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Train wreck in the making..Blacks VS. Immigrants
select-fire
Member Posts: 69,514 ✭✭✭✭
There is a line in there toward the bottom about Hispanic and Black THINKERS..LMAO [:D]
Rising black-Latino clash on jobs By Daniel B. Wood, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Thu May 25, 4:00 AM ET
LOS ANGELES - From where Johnny Blair Vaughn sits outside Lucy Florence Coffee House in the heart of Los Angeles's black community, he can feel the temperature rising over immigration.
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The biggest reason, says the father of seven, is jobs.
"If you drive across this city, you will see 99 percent of all construction is being done by Hispanics.... You will see no African-American males on these sites, and that is a big change," says Mr. Vaughn, who has worked in construction for two decades. His two oldest boys, in their early 20s, have been turned down so many times for jobs - as framers, roofers, cement layers - that they no longer apply, he says.
While Los Angeles is ground zero for black-Hispanic friction these days, echoes of Vaughn's words are rising throughout urban black America as Congress labors over immigration reform. In cities where almost half of the young black men are unemployed, a debate is raging over whether Latinos - undocumented and not - are elbowing aside blacks for jobs in stores, restaurants, hotels, manufacturing plants, and elsewhere.
Hispanics and blacks tend to gravitate to the same inner-city areas and low-skill labor markets - and the result is a clash over jobs that require less skill and less education, experts say.
"In this era of mass immigration, no group has benefited less or been harmed more than the African-American population," says Vernon Briggs, a Cornell University professor who researches immigration policy and the American labor force.
Yet a precise relationship between the presence of immigrants and the loss of black jobs has not been clearly proven in research. Rather, the influx of legal and illegal immigrants has been so massive that it has affected the internal migration of native-born Americans to the point where "economists have given up trying to prove a one-to-one-displacement," says Dr. Briggs.
Some Latino groups, meanwhile, counter that such a correlation is more a perception than a reality.
"We are fighting ... hearsay and opinion," says Randy Jurado Ertll, a Hispanic educational consultant and director of El Centro de Acci?n Social, Inc., a community service organization in Pasadena, Calif. "Blacks say, 'Hey a Latino immigrant came and took my job,' and some Latinos say, 'Blacks have all the jobs at the post office or city hall and don't want to give jobs to Latinos.' "
Statistics show that young African-Americans are having trouble in the job market. Unemployment among young blacks nationwide is 40 percent, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. "For blacks, the growing presence of immigrant workers adds to the formidable obstacles they face in finding a job," said a Pew Research Center study released in April. Among blacks, 78 percent say jobs are difficult to find in their community compared to only 55 percent of Hispanics.
Many economists disagree that immigration is the reason black unemployment is high. Instead, shrinking budgets for job training and creation, industry downsizing and manufacturing flight to foreign countries are to blame.
Yet the perception that Hispanic immigrant workers are pushing blacks aside in the job market is evident in many cities with a high black population including Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington, and Denver, Briggs says.
"Latinos and blacks are at each others' throats in our jails and in our high schools," says Najee Ali, an activist based in Chicago and Los Angeles.
Mr. Ali notes that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had to intervene after several high school brawls broke out between Hispanics and blacks in recent months. Riots in the Los Angeles County Jail - the nation's largest - came about in part because of tensions on the streets between black and Hispanic gangs, observers say.
"Undocumented immigration that is taking jobs from blacks is the number one issue nationwide. Unless we address it, the same kind of eruptions we are seeing in Los Angeles will jump to these other cities as Latino populations increase there," he says.
Others point out that tensions between blacks and Hispanics are not new and are not tied solely to immigration. They also result from a competition for housing, education, and healthcare due to the sheer number of Latinos - they are the largest and fastest-growing minority group. Hispanics' increasing political clout as well as recent immigrants-rights demonstrations involving hundreds of thousands Hispanic immigrants in dozens of cities have roiled many in the black community.
