Micaiah ben Malachi and I, too, have watched parts of "Lou Dobbs Tonight" on CNN, and have heard him made numerous racist statements about illegal immigrants being to blame for the social and economic problems here in the United States. Of course, as people of color--I being Asian and Micaiah being Black and Native-American--we were offended, and, thus, stopped watching the show altogether. While it is good that Lou Dobbs was forced to resign, he is not the only one to make racial statements publicly on major radio and television networks. Like Lou Dobbs, Paul Harvey (who is now deceased) and Rush Limbaugh ranted and raved about "the browning of America" in reference to Hispanic immigrants as well as the intermixing of Whites with people of color in marriage relationships, and creating mixed-race offspring. In addition, just recently, Lynn Samuels, who has her own talk show on Sirius-XM Radio, has jumped on the band wagon with Lou Dobbs, stating that President Barack Obama should publicly present his birth certificate that is filed at the courthouse in the town he was born in to prove the authenticity of his American citizenship. Since President Barack Obama has not done that, they feel that he should be fired from his position. Since when did a US president have to prove the authenticity of their American citizenship? All the previous presidents were not required to do this, and the public did not demand it. But, because President Barack Obama is Black (mixed African and White to be precise), he has been under more public scrutiny than the previous presidents have been. The world has had higher expectations of him than they had of previous presidents. Like Lou Dobbs, people like Paul Harvey, Rush Limbaugh and Lynne Samuels, have been, or are currently, publicly stating what the general public really feels about illegal immigrants, people of color who are American natives, and about having a Black president. They fear the "browning of America".
To illustrate, when Micaiah was a university student in Wisconsin nearly thirty years ago, he was constantly asked for his ID because he was assumed to be a foreign exchange student. Because he did not fit the stereotypical Black who dressed slouchy, spoke with the same urban Black accent or was into sports, he was assumed to be a foreigner who talked proper English like a White person. Then, a few years ago, one of our neighbors was talking to us . He said, "The problem with the United States is that all the dumb Niggers were let in while all the smart Niggers were kept back in Africa." He went onto say directly to Micaiah, "But you are different from all the dumb Niggers." This neighbor was just as brazen and outspoken as the few mentioned above, yet this is how the general public, who are mostly silent, truly feel.
The fact is that the economic and social problems plaguing the United States has nothing to do with the legal or illegal immigrants coming in. These problems have been in existence for many years previous. As for jobs supposedly being taken away from Americans by immigrants, those jobs were ones Americans did not want to do, so the immigrants were either forced to take those jobs, or they chose those jobs willingly. In short, those blaming the legal and illegal immigrants only have their own selves to blame. As for President Barack Obama being required to publicly present his birth certificate that is filed at the courthouse in the town he was born in to prove the authenticity of his American citizenship, he has not done that because no other president has had to do that. Why should he have to because he's Black? If President Barack Obama is going to be required to present his birth certificate, then the future presidents, regardless of race, creed or color, should also be required to do the same.
Makedah bat Leah.
No comments:
Post a Comment