Fri 8 Jun 2007
Most people wrongly associate an increase in immigration with an increase in crime, regardless of the obvious fact that immigration is an economic phenomena. People leave their families and countries behind because of an economic opporunity abroad. If there weren’t any job opporunities in the recipient country, then there wouldn’t be immigrants. Thus, immigrants simply fill a specific demand in the recipient country for work.
So why do nationals always blame immigrants? Because people like to blame others for their own shortcomings. But the fact of the matter is that the great majority of crime is and has alway been committed by the home grown.
In an article that I was just reading in The Economist today about how crime continues to fall in America’s biggest cities, The Economist highlights the fact that one of the reasons is that immigrants are entering the cities while the lower income class Americans are moving out. According to The Economist
Another change is that poor Americans have been displaced by poor immigrants—who, as studies have repeatedly shown, are much better behaved than natives of similar means. This trend is symbolised by the disappearance of blacks. Roughly half of America’s murder victims and about the same proportion of suspected murderers are black. In five years America’s three biggest cities lost almost a tenth of their black residents, while elsewhere in America their numbers held steady.
The Economist appears to attribute a large percentage of crimes to blacks. This is also an interesting perception of wealthy people in America. Crime is committed by blacks and immigrants. It’s true that the majority of people behind bars in the US are blacks, in proportions way above their representative percentage in society. This is a fact. But, what is not mentioned is that blacks are also arrested, prosecuted, tried, and sentenced to jail terms in much greater numbers than white Americans.
Discrimination in sentencing and even in mandatory sentences for “black crimes” and not “white crimes” also reinforce these stereotypes. For example, why is the possession of crack punished more stringently than cocaine when crack is so much cheaper?
And why do Americans only discuss gun control when white people get killed in suburban areas while no one seems to see guns as a problem when blacks are 50% of the murder victims?
June 8th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
An example of the answer you obviously don’t feel like entertaining:
Katrina and New Orleans. When the hurricane decimated that city, (as had been predicted for over 200 years as a foregone conclusion), the majority of crime, (pillaging, looting, assault, murder) was committed by low income, welfare ward blacks. Thank the depravity of rampant liberalism for that imbalance.
Add to this fact that even the “educated blacks”, as in community representatives, community leaders and political leaders of the blacks, are at an equal 50% for corruption, embezzlement, larceny, and a host of other crimes. (Obviously white people are to blame here)
The problem with the perception of blacks in America: black people. Almost unequivocally, no other race does more lip service to “our people”, “our race”, “our culture” and shows less responsibility or ownership of actions.
Take any urban area of Ohio. I’ll use the West end of Dayton for my example. In the forties and fifties, the West end was an affluent area of upper middle and upper class whites and immigrants. In the sixties, blacks started to move into the area, by the seventies, the majority of whites and immigrants had left the area. By the early eighties, it was officially the ghetto. In the current time, Dayton police aren’t allowed by policy to enter the majority of areas with less the two cruisers, with two patrolmen per. There are some areas of the West end that police do not go at all, without full S.W.A.T. support. (Obviously, white people are to blame here.)
Let’s discuss Central State University here in fine Ohio. It is a segregated college specifically for blacks, with black educators and administrators. It sits constantly on the brink of bankruptcy, has continually suffered from issues of internal corruption and embezzlement, even with all the Federal funds it receives. If you drive by or through the campus, it is just another creation of the ghetto, dorms look just like an other ghetto building with the trash, broken windows, etc. (Obviously, white people are to blame here)
Why do Americans only discuss race when it’s an issue concerning blacks? Last I checked, the Native American Indian suffered more, (totalitarian genocide and biological warfare in many cases), and still suffers more than any black. How many Asians died in this country during the railroad run West? Where’s the outcry for them as they are still heavily discriminated against?
I never hear any of you socialists bring up those races, ever. No amount of statistics or policies of standards removal and social appeasement will change those facts.