"It angers me because I know that the jobs immigrants are coming to get are not just the ones they got in the past ... seasonal jobs for picking," says Vaughn. "They got a glimpse of what America is, and they want a piece of the American pie. I can't blame them ... but there has to be a way for the government to step in and make it fairer so that African- Americans can be employed also."
A vast majority of blacks, including Vaughn, believe Latin American immigrants are hard working, according to the poll taken by the Pew Research Center. Blacks are also more sympathetic than whites to the plights of immigrants.
They remember their own struggle to gain civil rights and the help that Latinos offered during the 1960s.
"The battle over immigrant rights will be fought as fiercely and doggedly as the civil rights battle of the 1960s. That battle forever altered the way Americans look at race. The immigrants-rights battle will profoundly alter the way Americans look at immigrants," says Earl Ofari Hutchinson, author of nine books on the black experience.
Today, the black community is split over how to address immigration. The NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights generally support the immigrant marches. They're against exposing all illegal immigrants to felony charges as outlined in a bill passed by the US House in December. A California Field Poll in April found that 82 percent of blacks instead support a US Senate measure, which would give undocumented workers currently in the US for more than five years the opportunity of citizenship.
But a vocal subset of blacks has a different view. Choose Black America, a coalition of business, academic, and community leaders, formed this week to advocate for stronger border security and not allow illegal immigrants to become citizens.
In April, a band of protesters marched in front of the office of Rep. Maxine Waters (news, bio, voting record) (D) of California because she, along with the Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, supports citizenship for illegal immigrants. Blacks also have "singed the phone lines at black radio talk shows with anti-immigrant tirades" and "bombarded black newspapers with letters blasting illegal immigrants," says Hutchinson.
"It's definitely one of the hottest topics on talk radio I've ever seen," says Greg Johnson, marketing director of KJLH, a leading black radio station in Los Angeles. The majority of callers favor more conservative enforcement solutions to immigration, but the station is getting callers on all sides, he says.
"Some are adamant to get them [immigrants] out; others say, 'let's work with them;' and others say 'let's figure out how to regulate it,' " says Mr. Johnson. "Some of the stress I'm seeing I don't understand. Blacks are divided on this issue and it needs to be talked out ... Latino/black relationships have to be resolved. We all live in the same neighborhoods we are part of the same community."
Despite these differences, some in the black community are seeking to build an alliance that lifts both blacks and Latinos.
With Rev. Sharpton and Christine Chavez, the daughter of United Farm Workers founder Cezar Chavez, Ali is expanding a national black and Hispanic coalition in Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Washington, and New York - modeled after efforts started here last August. The groups are trying to find common ground on jobs, housing, education, healthcare, and controlling gangs.
Mr. Ertll says his group wants to meet at both the official and grass-roots levels to address the concern of low-income jobs for all ethnicities.
But some do not agree with construction worker Vaughn and others who say that Hispanics are a threat to blacks trying to find work.
"Yes, immigrants are coming in to take the jobs, but if you really put your mind to it, you can get one," says Jamal Dillard, 18, who just got hired as a courtesy clerk at Albertsons grocery for $6.75 per hour.
Some Hispanic and black thinkers agree that many American employers are taking advantage of both groups.
"It is past time for all African-Americans to understand that our interests and those of immigrants are not at odds," wrote Sharpton in a reply to critics. "Those truly concerned about economic fairness would be better off targeting businesses that exploit and underpay illegal immigrants to the detriment of American workers."
That detriment is the bidding down of wages for all lower-income jobs.
"The real culprits are the employers who work people 12 to 14 hours a day at $8 an hour or less without having to pay payroll taxes or provide any other form of benefits," says Ernesto Nieto, president of the National Hispanic Institute. "To direct blame to people in need because of American greed is to beg the question of who's really at fault here and who's really playing by the rules."
