Once again I find myself having to give praise to Mark Snyder's QueerToday.com. Here is a blurb from the latest manifestation of America's bigotry in action (photo: David C. Richardson, taken from The Providence Journal) reported by Brian Rainey:
A man goes into a hardware store to buy something. He is asked by the store owner for his social security card and threatened with Immigration after speaking Spanish with his friend.
Richardson (owner of Rhode Island Refrigeration) was asked what led him to suspect that either of the men were illegal immigrants.
“What proof is there? I think the majority of people who don’t speak English in Rhode Island — at least 51 percent or more — are illegal aliens,” he said. He added, “I’m trying to wake America up. I’m trying to wake him [Genao’s friend] up, and let him be aware that people who are breaking the law shouldn’t be breaking the law.”
Mark Potok, head of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, which tracks hate crimes in the United States, said the incident reflects the tide of anti-immigrant sentiment in this country — not solely restricted to illegal immigrants.
“This kind of thing is happening every day in this country,” said Potok. “Do we really want to bring the country to this point where everyone who is brown-skinned is suspect?
“It’s really quite incredible people can be confronted in this way,” said Potok. “We hear everyday from U.S. congressmen and television pundits and talk radio about the many terrible things brown-skinned immigrants are doing to this country — and they are almost universally false — but the reality is, they lead directly to incidents like this, and, less directly, to violence.”
The truth is the same in all Hate Crimes. Yes, this is a Hate Crime because the store owner acted out of hatred for what he thought they were (illegal aliens), not who they were (United States Citizens). This line sums up what he thinks of Hispanics:
“What proof is there? I think the majority of people who don’t speak English in Rhode Island — at least 51 percent or more — are illegal aliens,” he said.
I love the quote from the Bible Mark has at the beginning of his article:
"The resident alien who lives with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt; I am YHWH your God." Leviticus 19:34
How much more true could this be than in America, the melting pot of the world?
UPDATE MARCH 13: It seems the Latino community isn't going to allow hatred towards it's people:
In response, the Rev. Miguel Rivera, head of the National Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders and the Rev. Eliseo Nogueras, the group’s New England vice president and head of the Hispanic Pastors Association of Rhode Island, held a news conference yesterday outside Richardson’s store.
They asked that law enforcement authorities pursue possible criminal or civil charges against Richardson for committing “a hate crime” and violating the men’s civil rights.
Somos limitados por más que la sangre, nosotros es todos los niños de dios.
1 comment:
Thanks for this, John. You really cut to the chase with your bottom line. We are indeed all children of God.
Funny story.
There was a time when the majority of our shop were Hispanics, and our company had to prove to the government that all our workers were here legally. I worked with a Ecuadorian immigrant he told our me that he knew for a fact that he was the only Hispanic in the company who was not an American citizen. "All but me are Puerto Ricans, and all Puerto Ricans are American citizens by birth."
I asked how he could be so sure that all the other were Puerto Rican, and said, "It's easy. If I can understand their English better than their Spanish, they are Puerto Rican"
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