Let it all out…
SEARCH
About This Blog
Love Isn't Enough is a blog about parenting and race.
The editorial team at Love Isn't Enough is comprised of Tami Winfrey Harris, Sarah, and Julia. You can email us at team@loveisntenough.com.
Comments on this blog are moderated. Please read our comment moderation policy.
Subscribe to this blogRECENT COMMENTS
- Meredith L. on Sometimes mommies and daddies need time alone
- Rita on Sometimes mommies and daddies need time alone
- Cinnamondiva on Nigeria is the Promised Land
- Cinnamondiva on Nigeria is the Promised Land
- The 24 by 24 list and imagining a life without limits – part 1 on Oh, the places we could go: Just think of the possibilities if we could step outside our comfort zones
Tags
addicted to race adoption african american ARP Links Asian asian american ask-anti-racist-parent ask ARP biracial black black hair books caucasian classroom colorism columnist intro culture diversity education family gratuitous cute kid pic Hispanic history identity international adoption interracial-relationships Latino mixed-race mixed-race-identity multiracial new demographic open thread parenting phenotype race race-relations race and education racism school stereotypes teachers transracial adoption Uncategorized white white-privilegeArchives
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
I’d love to hear whether/how other parents are addressing the term “illegal alien” with their children. Not only do I live in a border state, my county sherrif is Joe Arpaio. He’s a media whore (which is a gross understatement) so there’s a lot of media coverage surrounding immigration issues on our local news. I’ve noticed that my older children have begun internalizing some negative bias towards Hispanic & Latino people that is very troubling, and it stems from the frequency with which they see people of Hispanic descent being portrayed as illegal (criminal) aliens (to a child, monsters), how infrequently they see positive media portrayals of Hispanic and Latino people, and how lightly (and frequently) people use that phrase. Now that I’ve identified the extent of the problem, I’m looking for meaningful ways to combat it.
http://curlykidz.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/black-white-or-illegal/
@curlykidz I forget who recommended “undocumented workers” as an alternative.
I’m gonna toot my own horn and announce that I’m the new co-parenting columnist for The Faster Times. My debut column, “Adventures in How NOT to Co-Parent…Starring Jon & Kate” is currently beating out news of both J-Lo and Carmen Electra’s sex-tape as the #1 read on the site!
http://thefastertimes.com/coparenting
I think “illegal alien” or “illegal immigrant” is an appropriate term and it is what I have used when I write about people who’ve been picked up on immigration violations in the paper I write for. They are people who are in the country illegally. I’ve also interviewed quite a few legal immigrants who are disgusted by illegal immigration and have told me they resent that they jumped through all the hoops and took the classes and the tests to get their green cards and bring their families here and others expect to do it more easily. “Undocumented workers” really doesn’t cut it for me as the term of choice.
good coverage of issues related to demographic changes on Long Island. I found this statement sad, but a common attitude: Kahl is disturbed by the changes to her community. “Where is it written that people can just come in and sit down and settle in, and not be accountable to anybody?” she asks
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120281312
If I couldn’t feed my children and lived in abject poverty, I would do what it takes to move to a place where I could take care of my family.
I think there are actually two separate issues here. One is the obvious overexposure in the media of “negative” examples of people of color contrasted against an underexposure of positive examples, in this case particularly with reference to Latino families. The second, and perhaps more difficult issue, however, is simply that we live in a society where what is legal is not always aligned with what is right. Wasn’t it Aristotle who said that being a good citizen is only the same as being a good man if we live in a good society (I’m terribly butchering that quote, but you get the idea). Unfortunately, Andrea is correct – if they came here illegally, they’re illegal aliens, or illegal immigrants, not just undocumented workers. But here’s the real sting – that doesn’t mean they’re bad people. No, they didn’t jump through the hoops, so to speak, but is it right that those hoops are there in the first place? Who made the hoops and why? Who did they intend to exclude from this country by making them? And didn’t those same people who made those hoops, who chose to exclude, also at the same time force the very people they are excluding to be desparate to come here by making their situation so unbearable in their country of origin through the imperialism we call capitalism and globalization. So, yes, they are illegal aliens. Just like, yes, many of the children of color sitting in jails across this country are guilty of “crime”. But, we have to be mindful of who is defining the crime and the criminal. And then, we have to figure out how to teach our children to be good people in a world that too often rewards something other than good. We have to teach them to see past the rhetoric and understand the reality, and know the more they understand, the less likely they will ever be content. We have to accept, I suppose, at some point that we need this discontent because that is the only way to bring real change. So, let your children read the news. Tell them that those people are indeed “illegal aliens.” Tell them also that these aliens are decent people, who love their children and are willing to work hard and endure suffering so their own children can have a better life. Teach your children to have compassion, and then allow them to be outraged – maybe they will grow up and make a difference.