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Full Coverage: Immigration
Off the Wires
Gov. Richardson questions Guard plan AP, 18 minutes ago Schwarzenegger, Fox to discuss immigration AP, 1 hour, 39 minutes ago Feature Articles
Minuteman's goal: To shame feds into action at USATODAY.com, May 25 House GOP's Back Is to the Wall on Borders at The Los Angeles Times (reg. req'd), May 25 News Stories
Senate plan for illegals faces fight in House at USATODAY.com, May 25 On Day 2, Fox Presses Call for 'Orderly' Guest Worker
Rising black-Latino clash on jobs By Daniel B. Wood, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Thu May 25, 4:00 AM ET
LOS ANGELES - From where Johnny Blair Vaughn sits outside Lucy Florence Coffee House in the heart of Los Angeles's black community, he can feel the temperature rising over immigration.
ADVERTISEMENT
The biggest reason, says the father of seven, is jobs.
"If you drive across this city, you will see 99 percent of all construction is being done by Hispanics.... You will see no African-American males on these sites, and that is a big change," says Mr. Vaughn, who has worked in construction for two decades. His two oldest boys, in their early 20s, have been turned down so many times for jobs - as framers, roofers, cement layers - that they no longer apply, he says.
While Los Angeles is ground zero for black-Hispanic friction these days, echoes of Vaughn's words are rising throughout urban black America as Congress labors over immigration reform. In cities where almost half of the young black men are unemployed, a debate is raging over whether Latinos - undocumented and not - are elbowing aside blacks for jobs in stores, restaurants, hotels, manufacturing plants, and elsewhere.
Hispanics and blacks tend to gravitate to the same inner-city areas and low-skill labor markets - and the result is a clash over jobs that require less skill and less education, experts say.
"In this era of mass immigration, no group has benefited less or been harmed more than the African-American population," says Vernon Briggs, a Cornell University professor who researches immigration policy and the American labor force.
Yet a precise relationship between the presence of immigrants and the loss of black jobs has not been clearly proven in research. Rather, the influx of legal and illegal immigrants has been so massive that it has affected the internal migration of native-born Americans to the point where "economists have given up trying to prove a one-to-one-displacement," says Dr. Briggs.
Some Latino groups, meanwhile, counter that such a correlation is more a perception than a reality.
"We are fighting ... hearsay and opinion," says Randy Jurado Ertll, a Hispanic educational consultant and director of El Centro de Acci?n Social, Inc., a community service organization in Pasadena, Calif. "Blacks say, 'Hey a Latino immigrant came and took my job,' and some Latinos say, 'Blacks have all the jobs at the post office or city hall and don't want to give jobs to Latinos.' "
Statistics show that young African-Americans are having trouble in the job market. Unemployment among young blacks nationwide is 40 percent, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. "For blacks, the growing presence of immigrant workers adds to the formidable obstacles they face in finding a job," said a Pew Research Center study released in April. Among blacks, 78 percent say jobs are difficult to find in their community compared to only 55 percent of Hispanics.
Many economists disagree that immigration is the reason black unemployment is high. Instead, shrinking budgets for job training and creation, industry downsizing and manufacturing flight to foreign countries are to blame.
Yet the perception that Hispanic immigrant workers are pushing blacks aside in the job market is evident in many cities with a high black population including Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington, and Denver, Briggs says.
"Latinos and blacks are at each others' throats in our jails and in our high schools," says Najee Ali, an activist based in Chicago and Los Angeles.
Mr. Ali notes that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had to intervene after several high school brawls broke out between Hispanics and blacks in recent months. Riots in the Los Angeles County Jail - the nation's largest - came about in part because of tensions on the streets between black and Hispanic gangs, observers say.
"Undocumented immigration that is taking jobs from blacks is the number one issue nationwide. Unless we address it, the same kind of eruptions we are seeing in Los Angeles will jump to these other cities as Latino populations increase there," he says.
Others point out that tensions between blacks and Hispanics are not new and are not tied solely to immigration. They also result from a competition for housing, education, and healthcare due to the sheer number of Latinos - they are the largest and fastest-growing minority group. Hispanics' increasing political clout as well as recent immigrants-rights demonstrations involving hundreds of thousands Hispanic immigrants in dozens of cities have roiled many in the black community.
