Second spoken word piece I’ve written.
Monday night, I went to a discussion on immigration, where there was a panel of four people. Two were for it and two were against. I was pretty fired up afterwards and wrote this that night. Enjoy n_n
In this corner, two white males against immigration, and in this corner, two Mexican males who are for immigration.
Go figure.
Eventually the arguments start going in circles, we get nowhere, and agree to disagree.
The two Mexican males share their personal stories of families who tried to get into America and succeeded, and the two white males try to convince everyone of the white way to do immigration, and how illegals should be treated.
Clearly there’s a problem since for the minorities in the room, these issues hit home, and it’s easier to say we wanna keep the immigrants out of this country, then saying, “No Tia, you can’t come to the land of the free.”
Over ten years later, and my aunt’s papers still haven’t been processed. No wonder so many try to come in illegally, they can’t wait ten years to provide for their family.
Some become desperate and result to drastic measures, risking their lives to cross the border, and here some people say the laws should be stricter so we can restore order.
Now really are they saying, let’s keep all immigrants out, or are they saying let keep the European ones, but the Mexicans out.
With this whole deal in Arizona now, we’ve created a new DWB, driving while brown, where latino families, illegal or not, must now live in fear as they drive around town of being pulled over, and whatever supposed suspicious activity they’re accused of is an excuse for their police to perpetuate racial profiling all over.
Do I look illegal to you? Compared to your light skin, I do. Who’s more likely to get pulled over, a white or latino male, and this is where our great system does fail. This is the question people tend to avoid, the answer is obvious, no big fuss, but we want to believe under the law we’re all equal. Under the law isn’t reality when some cop doesn’t believe you’re from the US, among his people.
See a couple years ago, crossing from Mexico to California, this border patrol didn’t believe my school ID was real, and so he charged my mom $300 to get me back in, and at that point, these issues of immigration got real.
This happened because under the law he had every right to suspect me, I wasn’t born in this country, but to him, it meant nothing that I had my residency.
These issues are always coming up, but if anything it has only caused me to have more pride in where I come from, and it’s something I’m not ashamed to hide, and question people who assume where I come from.
I’m constantly automatically assumed I’m Mexican. Especially living in Southern California my whole life, but don’t worry this has caused me no strife because then I get the joy in responding with this question, “So why do you assume I’m Mexican? Since I have brown skin, black hair, speak Spanish, I’m automatically Mexican? As if that’s the only Spanish speaking country?”
“Oh, then what are you?” the ignorant one replies.
I sigh and say “Bolivian.”
“Where’s that,” as they look into my face as if something has changed now that in their eyes I’m no longer Mexican, but a different race, looking for some kind of obvious difference, to their demise there isn’t one, looking for the change in ethnicity, now that they see past the default culture they associate with the same features I share with the culture they thought I was in reality.
“South America, learn your geography, stop being ignorant in believing there’s only one latino country.” Just because Mexico borders us to the South, doesn’t mean every latino is from there, you just have to open your eyes and realize there’s also Argentina, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Chile, and so much more just to be fair. Most of them want to have a better life, and so attempt to come here to leave their life of despair.
When we stop viewing illegals as intruders, we can begin to view them as people who are willing to work hard for their families, taking jobs no one wants anyways, working 75 to 80 hours a week without overtime pay, no hope for a raise, only averaging a salary of $15,000 annually.
Let me know of a white American male who would be willing to take that job, and then maybe we can discuss keeping these ridiculous policies.
