Hispanic Fanatic

Baseball season is winding down, and my hometown team continues to flounder (no, I don’t want to talk about it, thank you).

But one bright spot in this dismal year is the perpetually colorful Ozzie Guillen. The manager of the Chicago White Sox often makes comments that range from bizarre to offensive, and one never knows if he’s going to let loose with a maniacal observation, incoherent insight, or slanderous attack. Not many people can go from egotistical rant to self-loathing diatribe in the same interview, but Guillen manages it.

Recently, Guillen made news by claiming that Major League Baseball treats Asian players better than it does Latin American players. He pointed out that, among other things, Asian players are assigned translators, while Latin American players are left to fend for themselves.

Guillen added that “We bring a Japanese player and they are very good and they bring all these privileges to them. We bring a Dominican kid … go to the minor leagues, good luck.”

OK, his syntax is garbled (it’s part of his charm). But Guillen’s point — that Latin American players are treated as less important and more disposable — is a valid one.

One could argue that it’s simple economics. MLB probably assumes that the many players from the Dominican Republic and Cuba and so on will look out for each other. Maybe they feel that they have to coddle a kid from Taiwan. I don’t know.

But I appreciate that Guillen, in his own undeniably idiosyncratic way, has once again gotten people to think about an issue bigger than baseball.

The other outrageous comment that caught my attention recently came from an unlikely source.

Yes, Rupert Murdoch, Mr. Fox News himself, recently called for immigration reform that would create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented residents. This is the infamous “amnesty” provision.

Murdoch said that we’re missing a chance for reform because we’re bashing illegal immigrants too much. He added that Americans need to deal with the fact that more residents are speaking Spanish, saying that such changes have “been going on in this country for hundreds of years. You’ve got to adjust.”

Coming from a guy who signs Bill O’Reilly’s paychecks, his comments are clearly more shocking than anything Ozzie Guillen could say.

“If you really want racism to disappear, don’t mention it!”

Comment on CNN message board

I recently read an article on a mainstream news site that addressed the messy racial overtones of a certain political situation. I expected the reader comments to be a maelstrom of partisan rhetoric and crazed theories. They did not disappoint.

However, one reader took a different approach. The commentator railed against the site for running the article in the first place. The comment was, more or less, “Stop playing the race card. All it does is divide us.”

I couldn’t help but think of a recent comment I received on one of my posts. I had written about some recent shenanigans aimed at Latinos. A reader didn’t dispute my analysis of the event. Instead, he or she stated that I was beating a dead horse and that looking at racial issues was “getting old.”

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When President Lyndon Johnson signed civil rights legislation in the 1960s, he famously remarked that Democrats had lost the South for a generation. Of course, he was an optimist. It’s two generations, and counting, since white Southerners have become synonymous with the Republican Party.

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Recently, President Obama surprised many of us by directly addressing immigration reform. Apparently, the man hasn’t had enough criticism aimed at him. In any case, one of the aspects of the president’s plan is that all immigrants should learn English.

Certainly, it is in the best interests of immigrants to learn the nation’s dominant language. The economic disadvantage of not knowing English is a very real phenomenon.

However, as I’ve written before, we Americans get more than a little self-serving when it comes to immigrants speaking English. The argument that it benefits them is rarely invoked. Instead, we’re told that it’s part of the process of assimilation — necessary for them to become integrated into American culture.

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I once lived near a street lined with multimillion-dollar houses. I myself was crammed into a tiny apartment a few blocks away. What can I say — it was a socioeconomically schizophrenic neighborhood.

In any case, I was in a store near one of these mansions when I overheard the shop’s owner trying to calm down a woman on the phone. After hanging up, the store owner mentioned that the caller lived in one of the upscale houses. The caller was upset that so many people were parking near her mansion.

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Here’s a quick thanks to Emma, Ankhesen, and Chris for their recent comments on my posts.

I was hoping to unleash a fiery broadside today, about twenty-four hours after SB 1070 took effect in Arizona. However, some federal judge has stolen my thunder by putting the anti-immigrant law on hold.

Yes, Judge Susan Bolton has granted a preliminary injunction that blocked the most odious parts of the law. That means the really good stuff — like stopping Latinos on the street and demanding to see their papers — simply isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Still, protests against the law went on as planned. And a whole mess of people got arrested in nonviolent demonstrations.

