We Are All “Illegal” In Springfield, TN
Put forth on September 23, 2006 by XicanoPwr
Posted in Immigration, Racism, Raza, Xenophobia
I like to thank Raw Story for picking my post. ¡Bienvenidos all Raw Story readers! Hope y’all stick around.
The Englishnistas have struck again. First we have the City of Bogota who was demanding that McDonald’s to take down it’s billboard that advertises iced coffee in Spanish because the mayor Steve Lonegan, felt that McDonald’s is sending a message to Spanish-speaking immigrants that they don’t need to learn English. Now it seems that a town in Tennessee (via Mixed Media Watch) has their own idea of an English only policy and a closed minded idea that if somebody is speaking Spanish, they must be illegal. According to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, several city council members from Springfield, TN are considering banning all Hispanics from their city parks.
“In last month’s Mayor and Aldermen Meeting on July 18, City Manager Paul Nutting and at least one Alderman made negative comments about the large number of Hispanics that populate the park on the weekends.”“In last month’s city meeting, Alderman Ken Cherry expressed concerns for safety in the parks because of the big Hispanic crowds on weekends. Monday, he admitted his sentiments are not limited to the parks. He said, ‘If I could do what I wanted to do, any illegal alien would be holed up in a barbwire tent and we’d haul them up to where they came from and turn them loose.’”
“When asked to comment on the possibility that not every Hispanic using the park was an ‘illegal immigrant’, Alderman Cherry responded, ‘If they’re speaking Spanish, I tend to think they are illegal.’ … On Tuesday he said, ‘The comment that I made about if they’re speaking Spanish they’re illegal immigrants, that’s probably a little strong. In my mind, that’s an indication that the possibility may…exist.’”
“Not all members of Springfield’s Board of Mayor and Alderman, however, are in agreement with Cherry’s position on the issue. Assistant City Manager Gina Holt said, ‘If you polled all seven of them, they’d all have a totally different opinion probably and as a board they have not taken any action yet as far as establishing any policies related to the parks or any other services right now.’”
“Springfield’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen plan to hold a community meeting on September 7 to discuss the issues they’ve encountered with what Alderman Cherry terms the ‘growing Hispanic problem.’ … Assistant City Manager Gina Holt said the goal of the September 7 board meeting is to achieve an arrangement that is fair and equitable for all.”
They provide a couple links to a news video, but I took the liberty to download and upload to YouTube. That is not a misprint, Alderman Ken Cherry literally did say that “If they’re speaking Spanish, I tend to think they are illegal” and that “any illegal alien would be holed up in a barbwire tent.” I wonder if that goes for all gringos who know Spanish. Watch the video.
If there are any Hispanics that really thought that this anti-immigration did not include you, well -
YOU BETTER THINK AGAIN BECAUSE THEY ARE COMING AFTER YOU!!!
(a thank you to theunapologeticmexican for the pic)
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This is the blog of Edmundo "XicanoPwr" Rocha, a social worker, an activist, freelance writer and founder and editor of The Sanctuary. My interests include: immigration reform, critical race theory and it's interaction with equality/inequality and freedom/oppression as they relate to the experiences of people of color in the Americas.
Para Justicia y Libertad is a Latino-centered political blog focusing on the humanistic perspective of politics, history, and society as they relate to the Latina/o community throughout Texas and the United States.
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what SOME residents ‘perceive’ as “anti-immigrant” sentiment?????? what other way is there to perceive this?
i’m losing my ability to be coherent on this issue, these issues. these people are insane. and skaredy kats.
good post.
Thanks, it seems it is open season on all Hispanics.
Good lord. hole us all up in a barb wire fence?
democracy at its finest.
Oh for fucks sake, what is the problem with this country?!? (rhetorical, i know). Grrrrr
Ken Cherry is a local dentist –
Here’s his office #:
H.Cherry Kenneth J DDS
615-384-2558
2105 Park Plaza Dr
Springfield TN 37172-3937
¡Que pendejo!
well if you hispanic-americans were helping to curb the flow of ILLEGAL ALIENS instead of aiding and abetting them, then your ethnic group wouldn’t be viewed so broadly by the rest of society. If your spokespersons didn’t keep insisting that ILLEGAL ALIENS are no different than legal IMMIGRANTS, then the rest of us might actually BELIEVE your whining about being “persecuted”. But you DO aid them, and you DO pretend they aren’t breaking the law, and you DO believe that the scofflaws aren’t any different than people who actually follow the LAW. You reap what you sow, people. And you’ve sown distrust in the greater community.
YerOwnFault, I see you are full of anger, and that anger clouds your views.
