I don’t agree. A statement stands or falls on its own merits. You’re saying that because bigots ALSO say they’re against illegal immigration, a non-bigot who expresses his opposition to illegal immigration must carefully qualify his position. Sorry - I don’t accept that necessity.
Actually, there might be something to this. I am absolutely convinced, that human beings in general, and Americans in particular, need someone to HATE. Some disenfranchised underclass of people, that we can separate from, point fingers at, and laugh at them and say, “at least I’m not anything like THAT jerkass!” Problem is, there aren’t many disenfranchised groups left, thanks to the virulent spread of Political Correctness.
We can’t demonize blacks, Jews, or gays anymore. Cigarette smokers used to be a hot item (ironically, Colorado recently passed a sweeping anti-smoking law) but that’s become passe. Gang members? Too 90’s. Pedophiles? Too scary and unreliable, just look how the John Mark Karr case turned out (man, what a ratings loss that was for the networks!) High school bullies can’t even pick on those weird-looking kids anymore, not since they started picking up guns and shooting up their classmates.
What’s left? Illegal immigrants. And it’s disingenuous to think there isn’t a little bit of racial bias here, since all the debate you hear and all the pictures you see are about immigrants from BROWN countries. Heck, I live in a neighborhood where 10% of the population is fresh off the boat from Russia & other Eastern European countries, and certainly not all of them are legal…but do we complain about them? Nope, it’s that Guatemalan maid and that Mexican waking me up with the leafblower at 8 a.m., those are the so-called “criminals” that appear on the news.
Of course, there is another issue here- almost no one pays Employment taxes (etc) on day laborers, so there’s a tax evasion issue too.
You know who was a day labourer? HITLER!
Seriously, as a young man in Vienna in 1910, he couldn’t get into an art academy and had a few lean years. I just throw this in for laughs.
Um, my ex (US born white guy) worked as a day laborer after getting out of high school while he thought about what he was going to do with his life. He made good money doing it. I think we actually have a business here that puts day laborers with jobs. He’d just go in and see if there was anything for him to do that day, meaning someone came in saying he needed workers and he felt like working that day. He helped a guy move from his house, re-arranging merchandise or some such thing at Home Depot, and all sorts of different things. He was totally legit, and I doubt that the day-labor place asked for a birth certificate for someone who just walks in one day.
If he was alive today William E. Miller would be spinning in his grave.
[
](http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4952608,00.html)Here is some good video of Councilwoman Wallace expressing her views on the matter.
Er, forgot to mention. During a 60 Minutes interview some years after the '64 election he talked about living on a cash only basis.
I don’t think it’s good, but I think it’s often necessary. Negative (in this case, racist) expressions of a particular position tend to overwhelm legitimate uses in what people think of those who use those expressions. Unfortunately, we do sometimes get judged based on what people who hold opinions similar to ours say and do.
I have to side with Airman Doors here, although I see your point. Yeah, a lot of the “concern” over illegal immigration has to do with racism. But let’s do a thought experiment – suppose we had millions of white Canadians illegally streaming over the border to find jobs and, well, warmth. Would there be “no problem” with that? Would no one be concerned?
I think there would STILL be a lot of concern in the US. They would still pose tremendous problems in terms of finding housing and jobs and educating their kids. You wouldn’t have to be a racist to think that’s an issue. And I think many who are concerned about illegal immigration are not racists for that reason.
That said, I’m sure the same racists who back the Pubbies because they oppose affirmative action, etc., also are “concerned” about illegal immigration because the people involved are brown. But you should be able to raise the issue on a debate board without being described as a racist, or even considered a potential racist, unless you gave other clues that indicate racism, which I’ve seen no sign of from Airman Doors.
It’s like saying Hitler was a vegetarian, thus Vegetarians must be Nazis. 
Airman Doors, USAF is right. Day laborers is not just about illegal immigration, and being against illegal immigration isn’t just about racism. And, I do wish dudes would quit hijacking threads like this one to equate the two. (Yes, if6was9, I mean you).
Well, stop it.
Your statement is utterly passive. We are on a message baord dedicated to fighting ignorance – and instead of fighting ignorance by attacking those making sweeping generalizations, you call on those being swept to refine their presentation. You’re on the wrong side of this.
Anti-illegal immigrant = racist because none of them are insisting on buiding a wall along the Canadian border. Just the Mexican one.
That’s because the difference is tenfold. From here, courtesy of numerous sources, the number of illegal Mexicans amounted to 57% of the total along with another 25% from Latin and South America, who likely did not come in to the country from Canada. That’s 82% who almost certainly came in via our southern border. If you split the rest up you are forced to conclude that nearly 90% of our illegal immigrant population comes from the southern border with Mexico, not from the northern border with Canada. I think it’s easy to see where the problem lies.
Simply pointing this out is not racism either, by the way.
Indeed, the length of the border is also tenfold- Mexico 350 miles, Canada 4000 miles. It’d cost then **100X ** per “illegal” to build a border there. :rolleyes:
The man who worked on our yard for fifteen years could be called a day laborer. My parents paid him each day he showed up, and he certainly didn’t have a company name he worked under. That’s quite common for yard work.
-Lil
Methinks you did the math wrong. I don’t know what the length of the Mexican border is, but I’ll bet you $100 it’s > 350 miles.
You win the bet.
from Wikipedia:
US-Mexico: 1951 miles
US-Canada: 5522 miles
And add me to the “anti-illegal immigration != racist” camp.
The border is 1,951 miles long, to be precise.
We don’t have a problem with Canadian immigration since Canada has basically the same standard of living as the U.S., plus socialized medicine and Rush. Now, it’s true that most of the foreign terrorists who attacked this country came through Canada, not Mexico…but this isn’t about terrorism anyway. It’s about that guy picking strawberries in 120-degree heat, or moving my refrigerator when it needs to be moved, and these people obviously pose a greater threat to our security!!! :rolleyes:
Cite that most of the 9/11 terrorists came from Canada, and (more importantly wrt a fence) cite that they snuck across the border on foot?