This first appeared in Yahoo Questions and Answers in response to the question, “How does our community treat racial minorities today?”
In our community, Glennville, Georgia,the police do racial profiling, and class profiling. They pick on Mexicans, Blacks, and poor whites.
The real estate dealer, who has a monopoly in our town, seems to do race blocking. The Blacks have their parts of town, the Whites theirs, and the Mexicans are hidden in trailer parks in the countryside.
Black and White criminals pick on Hispanics because they tend not to go to the cops, they carry cash, and they don’t know the ways around here. In Tifton County last year, three Americans went from trailer to trailer, and killed as many as twelve immigrants to rob them of their valuables. The sheriff’s spokesperson said “race was not a factor.”
Blacks resent Hispanics because Hispanics will take jobs that the Blacks and Whites turn their noses up at, and still prosper. Blacks fear that Hispanics will “push them aside” as they climb up the socioeconomic ladder. Whites, depending on their class, either resent whatever Hispanics get or achieve, or they just look down on them, and accuse them of not assimilating. But the
Whites don’t help them assimilate. By this, I mean, the employers don’t encourage them to get off work on time to take night classes. I’ve had “native Georgian” employers accuse me of favouring Hispanics when I come to inform them of the class schedules. “Why don’t you teach Americans?” asked Mr. Futch of the creosote and wood processing plant.
The newspapers do not include stories which reveal the harrassment and injustic committed against Hispanics, Blacks, or other non-Whites.
Schools have some programs to help teach and otherwise assimilate the Hispanics, but in many ways the students are left to feel as outsiders. Often, I see seating in classes where I sub, where the Hispanic students are seated together.
Myself, I have been denied employment with the excuse that I don’t have a certificate. But native Georgians who are related to people here get ushered in quietly just if they pass their Praxis. While I did pass mine, no principal has invited me to teach on a provisional certification, which is often done with "folk from around here."
My neighbours have harassed us by calling the code enforcement for my wife having boxes of books neatly stacked in our car port, if we have over three inches of grass, and Bahalia grass sprouts fast in summer. They have even gone to city hall to complain about this. Meanwhile, just down the street, slum lords leave houses abandoned, with kudzu vines grown over, where people do crack, commit rapes, etc.
One of the largest local employers, Rotary Inc, has out of 300 employees, only a handful of Hispanics. When I was there, there were 3 of us out of 300. There does not seem to be any effort to hire Hispanics, not even documented ones. I know there are many more documented Hispanics.
The Bland Farms, located in Tison, has many Hispanics who are allegedly on H1H or some kind of visa. But last spring, none of the names matched the people being hired. I suspect the agency which transported them of fraudulent practice. It’s only a matter of time before ICE arrives and removes them all. Probably this will happen after they’ve worked for a few weeks, helping them get past the spring harvesting,or winter planting seasons.
When ICE does come, they act like the Gestapo, kicking in doors not just of undocumenteds, but also of US citizens of Hispanic race. They seem to enjoy intimidating the people. The feel as if the undocumented status justifies treating them like a lesser type of being.
I notice that Americans often make no effort to pronounce Spanish names correctly, but they expect Spanish speakers to speak “proper English.”
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