Is it against the law to talk in a foreign language other than Spanish? NO. Is it against the law to go to a park? NO. Last time I heard, Plessy v. Ferguson was overturned. But I don’t expect you to be able to grasp that. It contradicts the will to racist thought, which always maintains a power that none other may wield. Only in that illusory world might you posit that both races demonstrate the same effects when making the same motions. The fact is, under current US immigration law, an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal nor have they committed a crime in the way you make it seem. The only offense they commited is a civil violation, the same way speeding is considered a civil violation. So should put everybody who speeds in a barbwire tent and place a the scarlet letter S on their car to make a public example?
So before you go to work, make you sure you are driving the legal speed limit, I surely don’t want you to be considered an illegal.
Have a nice day.
When someone uses the term illegal alien the first thing that comes to my mind is a big fat guy with a cigar sticking out of his mouth telling the little green man that just got out of a space ship, “its illegal to park there fella, ya gotta move that thing.
XP- Tax evasion and the list of all the other crimes that go with illegal status are not civil violations and are felonies. Other countries actually have quotas on them for how many people can immigrate to the US every year. And they have to learn English, before applying. So why should one group be treated differently? Illegal status actually hurts people. Not all immigrants are a problem. But you can’t tell me that any group that moves to a country and refuses to conform is not hurting themselves as well as those around them. One example is by making the whole group a target in the eyes of the majority.
XP - While it isn’t “against the law” to speak in a foreign language, the hispanic community has so tainted their reputation with the rest of society by aiding these criminals that it’s unsurprising the rest of society would look at those of hispanic origins and language with suspicion. You don’t hear about anyone looking suspiciously at people who speak Portugese, now do you? Why is that, do you suppose? Maybe because THEY aren’t helping millions of their cousins, uncles, brothers, sisters and old aunties to sneak into the country like theives in the night.
Do you deny that the hispanic community aids and abets these border-jumping scofflaws and then whines when others look at them with suspicion? Do you deny that illegal immigrants KNOW that they aren’t supposed to be here yet pule and whine about how unfair it is for us to attempt to keep them in their OWN country? Do you deny that these cheaters use FORGED identification (which IS a criminal offense)? Do you deny that they purchase STOLEN identities to aid them in blending into American society? Do you deny that they LIE on job applications when they attest that they are legally able to work in the U.S. (also against the law)? Do you deny that they undercut the minimum wage and workplace safety laws by working for substandard wages and in unsafe conditions? Well, XP…do you? And speaking of driving…do you deny that they ignore our liscensing and insurance laws?
Bah! You enablers whine about “racists” and “xenophobes” while refusing to admit that it’s only the ILLEGALS that 99.9% of us have a problem with. It’s always easier to blame others for how you’re treated instead of looking at how YOU may have brought the situation upon yourselves. And you don’t know me or anything about me yet you toss out the epithet of “racist”. You just make assumptions because I don’t think PITY is a good enough reason to throw open our borders to anyone and everyone. Am I angry? DAMN straight I am.
Not only is there no law prohibiting people from
speaking any language they please, there is no national language law. Take over! That’s what really scares those monolinguals.
Sweet jebus!
Hey, YerOwnFault, maybe you’d be more comfortable if the hispanics just used separate drinking fountains. Not to be snarky and all, but I don’t think TOO much dust has accumulated on the extra fountians that were used down in tennessee once upon a time. (and before the south rises to smite me, the MOST racist places I’ve ever been are in Ohio. And I’ve lived in Texas, South Carolina, Florida panhandle, etc…)
And if “racist” and ‘xenophobe” offend you, YOF, then perhaps you should take a look at your rhetoric.
FYI, google “fruit crop 2006 rotting” for a look at what happens when fine upstanding ‘mericans decide that picking crops is beneath them. While your at it try this link http://colorado.mediamatters.org/items/200609250001.
Talk show guest’s solution for a lack of immigrants to pick fruit is to have “the mildly retarded” do it. Can’t actually pay real people real wages to do it.
“Pity”!! Wholly crap. Perhaps your next little rant should be aimed at Dole, Del Monte, Safeway and all the other companies that are hiring those people who “undercut the minimum wage and workplace safety laws by working for substandard wages and in unsafe conditions”. Vent your anger on the ones HIRING. If the jobs dry up, so do the immigrants…. but don’t hold your breathe…. and enjoy that lettuce that costs the same as it did 15 years ago.
It’s a cultural thing. I’ve been to Mexico, Niceragua, and Costa Rica, and everyone hangs out at the parks on weekends. There would be music playing and people dancing. It’s just what people did. Europe’s the same way. People would work 10 hour days M-Th in order to hang out with their friends and drink wine in the park on Friday afternoon. White-America just doesn’t use parks as much for some reason. I don’t know why. So really, if the town is worried about too many Hispanics in the city parks, why don’t they try to get more people to go to them. We all pay for them, we might as well use them.
