When bigotry wears a badge

Submitted by scharrison on

The color of your skin or the sound of your name is probable cause for persecution:

That same year, Johnson arrested more than 100 Latinos at a local Division of Motor Vehicles office and accused them of using phony documents to obtain driver's licenses. In 2004, according to Hannah Gill, a researcher at the University of North Carolina, Johnson proposed that deputies visit the homes of people with Latino surnames to root out voter fraud.

I think the thing that is most frightening about this is the fact that voters seem to love this guy, which could encourage other sheriffs to follow his bigoted example.

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A less short-sighted view

Submitted by scharrison on

Latinos could be a critical piece of our economic recovery puzzle. Excerpted from a working paper of the Council on Foreign Relations:

The benefits of entrepreneurialism are well documented. Start-up firms are responsible for nearly all net U.S. job growth and a disproportionate share of breakthrough innovations.2 Between 1990 and 2001, the U.S. regions with the most entrepreneurial activity experienced, on average, 125 percent higher employment growth, 109 percent higher productivity growth, and 58 percent higher wage growth than regions with the least entrepreneurial activity.3 Low-income business owners have higher saving rates and experience faster earnings growth than low-income employees in salaried jobs.4 The benefits are intergenerational, since the children of business owners are more likely than those of non–business owners to become entrepreneurs themselves.

Mexicans are in fact the immigrants who launch the greatest number of new companies in the United States every year. While most of these businesses are small, one-person operations or mom-and-pop retail stores and restaurants, Latino-run enterprises are major players in the frozen food, construction, and financial sectors. They are also a growing presence in the high-tech and telecommunications sectors. Given demographic
trends, their influence across the U.S. economy will likely expand significantly.

Latino immigrants are creating companies that expand the tax base, create jobs, and breathe new life into depressed commercial districts. At a time when the United States needs new consumer markets to drive economic growth, Latino immigrant–owned businesses will be indispensible for capturing growing Latino markets at home and abroad. Entrepreneurship can promote economic advancement. Helping both smaller and larger Latino-owned firms thrive will not only improve the U.S. economy, but will also help strengthen the fabric of U.S. society.

One of the most illogical accusations I've heard from the anti-immigrant crowd is how Latinos spend their money mostly amongst themselves, instead of spreading that money around traditional (white) businesses.

Well, duh. If you were being persecuted because of the color of your skin, wouldn't you stick to your own kind? It ain't rocket science, but it might as well be for some of these idiots.