Another good example of what’s driving blacks into the dirt: blacks don’t like other blacks to make it by being educated, they want drugs, thuggery and depravity. Bill Cosby and Colin Powell are two perfect examples of what happens when your race isn’t the issue, but your character, fortitude and ethics are the issue. (Obviously whites are to blame here)
But they just aren’t black enough for the black race. (Just for reference, they have both been referred to by several different “black leaders” as “house n****rs”)
Definitely, the problem with blacks is that everyone else is at fault, let’s not hold them personally responsible to any kind of standard, that would be ludicrous.
Try this one on for size: I have a couple of friends here at work, (from Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana), and they don’t like American blacks. Go figure, Africans who think American blacks are weak and pathetic.
Hypocrisy is a bitter pill.
June 8th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Well put Eric. I would add that immigration in the US is also strongly influenced by US trade policy and if politicians were serious about fighting immigration they should get serious about things like NAFTA.
And I have given up on responding to James’ typical middle American racist and isolationist sentiments. I would love to tell the international readers of your blog that this isn’t actually how the majority of Americans feel about the world, but i would be lying.
Anyway
June 8th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Ha ha ha LOL!!! I really know how to wake you two up, push your bottons, and get you posting comments.
To your question, James, there is a nice Spanish saying, “él que no llora, no mama,” or something like he who doesn’t cry, doesn’t get any milk.
June 8th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
CK,
LMMFAOROTFL, calling it like it is, is now racism? LMMFAOROTFL. Nice Straw Man, classic even, a touch of argumentum ad personam to boot. Well struck.
I guess it’s also racist to point out that the people who sold blacks into slavery in this country were the “Kings and Queens of Africa” that we hear so much about.
I also find your reply most entertaining, because apparently there are a number of Africans that I work with who are racist against blacks … LMMFAOROTFLMMFAO … yes, it’s the new liberalism, Africans against Blacks, let the political war rage on … LMMFAO …
Of course, let us not call your anti-Semitic positioning racist. Certainly not. LMMFAOROTFL, “Well, hello there pot, I’m kettle.”
As for the last of your gloriously fabricated fallacies, I’m not “Middle American” anything. More like “barely above the poverty line Sicilian-American” … but getting it right has never been the mark of a socialist.
Eric,
To your question, James, there is a nice Spanish saying, “él que no llora, no mama,” or something like he who doesn’t cry, doesn’t get any milk.
Clarify please, apparently the cultural gap leaves me short in this instance.
To your post, I would like to say, you engage a fair amount of literary hyperbole and over-generalisation.
The wealth of immigrants in the U.S. are Mexican criminals, and anywhere they are, there is nothing but social/legal trouble and economic collapse. As for the legal immigrants, they are most often to the benefit of the country, even for all their self-maintained segregationist policies.
June 8th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Remember James that no one like anyone in the world. Everyone tries to claim they are different and blame everyone else.
In any event, I used the saying in reference to how you said that in the US it seems that racism only refers to discrimination against blacks. So, I meant that who ever cries the loudest, gets the most attention.
I can’t really complain about immigrants, because I am one in Europe, and my grandparents were born to immigrant parents and didn’t learn to speak English until they entered elementary school. Were they segregationists? Probably.
You know the easies way to stop making illegal immigrants criminals is by making them legal residents. But, that wouldn’t be good for the economy, would it? It would make everything that we consume so much more expensive.
June 8th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Remember James that no one like anyone in the world. Everyone tries to claim they are different and blame everyone else.
Aye, most certainly factual. Intrusion of the reptilian mind upon the oh so lofty social contract. Mmmmm, genetic impetus, can I have some duck sauce with that please!!!
In any event, I used the saying in reference to how you said that in the US it seems that racism only refers to discrimination against blacks. So, I meant that who ever cries the loudest, gets the most attention.
Aye, in the socio-political realm, most certainly factual again. Nothing screams “new legislation” quite like “I am victim”, in America.
