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Showing posts with label Xenophobia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Xenophobia. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Cable News and the Fostering of Xenophobia


Fear & Loathing in Prime Time: Immigration Myths and Cable News

"Number one, the illegal aliens shouldn't be here. And number two, the culture from which they come is a lot more violent than the USA."
-- The O'Reilly Factor, January 15, 2007

There are many problems facing the United States today: a faltering economy, a health-care crisis, and the continuing war in Iraq, to name a few. But viewers of some of the most prominent cable news programs are presented a different reality in which one issue stands above all others: illegal immigration.

Media Matters Action Network undertook this study in order to document how immigration is discussed and debated on cable news. When it comes to immigration, cable news overflows not just with vitriolic rhetoric, but also with a series of myths that feed viewers' resentment and fears, fostering hostility toward immigrants.

We focus our analysis on a trio of cable commentators: Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Beck. While hosts on other cable programs regularly discuss illegal immigration (particularly on Fox News, where it is a frequent topic on Hannity & Colmes and Special Report with Brit Hume), these three are the most notable for a number of reasons. On their eponymous programs, Dobbs, O'Reilly, and Beck serve up a steady diet of fear, anger, and resentment on the topic of illegal immigration. (More Stuff...)

I find it strange that illegal immigrants are on the receiving end of hatred while Americans who exploit their labor aren't even considered. Isn't that something? The greatest benefactors of illegal immigration have yet to be taken to task. Stupidity must be bliss too.

Feel free to contact these jokers directly and help stop the madness:

FOX News Channel
Comments@foxnews.com
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Phone: 1-888-369-4762

CNN
One CNN Center, Box 105366,
Atlanta, GA 30303-5366
Phone: 404-827-1500
Fax: 404-827-1906

CNN Headline News

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Empty Talking Head



Taken from 23/6:



Let's give Dobbs the benefit of the doubt. How was he supposed to know that Council of Conservative Citizens was a white supremacist organization when he invited one of its members to appear on his show? When he gives verbal support to the Minutemen vigilantes, how is he supposed to know that many of them are shameless racists who threaten and maim illegal immigrants, knowing they can never report it to the cops? Lou Dobbs is not Santa. He can't be everywhere at once, so he can't possibly know what all of his contributors have to say about minorities when they're not on the air. (Source)

Some time last year, I watched a piece on 60 Minutes where they interviewed Lou Dobbs. You know the drill with these interviews --- delving into the subject's life story, having the viewer learn something new about him/her, and lastly humanizing him/her.

Of course the topic of Dobbs being an alleged bigot came up and he, of course, denied it. What also helped debunk (I guess it was supposed to help) that claim was introducing to the world his Mexican-American wife (shown in above pic). I just don't understand people like him and his wife.

Illegal immigration is facilitated by greed. How many people actually consider this? I have yet to hear one of these pundits blaming greedy employers for this problem. I understand that an influx of illegal immigrants can be a strain on the economy but vilifying them serves no purpose because the anger is misdirected.

And also consider the fact that these people are being taken advantage of due to their ignorance and due to the fact that they don't have any legal documentation.

Properly channel your anger. Don't patronize businesses that employ illegal immigrants. Make some real noise about it and contact your local politician. The large numbers of illegal immigrants crossing the border will diminish as soon as people properly channel their anger and start realizing who the real enemy is. It's all supply and demand.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Xenophobic Email Forwards

Everyone gets forwarded emails. Some are funny, some are informative, and some are those crazy e-chain letters.

How often do any of you receive xenophobic emails? Peep the one below:


This will make you think!

Tina Griego, journalist for the Denver Rocky Mountain News wrote a column titled, "Mexican Visitor's Lament" -- 10/25/07.

She interviewed Mexican journalist Evangelina Hernandez while visiting Denver last week. Hernandez said, "They (illegal aliens) pay rent, buy groceries, buy clothes...What Happens to your country's economy if 20 million people go away?" That's a good question - it deserves an answer. Over 80 percent of Americans demand secured borders and illegal migration stopped. But what would happen if all 20 million or more vacated America? The answers may surprise you!

In California, if 3.5 million illegal aliens moved back to Mexico, it would leave an extra $10.2 billion to spend on overloaded school systems, bankrupt hospitals and overrun prisons. It would leave highways cleaner, safer and less congested. Everyone could understand one another as English became the dominant language again.

In Colorado, 500,000 illegal migrants, plus their 300,000 kids and grand-kids - would move back 'home', mostly to Mexico. That would save Coloradans an estimated $2 billion (other experts say $7 billion) annually in taxes that pay for schooling, medical, social-services and incarceration costs. It means 12,000 gang members would vanish out of Denver alone.

Colorado would save more than $20 million in prison costs, and the terror that those 7,300 alien criminals set upon local citizens. Denver Officer Don Young and hundreds of Colorado victims would not have suffered death, accidents, rapes and other crimes by illegals.

Denver Public Schools would not suffer a 67 percent drop-out/flunk-out rate because of thousands of illegal alien students speaking 41 different languages. At least 200,000 vehicles would vanish from our gridlocked cities in Colorado.

Denver's four percent unemployment rate would vanish as our working poor would gain jobs at a living wage.

In Florida, 1.5 million illegals would return the Sunshine State back to America, the rule of law, and English.

In Chicago, Illinois, 2.1 million illegals would free up hospitals, schools, prisons and highways for a safer, cleaner and more crime-free experience.