"It angers me because I know that the jobs immigrants are coming to get are not just the ones they got in the past ... seasonal jobs for picking," says Vaughn. "They got a glimpse of what America is, and they want a piece of the American pie. I can't blame them ... but there has to be a way for the government to step in and make it fairer so that African- Americans can be employed also."
A vast majority of blacks, including Vaughn, believe Latin American immigrants are hard working, according to the poll taken by the Pew Research Center. Blacks are also more sympathetic than whites to the plights of immigrants.
They remember their own struggle to gain civil rights and the help that Latinos offered during the 1960s.
"The battle over immigrant rights will be fought as fiercely and doggedly as the civil rights battle of the 1960s. That battle forever altered the way Americans look at race. The immigrants-rights battle will profoundly alter the way Americans look at immigrants," says Earl Ofari Hutchinson, author of nine books on the black experience.
Today, the black community is split over how to address immigration. The NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights generally support the immigrant marches. They're against exposing all illegal immigrants to felony charges as outlined in a bill passed by the US House in December. A California Field Poll in April found that 82 percent of blacks instead support a US Senate measure, which would give undocumented workers currently in the US for more than five years the opportunity of citizenship.
But a vocal subset of blacks has a different view. Choose Black America, a coalition of business, academic, and community leaders, formed this week to advocate for stronger border security and not allow illegal immigrants to become citizens.
In April, a band of protesters marched in front of the office of Rep. Maxine Waters (news, bio, voting record) (D) of California because she, along with the Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, supports citizenship for illegal immigrants. Blacks also have "singed the phone lines at black radio talk shows with anti-immigrant tirades" and "bombarded black newspapers with letters blasting illegal immigrants," says Hutchinson.
"It's definitely one of the hottest topics on talk radio I've ever seen," says Greg Johnson, marketing director of KJLH, a leading black radio station in Los Angeles. The majority of callers favor more conservative enforcement solutions to immigration, but the station is getting callers on all sides, he says.
"Some are adamant to get them [immigrants] out; others say, 'let's work with them;' and others say 'let's figure out how to regulate it,' " says Mr. Johnson. "Some of the stress I'm seeing I don't understand. Blacks are divided on this issue and it needs to be talked out ... Latino/black relationships have to be resolved. We all live in the same neighborhoods we are part of the same community."
Despite these differences, some in the black community are seeking to build an alliance that lifts both blacks and Latinos.
With Rev. Sharpton and Christine Chavez, the daughter of United Farm Workers founder Cezar Chavez, Ali is expanding a national black and Hispanic coalition in Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Washington, and New York - modeled after efforts started here last August. The groups are trying to find common ground on jobs, housing, education, healthcare, and controlling gangs.
Mr. Ertll says his group wants to meet at both the official and grass-roots levels to address the concern of low-income jobs for all ethnicities.
But some do not agree with construction worker Vaughn and others who say that Hispanics are a threat to blacks trying to find work.
"Yes, immigrants are coming in to take the jobs, but if you really put your mind to it, you can get one," says Jamal Dillard, 18, who just got hired as a courtesy clerk at Albertsons grocery for $6.75 per hour.
Some Hispanic and black thinkers agree that many American employers are taking advantage of both groups.
"It is past time for all African-Americans to understand that our interests and those of immigrants are not at odds," wrote Sharpton in a reply to critics. "Those truly concerned about economic fairness would be better off targeting businesses that exploit and underpay illegal immigrants to the detriment of American workers."
That detriment is the bidding down of wages for all lower-income jobs.
"The real culprits are the employers who work people 12 to 14 hours a day at $8 an hour or less without having to pay payroll taxes or provide any other form of benefits," says Ernesto Nieto, president of the National Hispanic Institute. "To direct blame to people in need because of American greed is to beg the question of who's really at fault here and who's really playing by the rules."
