, they’re treated like migrant agricultural workers. As a son of the Caribbean, and also of Caribbean educators who came before me, this is truly disappointing. What’s next, undocumented doctors and nurses? One has to wonder, were they recruited from Europe would this be an issue?

Checkout the clip and spread the word, will you?

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According to recent polling, most Americans support Arizona’s new immigration law. And why would they feel this way? Well, that’s easy. They simply associate the “illegal” portion of the term “illegal immigrant”, to unlawfulness, or the unlawful behaviors of said immigrant. Keepin’ it real, this has been a longtime racially stereotypical mainstream acceptance associated with people of color; or more specifically in this case: Mexicans. Yep, and the only acceptable Mexican in Arizona, is Brad Pitt.

Look, the only people committing crimes in this country are illegal Mexican immigrants, right? Yes, and this is nothing new; they even made a television series back in the day which alluded to this very premise, called The Cisco Kid. When you have a television show that depicts two Mexican Desperadoes riding around toting automatic weapons in guitar cases, what do you expect?

And then there’s that whole Mexican drug war/unsecured border thing happening that we hear about in the news everyday. Obviously anyone paying attention to these news stories are going to believe that all Messikans are coked out drug runners; which is actually true by the way. Which, is exactly the reason we need to forget about building a secure border fence, and instead, work on putting a dome over the entire country. Hell, we could even have a retractable roof like the new Dallas Cowboys stadium even!

That said, why wouldn’t the majority of Americans appreciate the new Arizona law, which coincidentally, is being considered by other states? I mean, we gotta clamp down on these criminals or else we’ll be overrun by hoards of ruthless Tony Montana wannabes, right?  OK, so I know Tony Montana was Cuban; but, we all know that Cuba, just like Puerto Rico, is a small village in Mexico, right? The important thing here, is that the last thing we need is for us all to have to learn Spanish in order to be able to purchase an occasional sack of weed.

So with all of that said above, and given the current climate of the threat of illegal Mexican immigrants who just might be an Al Queda splinter cell. It’s no coincidence that Federal Agents, in an attempt to not seem soft on crime, and illegal immigrant friendly, did the following last week. Ironically, this all went down one day before last Saturday’s May Day protest rallies all across the country. I say lock them all up, and build a wall dammit:
ATLANTA (AP) – Federal agents say they have arrested 596 immigrants with criminal records during a three-day immigration enforcement sweep across the Southeast.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Friday that the operation, dubbed Operation Cross Check, was the largest ever conducted by the agency targeting foreign nationals convicted of crimes. They said the immigrants have already served their sentences and authorities will now seek to deport them.

Atlanta ICE Field Director Felicia Skinner says that “communities around the Southeast are safer than they were before” as a result. She said three of the people arrested this week had been convicted of murder and 144 were convicted on assault charges.Don’t you feel safer now that you know this? Yep, at least we can say that this week, little old ladies can safely walk the streets again. You gotta admit, being elderly, and not having to worry about being hit in the head and robbed by a Mexican, is a welcomed feeling. I mean, I’d take worrying about death panels over that any day if I were an elderly person.

Yep, and did you see where they caught three people who had been convicted of murder? Uh-huh, those Mexicans kill you know? John F. Kennedy assassination? A Mexican. Mratin Luther King Jr.? Killed by a Mexican. The Oklahoma City bombing? Mexican. Biggie and Tupac? Um, hello! The BP Gulf oil spill? Shit, I’m pretty sure Bernie Madoff is Mexican too.

So look, anybody who tells you that the Arizona immigration law is racist, and spews turds from the mouth as they babble something about racial profiling? You be sure and correct them, and be sure to let them know that there’s nothing racial about “effective policing” practices. Yes, and don’t pay any attention to anyone who tells you anything about the positive effects of Comprehensive Immigration Reform on our economy either.

Those people who say that are liable to say something stupid like “globalization” has something to do with creating the problem that is the presence of the Mexican criminal element in the country. The truth is, this country would be a better, and safer place without Mexicans. And, as jacked up as is the unemployment crisis right now? I’m pretty sure white folks would be glad to get back the opportunity to stand outside of Home Depot in hopes of finding work at those cheap prices.

Lou Dobbs 2012!

NOTE: If you agree with anything I said above, drink 5 cups of warm bleach, and kill yourself.