Andrea,
An immigrant is a person. Last time I checked being a person wasn’t illegal.
They immigrated here illegally — hence, the term “illegal immigrant.” And, for the record, the legal immigrants I have interviewed who said they resented illegal immigration came from countries in Africa, Eastern Europe, and South America. One of them came to the United States as a young adult because his father put his name down to immigrate when he was 5 or 6. It takes 15 to 20 years for some of these people to get into the country. You might argue that they should get rid of the red tape and make it faster and easier to immigrate but how is it fair to those people that people who came here illegally will get to stay here and apply for citizenship and at most be required to pay a fine?
Immigration is a complicated issue. Sure it’s understandable why poor people who can’t find jobs in their own countries would come to the United States illegally BUT this isn’t a country with unlimited resources, either. I don’t think this country can support an unlimited number of immigrants, particularly those who are poor, uneducated, may rely heavily on social services and require a great deal of support that probably isn’t always available. That’s why we have quotas and requirements that people who come here have sponsors or people who are willing to give them a place to stay, help finding a job, help navigating the world until they learn English, etc. We give priority to family members and educated workers who have already lined up jobs. It’s also not unreasonable to expect a certain amount of assimilation to the larger culture and loyalty to the country itself before they become citizens.
I’d also point out that other countries have far stricter immigration requirements and deal more harshly with people who cross their borders illegally than we do. I pity the American who ends up in Mexico illegally. Their laws are a lot tougher.
cosign Angel H. My heart started pounding in rage when I read what Andrea wrote. I’m calm now but calling a HUMAN BEING an alien is not going to teach your child tolerance. Children are very literal and using the word “alien” to describe a person will make them think that that person is less than human and it perpetuates the view of them as Other. This site is about finding ways not to fight against that sort of treatment. Illegal immigrants I can accept as a less tolerant, but not horribly offensive, term. Illegal aliens: never. Most of us came into this country as undocumented workers. When my family came over to the U.S. people thought it was “accurate” to call them WOPs, too. These hoops are, and have always been, created to bring in certain types of people and to leave others out as “undesirable”. It is a clear example of institutionalized racism. And talking to a few legal immigrants who say that they are upset by illegal immigration does not give using the term “illegal aliens” a green light. That’s like saying, “But I have a Black friend that doesn’t mind me saying n****, therefore it is not offensive.” Fail.
This site is about finding ways to fight against that sort of treatment…leave out the “not”. But then, you all know that. Guess I wasn’t as calm as I thought!
Angel, they are aliens (An unnaturalized foreign resident of a country) and having gotten into the country through illegal means are unfortunately by dictionary definition ‘illegal’ aliens.
@ Andrea: Crossing the border without documents is not “the easy way out”.
If you think it’s so easy, why don’t you do it? Oh, that’s right, because you don’t have to.
You’ve never had to drink your own piss because you have no water in the middle of the desert. You’ve never had to watch your 6-month-old baby die from dehydration. You’ve never watched your grandmother stumble and fall from exhaustion. You’ve never left your family to go care for your sick mother and been denied a return visa.
What would you do if your family were starving because NAFTA raised the price of tortillas so high that you had to live in a foreign, racist society where everyone called you “illegal”?
Agricultural companies are the biggest supporters of immigration because farm-workers and domestics are the only employees in the nation who are excluded from minimum wage laws. US agricultural companies keep immigrants in fear of deportation with terms like “illegal” in order to exploit them. There have even been prosecuted cases of real slavery in the US. check out http://www.ciw-online.org/
Where was columbus’ green card???
“Illegal” is not a noun. And- like Angel said- it is not illegal to be a person. If products are allowed to “legally” cross borders under globalization, why are humans considered “illegal”?
No, you absolutely should NOT tell your children that undocumented workers (economic refugees) are “illegal immigrants”
A brown child, who is internalizing racism, should not learn that the dehumanizing and racist terminology used against their people is ok. to do that would be to create a self-hating individual, a racist republican, or worse.