I can’t really complain about immigrants, because I am one in Europe, and my grandparents were born to immigrant parents and didn’t learn to speak English until they entered elementary school. Were they segregationists? Probably.
In their era, I doubt they had any choice to be, pardon my churlishness, but I tire of the lie of America, the Great Melting Pot. (It should say, “America, Keep Your Frigging Pot to Your Own Kind”)
You know the easies way to stop making illegal immigrants criminals is by making them legal residents. But, that wouldn’t be good for the economy, would it? It would make everything that we consume so much more expensive.
Again factual, but not my perspective. This nation has long held itself lofty, especially in political/diplomatic spheres, as a “Nation of Laws”. The foremost law of any nation is Sovereignty. If we allow “people” to buck the law, with the backing of a foreign government, what does the “legal citizen” have as reason to obey the laws?
Not only are they demanding that the illegals be made legal, but they are given full amnesty for open criminality, tax evasion, and fines duly levied for such unlawful activities.
If it passes, I think I may choose to enact my supportable right to start curing the country of “The Stupid” … seems only reasonable after my years in indentured servitude to the oligarchs.
Viva la Rivoluzione, il sangue permesso!!!
June 8th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
James, you raise a lot of good points and blog reply is not the proper place to discuss all of them. I am Nigeria and can understand why your Nigerian and African friends would say what they said. Its one part ignorance and one part self exaltation. Let me explain.
I used to think just like they did when I first came here. I hated Afro-Americans (”AA”) and wanted nothing to do with them. They were lazy, dancing, basketball playing, rap singing, good for nothing niggas. I could not stand AA women. now, I;m married to one. Why? misconceptions based on experience without understanding the nature of the problem.
I make no excuses for AA that is not warranted. As I tell my wife, I am the first to criticize AA and the first to make excuses for them. As far as accomplishments, say what U want, but did Africans (who enjoyed privileges during segretation) or White Americans, or other minorities march and get hosed during the civil rights movement? Were they the victims of 400 yrs of free labor we call slavery? not to mention Jim Crow? Now, these arguments sound old and played but they have much significance and b/c we call them old and played is why we never get to the bottom of the issue.
AAs have a serious identity crisis. They R the only Black people in a predominantly White western country that can be called something like “indigenous” (respecting that the native Americans R the truly indigenous ones). Some can’t decide whether to stay or go (Garveites). Some can’t decide whether to integrate or segregate (Malcolm v. Martin). Some can’t decide whether being educated means being a pawn or being un-educated means keeping us back. There R tons and tons of factors that make up the AA identity. As an African, I can only empathize, not sympathize.
Immigrants come here looking for an opportunity to make money. They make $$ here and send it back home. If it wasn’t for money, they would never come. do you see a load of immigrants from Norway or Saudi Arabia? Immigrants are less likely to commit crime b/c they R too concerned about making money and fitting in - integrating. Italiians and Irish, although White, had to integrate and “become” accepted Whites. Its no different for toher immigrants - even the brown ones. Thus, every immigrant is trying to fit into a certain perception of what is acceptable. If you are of European origin, you might one day become “White”, if you are from other than that, you find your place by other means - good job,education, homes, etc. If you don’t believe me about the Italian and Irsih thing, ever seen Gangs of New york or the book I think titled “How the Irish became White”. In essence, everyone wants to become “White,” so what’s the AA’s problem?
He is not an immigrant and he does not want to become White. He feels a sense of entitlement - which has become a hinderance with the over dependency on welfare. He feels that this is his country, which it is but has been marred with hurdles such as segregation, medical apartheids, de facto segregation, and latent racism. Racism is usually spoken in terms of AA b/c they have been the most vocal against it while other benefit from their struggles. The immigrant is a stranger looking to be accpeted while the AA is a native fighting to be non-White and at the same time accepted - which is one of the causes being being called Uncle Toms, etc.