If 20 million illegal aliens returned 'home' --

If 20 million illegal aliens returned 'home', the U.S. Economy would return to the rule of law. Employers would hire legal American citizens at a living wage. Everyone would pay their fair share of taxes because they wouldn't be working off the books. That would result in an additional $401 Billion in IRS income taxes collected annually, and an equal amount for local, state and city coffers.

No more push '1' for Spanish or '2' for English. No more confusion in American schools that now must contend with over 100 languages that degrade the educational system for American kids. Our overcrowded schools would lose more than two million illegal alien kids at a cost of billions in ESL and free breakfasts and lunches.

We would lose 500,000 illegal criminal alien inmates at a cost of more than $1.6 billion annually. That includes 15,000 MS-13 gang members who distribute $130 billion in drugs annually would vacate our country.

In cities like L.A., 20,000 members of the '18th Street Gang' would vanish from our nation. No more Mexican forgery gangs for ID theft from Americans! No more foreign rapists and child molesters!

Losing more than 20 million people would clear up our crowded highways and gridlock. Cleaner air and less drinking and driving American deaths by illegal aliens!

America's economy is drained. Taxpayers are harmed. Employers get rich. Over $80 billion annually wouldn't return to the aliens' home countries by cash transfers. Illegal migrants earned half that money untaxed, which further drains America's economy - which currently suffers an $8.7 trillion debt.

At least 400,000 anchor babies would not be born in our country, costing us $109 billion per year per cycle. At least 86 hospitals in California, Georgia and Florida would still be operating instead of being bankrupt out of existence because illegals pay nothing via the EMTOLA Act.

Americans wouldn't suffer thousands of TB and hepatitis cases rampant in our country-brought in by illegals unscreened at our borders.

Our cities would see 20 million less people driving, polluting and grid locking our cities. It would also put the 'progressives' on the horns of a dilemma; illegal aliens and their families cause 11 percent of our greenhouse gases.

Over one million of Mexico's poorest citizens now live inside and along our border from Brownsville, Texas to San Diego, California in what the New York Times called, "colonias" or new neighborhoods Trouble is, those living areas resemble Bombay and Calcutta where grinding poverty, filth, diseases, drugs, crimes, no sanitation and worse. They live without sewage, clean water, streets, electricity, roads or any kind of sanitation. The New York Times reported them to be America's new "Third World" inside our own country. Within 20 years, at their current growth rate, they expect
20 million residents of those colonias. (I've seen them personally in Texas and Arizona; it's sickening beyond anything you can imagine.) By enforcing our laws, we could repatriate them back to Mexico.

We should invite 20 million aliens to go home, fix their own countries and/or make a better life in Mexico. We already invite a million people into our country legally more than all other countries combined annually. We cannot and must not allow anarchy at our borders, more anarchy within our borders and growing lawlessness at every level in our nation. It's time to stand up for our country, our culture, our civilization and our way of life.

Interesting Statistics. Here are 14 reasons illegal aliens should vacate America, and I hope they are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them:

1. $11 billion to $22 billion dollars are spent each year on welfare to illegal aliens. http://tinyurl.com/zob77

2. $2.2 billion dollars are spent each year on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

3. $2.5 billion dollars are spent each year on Medicaid for illegal aliens. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

4. $12 billion dollars are spent each year on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English! http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

5. $17 billion dollars are spent each year for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

6. $3 Million Dollars PER DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

7. 30% percent of all federal prison inmates are illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

8. $90 billion dollars are spent each year on illegal aliens for welfare & social services by the American taxpayers. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html

9. $200 billion dollars per year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html

11. During the year 2005, there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our southern border with as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from terrorist countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroine, and marijuana crossed into the U.S. from the southern border. http://tinyurl.com/t9sht

12. The National Policy Institute, estimates that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion, or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period. http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/publications.php?b=deportation

13. In 2006, illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm

14. The dark side of illegal immigration: Nearly one million sex crimes are committed by illegal immigrants in the United States!" http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml

The total cost is a whopping $338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR!!!

If this doesn't bother you, then just delete the message. Otherwise, forward this to everyone you know!

If these things are really happening in parts of the country, then much can't be disputed. What I don't like is the overall xenophobic tone of this e-chain letter. It seems to suggest that these problems (shitty schools, overcrowded prisons, third-world sections of the US, bankrupted hospitals, gang violence, etc.) didn't exist before the massive influx of illegal immigrants of that they're the primary culprit for these problems.

And how realistic is it to deport millions of people? This email doesn't really express any resentment towards American greed. American greed has a lot to do with the exploitation of these illegal workers being in great demand and the problems listed in the email.

Many illegal immigrants are doing jobs that Americans don't wanna do. Just consider who are the the bus boys/girls, maintenance workers, dish washers at restaurants. Consider the personnel stocking aisles and replenishing the produce area at farmer's markets. Consider those who work in landscaping. Consider those who wash your car. Consider those day laborers at Home Depot that you wanna use for moving when you don't wanna hire licensed, costlier moving companies. They're all ridiculously underpaid & off the books.

American employers don't care about American people. The cost effectiveness of illegal immigration and outsourcing simply won't allow them to care.

Now what especially bothered me about this email is that my friend, who's Black, forwarded this to me. I've always felt that far too many minorities have this desire to otherize (i.e., ostracize make someone the "other" group) the unpopular group of the moment to offset their insecurities with feeling like or being treated as a second class American. That's really disappointing to me.

Update 2/20/08

I'd like to correct myself for stating that Americans don't want the jobs that many illegal immigrants are given. There are plenty of underskilled Americans who will take anything to make ends meet but they're being bypassed due to the popularity of migrant labor. Many Americans do want these jobs, but there are many Americans that refuse to be taken advantage of. That is what I should've stated.