The post The Cisco Kid was a Friend of Mine: Forget Building a Border Fence, Let’s Put a Dome Over America appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Most of you, probably get annoyed by Christmas music on the radio, in the office, being played 24/7. Wouldn’t it totally suck if there was a Christmas music radio station that played nothing but Christmas music all year long? And wouldn’t it be really messed up if your boss was raised by elves and he kept the office radio on that station all year long? Yeah, the though that it’s not like that, is what gets me through this season at the office every year. Although I hate the music, I’m thankful that my boss wasn’t raised by an Amish guy with a weight problem who has a fetish for midgets and reindeer.

My favorite Christmas song on the radio is a classic; come to think of it, they’re all classics! But my favorite song every year is “Feliz Navidad”. I don’t know who sings it but I know its done by a Mexican dude; a pretty nice Mexican dude, I might add. He was so nice, that he saw it fit to sing and record the song in part Spanish and part English – yeah, yeah, sure some of you may think he was probably really trynna get a green card when he did that, and I understand. Now I’ll be honest, for a long time I didn’t know what Feliz Navidad meant, and actually, every time I heard it, I thought he was saying…”RELEASE NAVIDAD.”

Yup, I thought it was a song about a Hispanic dude named Navidad sitting in jail for fence jumping or some other one of the many crimes those “illegal aliens” are known to commit. I always thought it was pretty cool how the dude who sung it remembered his friend at Christmas. Not many people think about people in jail at Christmas time, so I thought it was quite noble of the guy. I mean, he wanted his friend released from jail for the holidays, and I’m sure everyone in jail around Christmas time wishes they were at home with their families.

A few years ago at work this lady actually told me what the words of the song really meant. But, I still hold on to the idea of Navidad being released for Christmas every time I hear it, because, well, nobody in this country ever thinks about the thousands of detained immigrants languishing virtually in limbo in our federal penal system awaiting deportation. Some of whom never get the chance because of death due to poor medical treatment while in custody.

You’d think by now, since Christmas is like 2000yrs old somebody would invent some new Christmas songs. New lyrics instead of the same old stuff we hear every year. If that happened, it would make for an interesting Christmas radio season. Actually, what they should do, is they should do that and have like a Grammy Award category for just Christmas music. That alone should motivate a few artists out there. Hell, they’d all be dropping Christmas albums with all new material, instead of the same old tired audio assaults on our ears.

I mean, every year some loser artist makes a Christmas album, and I often wonder who buys that crap (yeah Brian McKnight, what the fuck?!). I mean, duh, we already know the songs, and there’s only so many ways that they can change it up anyway! Lets be real folks, its not like it’s the Star Spangled Banner ya know; that’s the only song thats everybody knows that has a Pdiddy remix. But if the Grammy’s had a Christmas category that crap would stop, and we’d have new Christmas music every year.

Yes, we’d be happy instead of irritated by the idiot in the office who walks around singing the same songs and spreading holiday cheer. However, I doubt that would ever happen. Instead, we’re stuck with life as we know it in the office with stupid, repetitive Christmas songs.Speaking of which, checkout the link to this next song. It shows just how welcoming some Americans who call themselves conservatives from the website Human Events are, of our Hispanic neighbors as they spread their holiday cheer…

The post Spreading Holiday Cheer with Racist Christmas Songs appeared first on Madness & Reality.

(Editor’s Note: With it being Thanksgiving, and given that everyone is in a thankful and reflective mood. I wanted to share a post from one of the blogs I frequent: Organic.Intellectual. This post had me particularly thinking of all the Caribbean female relatives in my life who came before me; and, the women who are responsible for the very  the fabric of my soul today. Have a Happy Thanksgiving folks.)

On any given Sunday in Central Park, upscale Washington D.C. parks, or in the parking lots of frou-frou stores in Livingston, NJ you become aware that many upper class white women do not raise their children.

Often times, it is a Caribbean woman who must take care of other peoples’ children six or seven days out of the week, while leaving her children behind or at home to be cared for by extended family.

Caribbean nannies are invisible women that have replaced African-American domestics. There are of course Latinas, especially from Mexico and Central America, but it seems to be something about a black nanny that soothes childhood memories of the rich, white soul.

These diligent women cannot be forgotten. It was one from Guyana who blessed me one day when I was on the train job-hunting in West Orange. She sat next to me and we began to talk about our lives. She told me that she worked 5-6 days a week in West Orange. Usually, she went home to Queens on Friday evenings or Saturday mornings. She told me she did this to put her children through school.