My general advise to AAs, and who am I to give advise, is that one should be proud to be American, be proud to be Black, take matters into your own hands and demand what ever rights you beleive belong to you. Many leaders have done that and many will continue to do that. The AA population that is fast asleep R the ones that people tend to concentrate on as examples of AA failures. If not for the civil rights movement and other such movements, many of us would not have the type of benefits we enjoy.
I am an upper middle class African who enjoys fancy food and clothes and should care a rat’s ass tail about AA, but I do. The problem can only be resolved with “education.”
Sorry it was so long.
June 8th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Mustapha,
Thanks for your comments, especially because I don’t you, so it’s nice to have you reading the blog.
I really like your analogy of how all immigrants come wanting to be white, but black Americans don’t feel comfortable with whiteness, and therefore struggle to find a place, and meanwhile, immigrants eventually assimilate. Very interesting.
June 9th, 2007 at 10:14 am
well said Mustapha.
June 10th, 2007 at 8:46 am
I agree, very nice posting Mustapha.
I won’t argue your perspective, it is your own, and you experience from within the realm, whereas I am from without.
A couple of points where I see differently, from my experiences with Africans: Taking Papa as one example, he is as humble and non-elitist about himself, his race, his culture as anyone could be. He and I have talked at length over a few lunches about his home in Ghana. I was fortunate enough to even meet his father and grandfather on one occasion, and they are inherently fascinating hominids. None of his family appear to be “elitist” in any fashion, and shoving their race in your face is not something they feel the need to do. They are aware and secure in their persons and realise that recognition of difference is just “human”.
Christian (Kenya) and Didier (Nigeria) are also extremely fascinating. Both having been here less time than Papa, when I start asking them about home, they often become so excitable that they slip back into their native tongues, and forget that I can’t understand them … LOL. Again, neither of them feel the need to make “race” the issue. They are just hominids like any of us.
There is an noticeable difference with American blacks, and I find it comparable to the tragedies of Sudan/Darfur: cultural/ethnic subversion, by any means necessary. It can never be said that the history of this country does not play into the mentality, but that is not all of the story by any means. The history is well known to all. But there is a media/political push in this country for maintaining the “entitlement mentality”. It isn’t desired that it should go away, that’s not part of the modus operandi, and the worst for this, are the so called “black leaders”. They continually bilk their communities of monies, for personal agenda, and further the entrenchment of the ill scenario. This branded socialism will only deepen the divides and race will never stop being the issue.
I’ll have to take your word for it on the “wanting to be white” perspective, I have no idea on that, I’m not an immigrant.
Still, the war rages on, and no end in sight. We haven’t even hit the apex of violence yet, but it is coming.
June 11th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
James,
let me start with where you ended: “I have to take your word for it on the ‘wanting to be white’ perspective, I have no idea on that, I’m not an immigrant.”
I thought I read somewhere that you R Italian or better, Sicilian. How do you think the Northern Europeans (Norweigians, etc) view Italians. If U R Italian, then you are likey two generations removed from the struggle of current immigrants. Just ask your dad to tell you about how grand-dad or great grand-dad themselves had to become White. But, lets leave that issue for now.
With respect to Black leaders, they R predominantly a joke. Many Black Church leader R also a joke - pimps in fact. They understand the split-personality, identity-crisis nature of the AA and take advantage of it. Why does a pastor need so much damn money if he’s doing God’s work? Should he depend of God to help him out as well? Why does Al Sharpton run around screaming bloody murder when someone says “nappy headed hos” but is mums when child services is snatches AA children from their homes. The trick of the AA leaders is the same one that’s used against Whites. The focus is on the really emotional things in order to mask the real problems. How many times is abortion, creationism v. evolution, religion going to be an election issue when the dollar is plumetting, soldiers R dying and the borders are crumbling. The AA community suffers from the same illness as the rest of America, just from a different angle. Different concerns. Different faces.
Finally, with respect to your African friends, I can only speak about my experience and its likely similar to that of other Africans. Your friends do not have to be elitists pomps. With no intention of insulting them, they might just be ignorant about certain realities. Again, this is all based on my experience and experience from talking to other Africans.