I feel like I’m back in the 1960’s: back of the bus, separate white and black drinking fountains,etc. I was just 12 years old then and already knew there was intolerance and evil in this world. What a horrible thing for a child to know. Shame on us.
good lord, YOF, if it’s so damn upsetting to you why don’t you work with your OWN government to eliminate NAFTA? Why don’t you demand that your own government stop working hand in hand with Fox to pressure it’s own citizens to come over here and work as cheap labor? Mexicans have solutions too, unfortunatly, bigots and racists are more concerned about punishing and imprisoning rather than actually working to fix the problem.
this post had nothing to do with border politics anyway, this was about a group of people who are being threatened with violence because they speak spanish and go to a park. isn’t this police state that we live in wonderful? I wonder what conservatives are going to do when liberals are in power use this police state against THEM? listen to some of your smarter leaders like pat buchanan–he knows things fluctuate like crazy, and eventually, it will swing around again to liberal control of the government.
What a gross level of insensitivity; the “Public Square” is a vital element in the Hispanic social fabric. You will not find a town anywhere in Mexico not having a Plaza Machado. The custom is a throw back to the European “Commons,” (long before TV and Sunday afternoon football games of modern times).
yof: I was born here in this country and I speak both English and Spanish. I was always under the impression that in this country we had the right to speak whatever language we wanted to. Newspapers were printed in many different language and so were government publications. You may want to go back and check your immigration history before bashing anyone for speaking a language other than what you speak. What you also seem to forget is that by having people speak more than one language also helps this country by making it more competitive in the global economy.
As to your assumption that I or anyone else is “sneaking” anyone into this country you are wrong. My family was also born here and have been here for several generations.
What I do object to is broad-assumptions by those who simply do not choose to examine history or facts. I also object to those who would make assumptions about an enitre group of people. That is just plain wrong.
Gee, I wonder if the dentist will have a problem with people speaking Nahuatl, Triqui, Mixtec, Zapotec…
Living in Phoenix, I have experienced firsthand how Hispanics like to take over the parks and practically intimidate any one else from using the same public space. Parks were once a refuge in the city; now they’re extended backyards for people who have no respect for the environment or the culture in which they have inserted themselves.
It’s the idiot advocay groups that started all of this mess! Damn them!! Hispanic-anglo relations were fine until some amigos in California tried to exploit the immigration issue for their own political gain. While most Hispanics were calling for a guest worker program and amnesty, there are a few nuts out there screaming about Aztlan and taking back California and parts of the U.S. You don’t think that the anglos are going to freak out when they hear that stuff and see Mexican nationals on TV carrying flags of the homeland? This hate you speak of is partly of our own doing!!!!
Without drudging through details or pointing fingers at either side, there have been many ill intended and well intended failures on every level of all parties involved.
We ‘Gringos’ have greedily allowed illegal workers because it’s cheap labor and it boosts cashflow in our communities. The legal immigrant population has been remiss in separating itself from the illegal population. The illegal immigrant population (and I’m not limiting this to Hispanics, as there are legal and illegal Turks, Africans, etc. here, as well) have abused the system in both minor and major ways for personal gain at the expense of others.
These things have occurred in every race and society since the beginning of time. Why would we think it wouldn’t happen in the Good Ol’ US of A? Poor planning and greed caused this failure mode. We have forced ourselves to have to react to a situation that we have played a major hand in causing. Again, history repeating itself.
I do think illegal immigrants should not be allowed to stay. I think the legal immigrants should try to assimilate with their adopted new homes (were I to move to Mexico would I not be expected to learn Spanish?). I think the ‘natives’ here should be open to the infused cultural blending of our new potential citizens. We should be more welcoming and less fearful. These things are probably too much to hope for.
Nevertheless, as I’m of Native American descent, I think I can speak somewhat objectively and say that immigration has been a problem to deal with for about 400 or so years. It was less of a problem when there were millions of miles of open space. Now that we are a more compact society the problem has increased.
A few hundred years ago it was like: “Sure, come on down…we have corn and tobacco, you got whisky?…please leave your diseases at home (they seem like nice Englishmen…surely they have no bad intent).” Now it’s more like: “Um….We’re kind of out of room here (we brought all our friends with us and relocated our hosts to this wonderful resort area called a reservation (no reservations required)…so we have to have many, many rules to manage keeping the immigrants out (unless it profits us) so that immigrants won’t do to us (Aztlan and stuff) what we did to our hosts hundreds of years ago (posession is 9/10ths of the law, you know).
Wow, kinda got on a rant there.
Bottom line: we are in the position we are in because, as a majority, people of all races are short-sighted, greedy bastards on the base level.
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