When I told her I was in school for my PhD, she beamed in pride and began to whisper, ‘You know it is hard for us.’ She rubbed the skin on the back of her hand signaling her blackness and mine as well. I smiled and said, ‘Yes ma’am, you are right. It is very hard.’

She asked me where I was going. I told her I was reluctantly going back to Newark. I was trying to follow-up on a job and spent my last money taking the train to trek down a professor at a conference. You see I really wanted to go to this conference at CUNY on Blackness (this was a year or so ago), but did not have the money.

Without thinking, she pulled out a $20 bill and told me to go to New York and keep the change. She gave me blessings and said if we never saw each other again, she prayed to the Lord that I finished. Now that was some deep love I need and wasn’t expecting on a cold Northeastern day.

To me, this is one of the reasons why I persevere on the hardest days, because this doctoral thing is not just for me, but for the people’s whose shoulders I stand.

When we got off of the train, I saw her gait had a little limp. Maybe arthritis, maybe years of picking up other peoples’ kids and tending to the them when her back and hip did not permit.

I can never forget the Guyanese woman who helped me that day. It was on a Friday and she was coming from work and had given me some of her work money she just got from her ’employer’ who paid her in cash and under the table. That woman and all the women who clean stinky booties, scrub nasty floors, and go grocery shopping for people who pay them pennies, but have millions stashed, are the invisible we really need to see.

I thought of both of my grandmothers who were domestics in the South and the reality of the past hit me in the face. Where you had extended families of the South often rearing the children of family members, these Caribbean women may have limited support systems, or newly inducted kinship ties to make it through.

Rarely anyone addresses the high numbers of black Caribbean women tending to wealthy women’s babies. A juxtaposed irony, one privileged white woman and one working-class black immigrant woman. One who exploits, but is ever so dependent on the emotional and physical labor of the very person that is exploited.

Especially in the celebrity world where women fashionably have technologically implanted embryos, show off baby bumps to paparazzi, only to dump them onto nannies who silently rear the children as if they are their own mammy.

Or you have the other scenario of the celebs who adopt babies from brown and black countries as if they are socially conscious accessories. They show these children off in public with hair sticking up all over the place. Then they have Little Azziz smile for the camera on the way to Kabbalah class without a clue that they are being pimped.

These celebs who poorly imitate the work of humanitarians like Josephine Baker who adopted twelve children from around the world in the 50s and 60s. After she worked as a spy helping the US and France in WWII where she received full French military honors upon her death, she reached further into herself and adopted. Furthermore, she used all of her money from years of performing in France and throughout the globe to rear her children.

An unwavering supporter of Civil Rights, Baker was asked by Coretta Scott King to take the place of her husband after he was assassinated. You see, in the midst of adopting babies, she helped desegregate Las Vegas, Miami and upscale New York restaurants, march on Washington DC, and fund-raise for the NAACP. To Coretta’s dismay, Baker declined stating she could not do it because she did not want her children to lose their mother at a young age.

Another thing, Josephine Baker was sensitive to orphan children because her own mother, Carrie, who eventually helped her daughter rear the children until she died, was adopted in Arkansas in the late 1800s by a recently Emancipated couple.

Baker herself knew what it was like to be claimed by someone who was not kin. Her mother mysteriously got pregnant with Josephine while she was a domestic for a German family in the South. A local musician named Eddie Carson, accepted the responsibility (well, he claimed her).

Unfortunately, Baker spent all her fortunes rearing her children (her white American husband left her because she wanted more) and ended up homeless. She was kicked out of her chateau in France and onto the street, living similar to a bag lady. Actress-turned-princess consort, Grace Kelly, offered her a home in another part of Europe. Kelly befriended Baker years back when Baker was refused service in a New York socialite supperclub.

Baker, a woman deemed as the most beautiful by Poet Hemingway, was innately pristine—to the point that she gave her last dime to her children. Something Madonna or Angelina Jolie WOULD NOT.

Moreover, it was Baker’s children that were reasons why she went back to performing. She needed to make money to support her household, although she was of failing health. She died after her first night being back on the stage.