Email Story IM Story Discuss Printable View RECOMMEND THIS STORY
Recommend It:
Average (89 votes)
? Recommended Stories
Full Coverage: Immigration
Off the Wires
Gov. Richardson questions Guard plan AP, 18 minutes ago Schwarzenegger, Fox to discuss immigration AP, 1 hour, 39 minutes ago Feature Articles
Minuteman's goal: To shame feds into action at USATODAY.com, May 25 House GOP's Back Is to the Wall on Borders at The Los Angeles Times (reg. req'd), May 25 News Stories
Senate plan for illegals faces fight in House at USATODAY.com, May 25 On Day 2, Fox Presses Call for 'Orderly' Guest Worker
Comments
When I was a young man working construction in Atlanta, a good percentage of the work was being done by Blacks. I worked as a brick mason's helper for a Black masonry crew. Those guys worked my butt off, but we had a good time. They enjoyed having a White boy for a laborer, they made jokes about me being their slave, and a lazy slave. It was funny. I would say that 30 to 40 percent of the masonry crews in Atlanta were Black.
Blacks also did a lot of the yard work.
Today, construction and yard work in Atlanta have been taken over by the illegals.
The Blacks are being betrayed by their White liberal, and Black leaders. These "leaders" are welcoming illegal immigration. It is so short sighted of them not to see the devastating effect the illegal immigration has on the Black labor market.
Just today I heard California African American US legislator Maxine Waters on the radio going on and on about how unfair the Republicans were towards the Mexicans, and about how we need wide open borders. What a fool.
Jeff
moved in displacing the Italians. Lately the Hispanics have moved in
and are rapidly displacing the blacks.
This article does not even address the fact that these illegals are driving American owned and operated businesses out of business.[xx(][V][:(!] The whole situation sucks!
Sorry! the Post Office doesn't hire illegal aliens!
its time blacks step up to the plate and start doing what king said they could do. but unfortunatley, its gonna take a generation or two to die off, before they start realizing the dream. too many are comfortable having 'massa' look after them. the world DID owe them something. but now they that they have it they dont want it. its 'too hard.'[8]
cosby was right.[^]
they better wake up or the mexicans will take it all. i hope they do. they at least have brains and can read a ruler.
Former Member U.S. Navy Shooting Team
Former NSSA All American
Navy Distinguished Pistol Shot
MO, CT, VA.
I don't even like this arguement...the idea of being against mexicans to support blacks flounders
This is about illegals VS Americans.
Like Allen, I was a construction worker in the Atlanta area back during the 70's except I did built-up roofing. The owner was white but most if not all of the built-up crew was black. Usually I would be the only white guy on the crew. We worked our butts off and worked to high standards of workmanship.
There are lots of powerful white Americans and others that are not powerful but just genuine racists that are supporting the hispanic illegals specifically with the intent of marginalizing American blacks.
The senate bill just passed is a sell out of 90+% of Americans.
Amazingly, Larry Craig of Idaho voted for the bill. My Georgia senators both voted against it [:)]
mag
Do I agree with the illegals coming in,...NO
BUT, do I see where they are better than a lot of what we have here already,....YES.
We have a TON of useless, worthless, breeding like rabbits, scum living off our paychecks,..the mexicans will at least work and take some of the burden off of me.
I think for every mexican that passes muster at the border, we should deport a project breeder or deadbeat dad. That would have us up and running. 1 for 1 works for me.
AND I SUPPOSE THE mexicans HAVE THE TRAINING AND CREATE JOBS???
Maxine Waters (news, bio, voting record) (D) of California because she, along with the Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, supports citizenship for illegal immigrants.
HUH?!?
We have a TON of useless, worthless, breeding like rabbits, scum living off our paychecks,..the mexicans will at least work and take some of the burden off of me.
