We watched this movie last night:
It's a fine documentary about the "Lost Boys" of the Sudan. For those of you who do not know, the lost boys (and yes, there are lost girls too) are people who were displaced by the Sudanese war between the Muslim north Sudanese and the Christian south Sudanese.
The "lost" peoples were mere children when the fighting broke out and they escaped first to Ethiopia and then to Kenya. Some made their way to the USA and were resettled here. This film follows a groups of them in their first years here in the USA and it also tells the heartbreaking story of what happened to them before they came here. It's well worth your time and I recommend it highly.
As I watched this film about these immigrants to our country, I saw how they worked two, sometimes three jobs to make better life for themselves. I was struck by how hard working they are, how law abiding they are, and how respectful of the culture and laws of this country they are. It reminded me of how hard working undocumented and other documented workers from other American countries are. Then I got to wondering about why so many people want to stop people who look like this
from living and working here. As the film progressed I went through some questions in my mind about why others, mostly white people, want to keep others from achieving the so called American dream.
Do they want to keep the Americans from other countries out because they are criminals and law breakers? Well the truth is most all workers who come from other American countries work too hard and want to stay in the country too much to go about committing crimes that will get them sent back home. They work two, three, sometimes more jobs to make a life and to send money back home, so it makes no sense to say they are here to steal, cheat, and murder others.
Maybe they want to keep them out because they take jobs from citizens of the USA? Nope. The jobs they mostly take are not jobs that most USA citizens want. And the employers who employ them are often looking for non citizens to work so that they can pay them little and exploit them. Most citizens of the USA would not work in the fields harvesting fruits and vegetables or some of the other back breaking work Americans from other American countries do. So that's another myth exploded.
Do these anti immigrant people want to keep the other Americans out because they are taking government benefits from them? Well, most of the anti immigration citizens of the USA work jobs that pay them too much money to qualify them for any assistance that undocumented workers might get. So they must be concerned about those brown skinned people taking benefits from the poor Americans, right? Nope. Most of the people who support draconian immigration reform could care less about the poor and they want less of their tax money to go to programs that help the poor.
Do the anti immigration people want to stop all immigration? Surely they must since they work so hard to keep one group out, they must want to keep all groups of immigrants out. Nope. None of them raise a the slightest hue or cry about people from Europe emigrating to the good old USA and none of them bitch about people from Japan or many other Asian countries coming over. It seems it's only the people who speak Spanish that they want to keep out.
So it's the language right? They think that with all the Americans from Spanish speaking American countries coming in that English, or more correctly American, is going to be displaced as the native language. Wrong again. The pattern of immigrant language is this: the first generation of immigrants speaks their native tongue, their children speak it less, and finally their grandchildren speak almost none of it. In the end American English triumphs, just like it did in the face of the Irish invasion, the Italian invasion, the Eastern European invasion, the Japanese invasion, and the Chinese invasion.
So why then do the anti immigrant forces hate the Spanish speaking Americans from other American countries so much? Well, it's simple really, since there are enough jobs for all of us, since there is enough money for benefits for all of us, and since they all eventually will learn to speak American English, they hate them because they are brown skinned and like some Americans throughout history have done, they hate anyone not white. It's all about racism. And when they say it's not, yes it is. If it wasn't then they want to round up immigrants from Sweden, Finland, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, France, Italy, Bulgaria, and other countries where whites come from and send them back. They don't, they only want to send back brown skinned people who got screwed by NAFTA, their own government, and by this country and the multi national corporations that we let run amok here. I'm sure the few anti immigrant bloggers who read me will leave all kinds of comments telling how wrong I am but no matter what they say, racism is behind the current anti immigration frenzy, just like all anti immigration frenzies of the past.
As I the movie wound down to it's conclusion I thought to myself, "Man, if the anti immigration wing nuts hate Mexican people so much, these guys from Sudan don't stand a chance. They're darker than anyone who was ever born in Mexico or Guatemala, or Nicaragua."
But then I remembered how good and decent most of the citizens of this country are and how we end up gladly absorbing anyone who comes to this country to live and work and to make a better life for themselves. And I also remembered that a few weeks ago the supposed hot button issue of immigration was not an issue at all in the off year election in Virginia because the anti immigrant candidates didn't win, the good guys did for a change.
"Yes, I have been in a behind closed doors meeting with my local parish priest. Was it the fact that I'm buttoning up my shirt or the fact that I'll be traumatized about being fondled by a 'man of god' for the rest of my life that gave it away?"
"My hair wouldn't have so much static in it if we didn't let those illegals open so darn many Taco Bells. How long must we God fearing children of teabaggers be forced to eat that crap? Let's send Taco Bell back to Mexico where it came from!"
"When I grow up I hope Rand and Ron Paul, the oil gusher in the Gulf, and the Twilight series are all just bad memories. And I hope you don't use my picture again in this post."
"This aquatic interlude was brought to you by BP. Oh wait. No, it wasn't. If I had been brought to you by BP then I'd be oil covered and gasping for air."
"This is the 5000th time Dr. Monkey has done one of these kinds of posts. How freakin' deep is his 'comedy' well anyway?"
"My neck has been attacked by an Israeli commando force. They claim it wanted to give humanitarian aid to the Palestinians which is in direct violation of the Bible, Hillary Clinton, and the talking heads at Fox Noise."
