Friday, April 14, 2006

"Nothing Gringo On May 1." Huh?

Has anyone heard anything about some kind of debate over illegal immigration? Like, it all of a sudden became this huge issue or something?

Yeah, neither had I. But when I recently returned from the Moon, I saw a story on CNN about how illegal immigrants were planning a boycott of U.S. businesses for May 1 as a way of displaying their purchasing power.

The tagline for the effort: "Nothing Gringo on May 1."

A couple of points:

1) Without taking sides on the debate itself, doesn't it feel divisive to not only essentially threaten the very people you want to win over, but to call them a racial slur in the process? What if a bunch of Americans went into Mexico and wanted to stay, and in order to win public support we marched through their streets, waving American flags and calling for a "Boycott the [Insert Mexican Slur Here] Day"? Would that ever be condoned or celebrated? How is this in any way constructive? Answer: it isn't.


2) Three words: Cinco de Mayo! Why not boycott on the de facto day of Mexican independence, especially if you were planning it for that time frame anyway? Isn't that a no-brainer? That's like Christians holding a "Rally for the Birth of Jesus" on December 20. Who's running the show over there?

CNN
story link

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3 comments:

Clayton Littlejohn said...

I think that like you, I haven't mustered up the energy to get all worked up about this issue one side or the other but I have to admit that I kind of like being called 'gringo'.

SNAKE HUNTERS said...

Europe has invited an Invasion of Immigrants. All
Muslims. Two generations of them. Thy huddle in enclaves
and attend their Mosques. Learn baby, learn.

Read all about it!

www.lazyonebenn.bligspot.com

MSH said...

I think I would like being called Gringo if I was a cowboy in a movie. Like "where you goin, Gringo?" or "That gringo is a deadly pistolier." Otherwise, I just kind of view it as a bad racial slur.