The post Guest Blogger: Invisible Lives of Caribbean Nannies (by EcoSoul) appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Occasionally I post stuff about the immigration debate here in our most wonderful nation. I do this because as an immigrant myself, I know all too well about the need for reform. That, plus the racism associated with the topic cannot be ignored. Last week DHS (Department of Homeland Security) secretary Janet Napolitano held a press conference announcing plans to attack the immigration reform issue by next January. Hopefully we’ll be past the health care reform quagmire so that we can focus solely on this issue.

Last weekend, there were anti-immigration tea parties held all across the nation to express the usual vitriol as anti-immigration groups and organizations do. Organizations who are well connected and heavily funded by recognized hate groups. One such hate group is the organization founded by John Tanton known as F.A.I.R. (Federation for American Immigrant Reform) – group that got its start by funds from the Pioneer Foundation, a conservative organization who are of the belief that some races are genetically superior to others.

“As Whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an explosion?” – John Tanton (F.A.I.R.  Founder & Director)

[Click to checkout a list of Congressmen connected to FAIR]

A key figure in the Pioneer Fund nexus is Roger Pearson. He was one of the main PF recipients ($787,400 as of 1993) and was editor of two important racist journals:  The Mankind Quarterly (articles from which are frequently cited in The Bell Curve) and The Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies  (which has published racist articles by Jensen, Levin, Gottfredson, and other PF recipients). A book Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party, by Russ Bellant, provides the following information about Pearson:

In spite of, or perhaps because of, his fascist past, Pearson became an influential political player when he moved to Washington, D.C. in 1975. He became the editor of the American Security Council’s Journal of International Relations and served on the board of the ASC’s American Foreign Policy Institute. The ASC was formed and run by retired military officers, corporate executives, and conservative politicians to promote a program of heavy military spending, support for cold war policies, aid to the Nicaraguan contras and UNITA in Angola, etc. Its political arm is the Coalition for Peace Through Strength, whose constituent organizations have ties to the fascist right, which Bellant details. The ASC was a highly influential organization during the Reagan and Bush administrations, with close ties to the military, the National Security Council, and State Dept. officials. Pearson’s co-editors on the ASC’s journal was James Angleton, former CIA deputy director for counterintelligence, and Robert Richardson, a retired Air Force general later revealed to be aiding gunrunning to Libya. So Pearson moved in high governmental and political circles.

During this time Pearson became associated with the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank influential in forming Reagan administration policy. Pearson was close to Edwin Fuelner, president of the Heritage Foundation, and joined the editorial board of Policy Review, the monthly HF magazine. In turn HF official Stuart Butler and editorial board member Ernest van den Haag (the long time writer for the National Review, who has publicly stated his opposition to school integration and support for Shockley’s sterilization proposals), joined the advisory committee of Pearson’s Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies. (Read More Here)
So as you can see, just with this one organization alone, just like Big Pharma and the anti-health care reform “grass-roots” organizations, their influence and power extends well beyond the normal eye can see. Yes folks, there is power in the almighty dollar. And coupled with a voice – or a bunch of noisemakers, depending on how you’re looking at it – they can be quite effective, just like the voice of  a young man who goes by the name of “Robert Erickson”. Check him out as he spoke at an anti-immigration tea party last weekend:

Wasn’t that genius or what?!! The look of shock and horror on the faces of the idiots in the crowd was priceless. Surely something like this isn’t going to happen at every anti-immigration protest in th months to come. However, I just wanted you to realize that when this debate starts next year, the disinformation, fear-mongering, and blatant racist rhetoric will rear it’s ugly head even more than it already has within out national political discourse, so get ready.

What this kid, and the other members of his group did was brave, and is to be commended. Let’s hope that next year there will be more brave soldiers in the fight for equality for a people who have already been dehumanized by being labeled as being illegal. Immigrants have had a positive contribution to this country economically and otherwise, as have everyone who came here, be it by choice or by force.

Besides, isn’t there a statue somewhere in this country that says:

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Hat-tip to the blog: stuff white people do

The post Who said those people protesting immigration reform were racist? appeared first on Madness & Reality.

You, know, stories like:

Hispanic Ohio teen gets noose around neck and dragged by a truck.

Or…

Armed radical “Minutemen” kill father and 9yr old in Anti-Immigration hate.

