Illegal immigration and racism

For those who have walked through the dark alleys of conservative radio talk shows, the frequent anti-gay, anti-minority and racial comments wouldn’t surprise at all. The same big diarrhea mouths, when they switch to their suits and sit behind the desks at their studios for evening talk shows on some of the popular cable channels, they all tone down their rhetoric a little bit.

The recent debate on Illegal Immigration seems to be exposing the racism on both sides of this very important issue. Bill O’s recent ‘White-Christian-male’ rant on his popular show is one such incident. Any sane mind would cringe in disgust seeing the racial fears from both sides.

My opposition to Illegal immigration comes from my respect towards the law and order. I have zero tolerance to those who either bend or break the laws. There are many avenues where you can question the rules, policies and push for changes. But you don’t have to break it. There is no excuse.

Last week I was talking to this guy who happens to be half-Hispanic. For some reason, he found it odd that I oppose illegal immigration! He had this twisted, weird logic that all brown people should support this because we are getting more brown people in this country!! Tell me – how is it different from a white guy blindly opposing the immigration for the fear of Whites losing majority in this country?

Many times I am (like most of the desis) mistaken for a Hispanic. I remember the first incident - Back in 1999, I was waiting at the airport with a good friend of mine. A Hispanic guy walks up to us and starts asking us about something in Spanish. We had to tell him (of course, in English) that we didn’t speak Spanish.

Being a brown doesn’t mean that I should go justifying bad behavior from other browns.