Both of the terms “illegal” and “alien” encourage people to think of immigrants as “the other” which is the logic that enables racism and genocide. It is only when a group of people has been extensively dehumanized and “othered” that atrocities can happen.
The media absolutely plays a role in “othering” people, and therefore children should be taught to look out for this and not mimic it.
Teach your child that aliens are from outer space, not Latin America. And that no human being is “illegal” on this earth. Teach your child that most immigrants come here to work, but of course, some are bad people just like some Americans are bad people. That immigrants are mothers, lawyers, doctors, gangsters, judges, criminals, dentists, sons and grandparents: there is diversity within the immigrant population, just as there is within the US.
Teach your children that immigrants are not just one group of people with one name. Rather, that each and every immigrant has their own name, and not one is named “illegal”.
@Angel – yes, but ‘illegal’ modifies ‘immigrant’, not ‘person’.
There was a really good episode of the documentary series “30 Days” (created by Morgan Spurlock, the guy who did Super Size Me), in which a guy who volunteers with the Minutemen spends a month living with a family of illegal aliens. They also visited the family’s old home in Mexico – it was a really good exploration of the issue.
Andrea & Dersk,
Is an immigrant or an “alien” not a person?
The thing that really pisses me off about the anti-immigration movement is the implication that because a person isn’t a citizen, that person person is not entitled to the same rights as a naturalized citizen. Because these immigrants are undocumented, many people believe that they forfeit their rights to equal treatment under the law in this country. Wrong answer:
Amendment XIV, Section 1 of the US Constitution: “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. ”
Andrea,
You might argue that they should get rid of the red tape and make it faster and easier to immigrate but how is it fair to those people that people who came here illegally will get to stay here and apply for citizenship and at most be required to pay a fine?
Why wouldn’t it be fair? The process of becomming a citizen takes time and money – time away from your job because amny of them can’t earn leave, and money to feed your family – that a lot of people can’t afford. Which brings me to the next part of your argument:
I don’t think this country can support an unlimited number of immigrants, particularly those who are poor, uneducated, may rely heavily on social services and require a great deal of support that probably isn’t always available.
There are so many classism issues in this statement alone that I don’t know where to start. First of all, just because a person is poor and uneducated does not make him or her a burden or a non-contributing member of society. And those quotas you mention give clearly racist preference to immigrants from Europe and Canada. If an immigrant from Africa, Asia, or (Lord, help them) Central America, South America, or the Middle East, they not only have to deal with the issues of being a Person of Color in a white man’s country, they carry the stigma of being an immigrant whether they come here illegally or not.
It’s also not unreasonable to expect a certain amount of assimilation to the larger culture and loyalty to the country itself before they become citizens.
And whose culture would that be? Despite what many would like to believe, the US is not a melting-pot homogenizing into one creamy white soup. The same “American culture” doesn’t even exist between neighborhoods in the same city, let alone the same country.
I’d also point out that other countries have far stricter immigration requirements and deal more harshly with people who cross their borders illegally than we do.
So what? We don’t have any control over another country’s immigration laws, but we can exert some control over ours.
@love: from dictionary.com:
1. a resident born in or belonging to another country who has not acquired citizenship by naturalization (distinguished from citizen ).
Yes, words have implications, but they also have primary meanings. Or, to rephrase the question: how do you propose to differentiate between non-US citizens living and working in the US legally, and those who aren’t?
The question shouldn’t be how to label this group of people the most inoffensively; it ought to be how to solve the dual problems of the large number of people illegally living in the US (e.g., is amnesty fair with so many people waiting in line and following the rules?) and, more importantly, the imbalances that are causing so many people to risk so much in coming to the US illegally.
Angel,
you said “So what? We don’t have any control over another country’s immigration laws, but we can exert some control over ours.”
But your entire argument seems to be that we should NOT be exert any control over ours. That the laws themselves are inhumane and unfair. I could be misunderstanding your point. Should we be working to eliminate all immigration laws?
You also quoted the Constitution regarding life liberty and pursuit of happiness of any person. However, you failed to note the words “DUE PROCESS OF LAW” therefore as the laws state that you must first have permission to enter the country the process of law allows for the deportation of said immigrants.
Unfortunately, the facts do not support your argument that the poor are not burdens on society. On average a poor immigrant costs $8,000 more per year in taxes than they contribute. Multiply that times unlimited immigration and you have an unsupportable number.