There are both stories of incidents which have transpired within the last few weeks but yet not a peep of it in the news nationally. Again, not trying to downplay some of the other recent incidents; but when a teenager gets drug with a noose around his neck by White kids, and a father and his 9yr old daughter gets killed by White folks, and in both separate incidents and they’re Hispanic, isn’t that newsworthy? They don’t even receive honorable mention? Where is the Hispanic Al Sharpton? Screw that; where is Al Sharpton on these incidents? Maybe I’m wrong but I see these acts as sober injustices, and though the victims are not African American, I do believe their story should be told. Personally I think our Black leaders do themselves a grave dishonor by not highlighting and taking a stand with our Brown brothers and sisters. If they did, maybe, just maybe, it would lead to a decline in the Black on Brown beef in our country, no?

With Father’s Day just around the corner, I’m sure that everyone knows the story by now of the guy who has been fighting to get his 8yr old son back from Brazil, right? I’m sure that you can sympathize with him; after all, his wife who was from Brazil not only bounced to Brazil on vacation with his then 4yr old son, she divorced him, got remarried and had another child. So she dies while giving birth to the kid, and now he has to fight for custody and has been for the last four years. Yeah, that sounds like a sad story and I hope he gets his kid back. This story has been in the news quite a bit recently.

But what about this one:

“In Pascagoula, Mississippi, in November 2008, Cirila Baltazar Cruz gave birth to a baby girl. Soon after, her daughter was taken away from her because she could not communicate with the hospital attendants.

Far away from her native Oaxaca, Mexico, she did not understand the Puerto Rican interpreter assigned to her. Cirila speaks Chatino, an indigenous Mexican language spoken by about 50,000 people. A social worker called in by hospital authorities deemed the new mother negligent and unfit to raise the baby, stating as reasons that she was an “illegal immigrant” and that she did not speak English.

To date, no one has asked the mother to provide evidence of support. She owns a home in Mexico and a store which provides both secure shelter and financial support, not counting the nurturing of a loving family of two other siblings, a grandmother, aunts, uncles and other extended family.

Baltazar Cruz is up for deportation, while her daughter is reported to be with an affluent Ocean Springs couple.

About 65 percent of Pascagoula’s 26,000 residents are white. Only 904 Pascagoulans are foreign born — about 20 of them from Latin America. Since most of the people that live in this tiny Gulf Coast town are isolated from the realities of immigrant life, it seems the authorities involved acted first and asked questions later. Now a woman has been separated from her child and can only wait to be sent back to her home country.

The Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance has started a campaign to reunite mother and child by asking people to pressure Mississippi. officials. Get more information about Cirila Baltazar Cruz, along with the addresses and phone numbers of the authorities to contact, here, and help right a wrong.” – [Source:RaceWire.org]Not exactly a Hate Crime, but her child was practically stolen from her, no? If this was to happen to an English speaking American in a foreign non-English speaking country, do you think this would be allowed to go unnoticed? That said, why do these stories get ignored by the media? Is it because they don’t have the complexion for the connection? Are these people not human beings deserving of justice and equal protection under the law just like we all assume for ourselves?

The post How come we never talk about hate crimes against Hispanics? How come they’re never heard of in the news? appeared first on Madness & Reality.

The evidence gathered in the initial stages of the investigation all had the makings of a hate crime. Luis was jumped by these white kids, beaten, kicked and stomped while being told to go back to Mexico. When I wrote about this last year, I mentioned that this story was so low key and that just like the Jena 6 case, there was a need for some activism to bring about justice. Well, that didn’t happen, and the kids were just acquitted of third degree murder by an all white jury. Instead, they were convicted of a simple assault. I don’t know about you, but this serves as yet another reminder of the fact that justice is not color blind.

Check it out:

Did you notice just how elated a few of those people were as they exited the courtroom? Did anyone forget that a young man died as result of the actions of these kids? I guess not since it took the police some time to arrest anyone even though they knew who they were.