I grew up in a predominantly White and affluent neighborhood in NY (Scarsdale). I was teased for being African and Black. I did not like AAs cause I blamed them for making “us” look bad. But, I had one ace card against AA - I knew where the f**k I came from and they were lost souls. I had an identity, a country to call home other than America - if I ever got tired of America. Although I knew little of it, I had a distinct “black” culture. While AAs were trying to return to Africa, I was already African. I had no problem being black, cause at least I was not a niggah. I felt comfortable in my skin cause everyone else in my country was Black and when there, there was no Black or White,, just human. And I was not trying to be elitist - just slightly separatist. When U grow up with that identity, you feel more human. When U grow up here as an AA and you R reminded by both Black and Whites, and others, that you are distinct Black, that has an affect.
Now, this should not be an excuse for laziness, but it happens. It has an impact - ergo the constant struggle of the black man in America. Why do you think Carribeans also look down at AA. They want to be just like AA with repect to enjoying certain benefits and partaking in some aspect of AA culture - mostly rap and pop - but when they go back home, they cook what? not chitlins? I think people of African ancestry in this country need to start being more honest about their prejudice of AA and AA also need to be more honest about their contempt for other Black faces. And, AA, to some degree, need to get over it - the “racism” that is.
Thanks again.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Mustapha, again very well thought out posting.
Perhaps you don’t see it in yourself, but in your writing it is obvious that you do not have the mentality of the blacks here ~ because you have a balanced perspective.
In my own mind, racism will never likely cease, I just don’t believe it is in the cards. Even as we write these words, there are a large number of Chinese geneticists, paid by their government of course, attempting to prove that they are “The Master Race” … don’t laugh, it’s true.
As far as my Sicilian heritage, I was, for my own best advantage, adopted into another lineage. I do not have direct access to those individuals to make such inquiries. But that is not altogether necessary either. The “becoming white” you speak of, especially for European immigrants, is a foregone conclusion of history.
Your case for the African/black man is just a bit befuddling, from a logical perspective. Why try to become that which you can never be? Is it necessary? To what end? Every hominid will forever recognise difference, all our senses are acutely attuned to do so. At what point do we just accept our hairless primate form, and disregard that because another hominid comes from another country, makes no difference. MLK, Jr. made the point: the color of the blood is the same. Why the excuses? Why the dance? Why a different yardstick, predicated upon appearances more than anything?
For my part, my socialist cousins seem to miss a primary point: I never stated that blacks in this country weren’t mistreated and measured differently. Same is true of EVERY migrant individual.
For three years I worked with a woman from China, Chongui Yang. Two masters degrees, complete comprehension of the English language, but because Mandarin was her native tongue, speaking English was exceedingly difficult for her. She left this company because she wasn’t getting an even chance at positions, predicated mostly I would say on her “dialectic English” and further promoted by her “different” appearance.
I saw no one coming to her defense. None, no ACLU, no “ethnic leaders”, no community leader, no politician. She was an absolutely brilliant hominid, top notch primate, as the measuring goes.
Why is she less important? Simple: equality, especially racial equality … is the worst, most self-serving, easily victimising lie of the modern era. Those who say that they fight for the “rights of others” …. are more often trying to hide from their own fear, cowardice and racism.
In order to not be racist, people have to be objective, and as shown by you, balanced in their honesty and perspective.
“That which blooms in adversity, is the most rare and beautiful of all” ~ Chinese proverb.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
James,
I really like the Chinese proverb.
Of course, the inverse isn’t a necessity. We can’t justify the adversity we inflict on others as a way to breed most rare beauty of all.
We can’t live in a “if you can survive hostility” then you’re accepted. It’s not a frat house. But that’s how the press like to see it.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
Understood, but the Chinese perspective differs, as it is known to apply deference to all situations.
Hostility of life is a foregone conclusion for many, the historicity of the ingrained nature of the hominid, speaks for itself.