For me the ultimate reason for not having certain controls is that it is the poor immigrant themselves that are hurt the worst. Not only would there not be enough resources to go around but it would drive down the wages of everyone involved, and the poor would suffer the worst.
Why do you think big businesses are the number one supporter of hiring illegal immigrants? The immigrant who arrived 5 years ago will never get raises or benefits as long as there is a new immigrant willing to take his place for cheaper. And removing immigration controls completely doesn’t bring them out from the shadows so much as give big businesses a constant flow of minimum wage employees that are easy to control.
Ann,
By “exerting control over our immigration laws”, I mean to change them for the better. This issue is not so black and white as you make it out to seem. I do believe that the immigration laws should be less strict, but I don’t think not enforcing any laws is the answer either. We need to realize that the way these laws were made and are enforced is built upon a foundation of racial inequality. When the foundation is cracked, it’s time to get it fixed.
You also quoted the Constitution regarding life liberty and pursuit of happiness of any person. However, you failed to note the words “DUE PROCESS OF LAW” therefore as the laws state that you must first have permission to enter the country the process of law allows for the deportation of said immigrants.
Due process allows for equal protection under the law. If you are in this country you are accused of commiting any crime, you have the right to be heard and to have a fair trial.
In other words, a person is innocent under the law until proven guilty. It doesn’t matter how a person enters the country that person still has rights under the Constitution.
I’m poor. I work 40 hours a week, pay my taxes, and I live under the poverty line. My parents grew up poor, even though they and their parents went to work everyday for almost 60 hours a week. Generations of my family lived under the poverty line. We also help our community, work to change things for the better. At the end of the day, we may not have the money for a bus ride home, but our lives are worth more than some statistic.
And it doesn’t matter if that person is an undocumented worker, being poor does not mean one is useless or is costing more than what they’re worth.
Please, check the classism.
@Angel H.
Changing the topic (in the spirit of Open Thread)…
What do you do with “classic” children’s books that contain gratuitous racism?
I bought a giant box of Newbery books on ebay, and am slogging through them all before turning my kid loose on them. Last night’s book was The Cricket in Times Square, which is a great book, except for the horribly stereotyped Chinese characters. Which are so integral to the book that they taint the whole thing – you can’t even skip those sections. I’d be fine with my half-Chinese kid reading it as an older teen or young adult, but not as a 6 year old. Nor would I want her elementary-school classmates reading it.
I feel like I’ve come across a box of old lead soldiers – I hate to just throw them out, but I can’t in good conscience give them to someone who doesn’t recognize them as potentially dangerous, you know?
So what do you do with those books?
“Ft Hood shooting was a terrorist act. Muslims must be stopped.”
I’m military. My brother is Muslim.
I’m beyond tired of hearing about the jihadists and horrible Islamics/Muslims.
How the h-e-double-f’ing-hockey sticks am I supposed to respond to this BS?
Phoebe~~I feel like a lot of the Newbery books are dogs! I haven’t read “The Cricket in Times Square” in a long time so I don’t remember how the Chinese men are depicted. However, I was thinking it wasn’t so bad….
S’s mom – the main Chinese character in the book:
- runs a combo curio shop (in which he sells, among other things, a cricket cage purportedly once belonging to the Emperor of China, sold for 15 cents) and hand laundry
- literally dances in the street giggling at the appearance of a cricket
- speaks with a “we’ll just replace all the r’s with l’s” “accent” and very broken English (as contrasted with the kid in the book’s Italian immigrant parents, who speak perfectly grammatical, unaccented English, when they aren’t speaking Italian). Except when the author needs him to say something like “excellent deduction.”
- wears kimonos (as opposed to Hanfu)
- eats off of porcelain dishes decorated with similarly-kimono’d folks, paired with wooden disposable chopsticks
- has a Chinese friend who inexplicably bows from the waist to small white children, repeatedly, until someone tells him to stop
- is suspected of maybe making mouse souffles (explained in a “those Chinese people will eat anything” context)
Well, I certainly didn’t remember! Thanks for the heads up!
See, this is why I don’t think Newbery books are as great as they are made out to be. How about the Westing Game though? That won a Newbery (although your child is likely too young for it.) That was the first book I’d ever read that had the hint of interracial romance. (When Turtle, a white girl, has a crush on the marathon runner, who is Chinese-American. Although it never develops into an actual romance.)