As expected, the law’s supporters are appealing, and the whole thing will probably end up in the Supreme Court. Conservatives predict that once it hits there, their heroes (Scalia, Thomas, etc) will come to their rescue and proclaim the law to be the most extra-special really neato constitutionally wonderful thing, like, ever.

We’ll see about that. In any case, it may be years before SB 1070 is either enacted or put out of its misery.

And by then, the country may be mostly Hispanic anyway. Now wouldn’t that be funny?

I’ve never been comfortable proclaiming that America is the greatest country in the world. It’s not that I don’t love the USA, or that I’m dismissive of the life and opportunities that I have here. It’s that I haven’t lived anywhere else, and so, it seems like a stretch to make this assertion.

It doesn’t stop other Americans, however, and I sometimes envy their certainty. But the logical problem is that any boast that we’re “the greatest” rests on comparisons to other nations.

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In a recent post, I referred to “that infamous tool of totalitarianism – the public-opinion poll.” My point was that many Americans seem to think that civil rights are subject to some kind of popularity contest.

I could have added that polls are notorious for presenting a myopic snapshot of an ever-fickle populace. As such, yesterday’s strong opinion becomes today’s “just kidding.” And of course, Americans are well known for adopting contradictory opinions.

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Apparently, Little Brother is watching you.

I know we were supposed to be afraid of the surveillance powers of an out-of-control government. However, it seems that our fellow citizens have taken it upon themselves to create paranoia and fear among the populace.

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For the most part, I’ve been pretty lucky when it comes to my neighbors. I’ve gotten along with the vast majority of them, and I’ve never had cross-yard feuds or open hostility toward the people who live near me.

Yes, there have been a few annoyances. In college, one of the other tenants in the ramshackle student housing where I lived was infamous for getting loaded, arguing with his girlfriend, and getting kicked out of the apartment. From there he would scream her name for hours until she let him back in. Her name was Jody (or more accurately, “Joooo-Deee!”), and I will never forget it because I heard him screech it so often.

When I lived in New York City, our downstairs neighbor was a cranky old woman who banged on the ceiling (our floor) if she thought we were getting too rambunctious. And when I lived on Hollywood Boulevard, I arrived home from work one day to see my neighbor being hauled out in a bodybag. He was a junkie and had OD’d… actually, I guess that’s less “annoyance” and more “freaky trauma.”

But you get the point. I’ve never agonized over who lives next door to me.

Many Americans, however, most certainly do.

A recent study found that, as of 2006, about a fifth of Americans would be upset if immigrants or foreign workers moved in next to them. This percentage has almost doubled since 1990.

Although the phrase “immigrants or foreign workers” is vague, one can safely assume that most Americans conjure images of Latinos when presented with this wording. It’s doubtful that many Americans would become enraged if, say, a British expat moved into the neighborhood. As such, the researchers’ terminology may not translate directly into antipathy for Hispanics, but it’s close.

For the sake of comparison, the researchers asked about two other despised groups in America – homosexuals and Muslims – to gauge social intolerance. I assume that asking about black people moving in next door was considered trite.

The report found that hostility toward Muslims has also increased and that they are even less popular than immigrants. A possible reason for this is the September 11 attacks, which provoked many Americans to think of Muslims as, you know, a bunch of crazed terrorists.

Interestingly, homosexuals were the group with which people had the biggest problem. More than a quarter of Americans said they would have issues if people “of that lifestyle” moved in next door. However, this was also the only group in for which tolerance has increased. Perhaps all those “Will & Grace” reruns are having an effect.

In any case, more Americans these days have trouble co-existing with immigrant neighbors, and as the report points out, we’re not even talking about “illegal immigrants.” That just covers people who happened to have committed the grievous sin of being born someplace other than the United States.

The reasons for this are numerous, but certainly are not complex. For many Americans, all immigrants are Latinos, all Latinos are illegals, and all illegals are murderous thieves hell-bent on destroying the nation. It’s basic math.

Add in an economic recession and right-wing paranoia broadcast 24/7, and it’s little wonder that so many people will consider slapping a “For Sale” sign on their lawn if the new neighbor speaks with a funny accent.

I have to wonder, of course, about the welcoming committee for a gay Muslim immigrant. Actually, let’s not dwell on that one too much… way too disturbing.