If you don't think this is part of the attraction for LOTS of illegal's then you are truly blind. If the mexicans are so upstanding why is every social service under siege right now ?? Hospital emergency rooms, county free clinics, schools, police ?????
If you make them all legal then the burden on welfare etc is much worse, not better. The numbers are out there, you just have to have the gumption to get your head out of the sand to look for them.
http://www.cis.org/
mag
"Many economists disagree that immigration is the reason black unemployment is high. Instead, shrinking budgets for job training and creation, industry downsizing and manufacturing flight to foreign countries are to blame.
AND I SUPPOSE THE mexicans HAVE THE TRAINING AND CREATE JOBS???"
When I was working as a laborer for those 9 hard working Black brick masons in 1970, their sons did not need a government job training program. They just would have come to work with their fathers, spent a while as a laborer, then worked as an apprentice brick mason, and in a few years would have become skilled brick masons.
Likewise, doesn't take a job training program to teach a guy how to run a lawnmower.
The problem is that the illegals have knocked the bottom out of the wage scale. They live 8 guys to a 2 bedroom apartment. They don't buy car insurance. They don't pay medical insurance. They don't pay income tax. Back in Mexico, they only could get $8 a day, if they could even get work, so if they can get $8 an hour cash here, they think it is a bonanza.
They work so cheap that it is not worth it for the Blacks and lower income Whites to get into the construction trades. The illegals work cheap because they don't pay the normal costs that citizens have to pay.
When they get hurt, the illegals show up at the hospitals and pay nothing for their care. Their hospital fees are paid for by the US citizens.
If they sneak their wife and ninos into America, the US taxpayers shell out $8K annually to pay for the education of each child.
quote:'Blacks have all the jobs at the post office or city hall and don't want to give jobs to Latinos.' "
Sorry! the Post Office doesn't hire illegal aliens!
RIGHT NOW THAT IS!!! [:D]
quote:Originally posted by alledan
quote:'Blacks have all the jobs at the post office or city hall and don't want to give jobs to Latinos.' "
Sorry! the Post Office doesn't hire illegal aliens!
Rumor has it They Will eventually only to sort SS checks for customers..[:0][:0] Stir Stir
What SS checks? Most people have direct deposit. I used to
realy hate delivering those checks. Every time there would be people comming & trying to get their checks early either on the street or even at the office before we left. Then there would always be missing checks. The big problem was the increasing number of checks being stolen from mailboxes. Finally they even started breaking into the vehicles & stealing entire trays of letter mail.
If you make them all legal then the burden on welfare etc is much worse, not better. The numbers are out there, you just have to have the gumption to get your head out of the sand to look for them.
you missed the part where I said we should exchange one for one. Bring in one mexican who is willing to work, all day every day for the wages that the welfare leaches feel are too beneath them, and deport one leech to make room for that working citizen. That citizen is than taxed (as part of the agreement to get here legally and with citizenship) and that then REDUCES the burden on me and the system. Let us not forget, without my paychechs, there IS NO SYSTEM,...it survives by taking money from my pocket every payday. If I decided along with a hundred million working folks that we just aren't going to pay taxes, then the sytem would die quickly. If you aren't putting into the system, then unless you can prove dire circumstances which make you needy of help, then you shouldn't get anything out of the system. The breeders who live in susidized $35 month apartments with food stamps and such are the problem. They continue to spread their legs to every deadbeat fence jumper in the hood, who upon finding out about a pregnancy, are immediately back across their fences and denying support to their offspring, which then becomes my problem.[:(!] We can't really shoot them, so I say trade them for someone willing to work and help support the system.
Oh, and let me point out that the "hood" contains all races, so please if anyone thinks that was aimed at any one group, don't bother to reply. It is a way of thinking, not a color that makes you a peice of doodoo.
1. Enforce the laws on the books now.
2. Crack down on employers of illegals.
3. Issue guest worker cards - with a time limit/renew or no.
4. Deport the illegals who refuse to leave.
... once #2 is enforced America will no longer be in danger.
Simple as that.[:D]