“He was at our house all day that afternoon. And it was around maybe 11:00, he asked us to take him uptown to drop him off, whatever, he was going to go home. So, we leave him at the Vine Street Park, and we drive away, Victor and I, and about two minutes later he called us and told us to come back, that people were beating him up. So we get back as fast as we could. And when we get there, he was—like the fight was over, like the boys were walking away, but they were still screaming like racial slurs, like “Go back to Mexico!”
And so, Victor and I ran up to Luis, and we said, “What happened?” But he was so mad, he wasn’t really talking to us. And those kids kept yelling stuff, and he went back, and the kids turned around, and the fight started again. So Victor, my husband, tried to like stop the fight. He tried to get the kids off of Luis, but kids were trying to fight my husband. So my husband got the kids off of him, and we couldn’t stop the fight between Luis and the—but next thing we know, Luis was on the floor. And so, me and Victor, we ran up to his side, and we were at his side. We were trying to wake him up, and the kids are still like kicking him and kicking him. And somebody—I don’t know who, but they kicked him like in the left side of his head so hard that that’s what killed him.” – Arielle Garcia (witness and friend of the deceased)
(CLICK HERE TO SEE OR READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW)

I just think it’s sad that minorities and immigrants -whether legal or illegal – are criminalized and are often the source racial bias and stereotype when it comes to crime. But yet, here is an immigrant who was clearly the victim of a hate crime which lead to his death, and the accused gets to walk free on a lesser charge of assault. Was his life any less valuable than yours or mine? This verdict says it is, and it’s a damn shame that this is the uncomfortable truth that is America – a country known for freedom, justice and equality. Ironically, a few days ago the gov’t passed an new Hate Crime Bill in Congress. As usual, most Republicans in Congress voted against it. Why should there even be a debate about such a measure? Lemme guess, not enough people have died like Luis Ramirez pictured above?

QUESTION(S):Why is it that minorities often hold the “shitty end of the stick” when it comes to justice? Do you think if this story and case were highly publicized that the outcome would have been different?

The post Hate Crime? What Hate Crime? White Folks Don’t Hate! appeared first on Madness & Reality.

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You can say what you want,but you gotta love America. Its easy to sit around and criticize this country. Think about it,its not hard to take a look around and see some of the most ridiculous shit here. But hey,perfection is a myth,anybody who tells you any different is a fool. As bad as it is,people come here every year to seek a better life for themselves and their families. Its like I noted in a previous blog,its about LIFE,LIBERTY and THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. I want you to take the time to think about some of the things you love about this country. I’d like you to really think about it and share this with me in your comments.

Remember career day back in grade school? They brought in different people to tell us about their jobs. This was supposed to give us as kids something to shoot for in life. After career day we all wanted to be fire-fighters, policemen, doctors, lawyers, nurses etc. Me, I always wanted to be a lawyer. I guess at an early age I liked the idea of having a commanding presence in a crowd,while having the ability to impact lives. Hey I was only 7yrs old when I came to that conclusion. One time I cried when they didn’t pick me to play the part of a lawyer in a school play! Yeah thats how serious that shit was to me. But somewhere along the line I lost sight of my goal. So as it stands right now,instead of practicing law….I blog. Umm that was a joke…you were supposed to laugh DUH. But the one thing that career day didn’t show us, is the fact that failure is an option.

Right now I know you’re looking at the screen like WTF!

Ok,lemme rewind that….

FAILURE IS AN OPTION!

Yeah thats right,this is America! You have the freedom to fail as much as you have the freedom to succeed. Failure is responsible for some good stuff in this country. Hell if it wasn’t for failure,there would be no lap dances and strip clubs! Yeah, thats right! Did you REALLY think all those girls were stripping just to pay for college?!?!? So you see my friend, thats one of the things that I love about this country. We take forgranted the freedom that we have, and along the way we become unappreciative of what we have.

Allow me to introduce you to Mark Griffin…

check out this clip….You probably cried at this poor guys story didn’t you? You know what I did? I laughed! I laughed because his idea was the dumbest shit I’ve seen in a long time. Plus, its as though this dude was hearing NO, for the first time about his invention. I’m pretty sure his wife, or one of his homies told him his shit was stupid. But noooo, he didn’t listen. Having a dream in life is a good thing. People do make it in this world. But people also fail….and some people are just stupid. Don’t be afraid to say that I’m wrong in your comment if you don’t agree with me (I hate when everybody agrees with me,it makes me think I’m crazy like the guy in the clip). But see this is America and this is what you can do in America. You have the freedom to be an idiot if you choose! Nobody is gonna get mad at you. People like me are gonna laugh at your ass, and you’re probably gonna get some strange looks but other than that? Nah!. And this again,is one of the reasons why I love America. As messed up as it may be, be happy that you are free to do stupid shit and have me write about you.

The post ONLY IN AMERICA appeared first on Madness & Reality.