On Monday, March 19, 2018, on his Fox News segment, Tucker Carlson exposed the underlining driving force demonizing immigrants, especially Mexicans. It may seem that the rising vocal hatred of immigrants is about Mexicans, it is actually about Latinos/Hispanics staking their claim to American politics. Tucker Carlson does not like immigrants, he has stated so, many times. What is different about his latest tirade, is what it exposes about the fear of immigrants across America. It is not about immigrants, per say, it is about the demographics of the country. Tucker Carlson states this clearly.
Carlson starts out pointedly telling his audience that there is no debate about the changing demographic face of America. Tucker uses Hazleton, Pennsylvania as his example. According to Carlson, in 2000, the Hispanic population in Hazelton was two percent. Note that Carlson clearly stated it was about the Hispanic population, not the immigrant population.
Carlson goes on, “just sixteen years later, Hazleton is majority Hispanic, that’s a lot of change.” Note the use of the word “Hispanic,” instead of “immigrant”? Carlson continues, “people who grew up in Hazleton return to find out they can’t communicate with the people who now live there.”
Tucker Carlson gets directly to the crux of the issue, returning people “can’t communicate with the people who now live there.”
Tucker clearly does not believe all the people who now live in Hazleton are immigrants and especially undocumented immigrants. Instead, Tucker is focused on them likely because they speak Spanish and are living their lives with a different culture. Many of the Hazleton residents are U.S. citizens, but they look different and speak Spanish. Tucker clearly lays out for you that the problem is not immigrants, but rather Hispanics in America.
“No nation, no society has ever changed this fast,” continued Carlson. Therein lies the problem with his argument and that of those who believe like him.
Hispanics have been a part of the American landscape since the country was founded. Spanish has been part of the nation as well. The United States expanded westward under Manifest Destiny absorbing the Mexican culture and the Spanish language as it grew. Many Tejanos spoke Spanish because English was the minority language in Texas. Likewise, states like California and Nevada retain their original Spanish names and, most importantly, their culture as they entered the United States. New Mexico evolved its Mexican cuisine into its own version. Mexican food is well known in all parts of the United States.
Spanish and the Mexican/Hispanic culture have been part of the United States since its founding. What has changed is not the culture, but the ruling politics of the nation. The Anglo/English ruling class ruled in their own image. English and Anglo-centric culture was in charge. As the Hispanics in America started to assert their cultural identity in the politics of the nation, the Anglo ruling class pushed back.
Tucker Carlson clearly lays it out for you, “how would feel if that happened in your neighborhood?” He continues, “this is more change then human beings are designed to digest.” There in lies the whole fallacy of the immigration argument.
The Spanish language and the Hispanic culture have been a part of the America scene from day one. It did not suddenly appear it just came out of the political shadows. It is not “more change” but, rather an assertion of a culture that has been kept at bay by another culture on the political scene.
Carlson goes on to blame the country’s leadership for the changes in demographics, arguing that the neighborhoods of the country’s leaders look “like it’s 1960.”
In other words, what Tucker Carlson is advocating for is not border security or immigration enforcement but in keeping American neighborhoods, “like it’s 1960.”
The war on immigrants is not a war on immigration, but a war on the rising political power of Hispanics/Latinos in America. Tucker Carlson exposed this in his diatribe last week. For the Hispanic U.S. citizens who have bought into the notion that immigration is the problem, consider that for many, like Tucker Carlson, you are the problem.
Below is a link to the article by Jorge Ramos in the Dallas Morning News from yesterday about immigrants. He cites from book by Roberto Suro’s “Strangers Among Us”.
(https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/03/23/jorge-ramos-people-not-illegal).
It’s a good read.
Martin thinks we probably don’t have enough Muslims, too.