It isn’t just the MSM any longer, politicians and “leaders” are perpetrators of the idiocy as well, lock, stock and barrel.
Pragmatically, we inflict as a matter of design, adversity creates diversity. Cosmologically, it is a property of the Universe itself. That we refuse to accept that …..
As far as leadership goes, what we have forgotten was best stated by this man:
Perche non i titoli illustrano gli uomini, ma gli uomini i titoli.
Niccolo Machiavelli, (Dei Discoursi, III .38)
June 11th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
The whole “race card” thing is a vicious cycle. The AA race card is the easiest card to deal. Its the most emotional one cause they R the ones, besides the Natives that we have pretty much silenced, who are “indigenous.” AA are a great tool for the ACLU, as well as Gays. ACLU is a joke to some extent. Why talk about your Chinese friend facing discrimination - which is less sensational - when you can talk about AA? Why was the Imus stiry so big. Dude, its a great card to always pull out of your ass from the media perspective. To some degree, we R all being used.
With resepct to “Why a different yardstick, predicated upon appearances more than anything?” (1) read above (2), because AA are always reminded of how they look.
Why try to be something U will never become? The same reason women try to become like Barbie and its an impossible task - identity crisis, low self confidence. AA, have the added, and very damaging, “entitlement problem.” I think that maybe the one of the biggest set backs for AA, as I tried to explain. When all esle fails, they can always try to resort to, “shit, I’m American, we built this country, give me mines and f***k those immigrants.”
One of the largest group of welfare recipients in NY, if not the largest with respect to percent of their over all populations, is the Hasidic community. Does that make the news? No, cause its not sensational enough.
What troubles some AA, is the perception that immigrants R more welcomed and better treated than them.
June 11th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Nearly half of the poor (46 percent- below the poverty line)in the US are non-Hispanic whites. And nearly two of three people in severe poverty are white.
White Americans, other than recent immigrants, do not want to work in this country. I don’t think you can find me a lazier group of people. Ask any factory owner, they will tell you that last group of people they want to hire are white youth… why b/c they don’t want to work, they have no work ethic. Burbs is all about mass consuming- Affluenza.
I worked as a laborer in the Aluminum industry for a year, and yes i heard the “N” word more than before in my life and i heard some racist stuff, but at the end of the day- the bosses never hired a local White American unless they were a relative- and it always pained them to do so.
June 12th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
I woke up this morning 0330 to take the spouse to work. When I came home, I stood on the front stoop for a few minutes.
Nothing quite like the early morning songs and flights of bats, keeping with the rhythms of the world, even a world at rest, and listening to the conversations of wind and trees … nary a filthy hominid to be heard or seen.
At the end of it all, the literary devices of Mustapha go unheard. The last thought is simple, entitlement.
My family is entitled to certain expectations, and there are levels of indebtedness, (especially to my father, for whom I would have to live a thousand life times to repay even the smallest fraction of those debts). Whoever coined the phrase, “tapestry of life”, I doubt they had any idea how correct they were. Between the rouse created from the simulacra and the banalities of the social contract, we have created a faceless existence syndrome, further indoctrinating by the inanities of indebtedness to the faceless in entitlements unfounded, and with whom no contact or reciprocity will ever likely be shared.
Bottom line for me, I owe my family. The rest of the world can have the sweat off my balls, I owe them nothing, as I have done nothing to them, and they, nothing for me.
LMMFAOROTFL … Mills and Locke were causelessly deluded, and Rousseau brought it all the way home for them. All the while Aristotle, Machiavelli, Fromm and Nietzsche are buried in antiquity and forgotten, maligned or both.
Still the pink bottomed, hairless primate clings to the same old tree of stagnant historicity, believing it has found the final answers …. LMMFAO.
June 12th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Very nicely put, James, with the exception of the imagery of the sweaty balls which I could have lived without.
Thanks!
June 12th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Literary device: it drew your direct attention, and eliminated the possibility of unnecessary interpretation.