Many Hispanic students are targets of bullying in state
By Devona WalkerStaff Writer
Mayra Sigala lives in a two-bedroom mobile home on a remote road behind Frontier City. The door to her room is wrapped in red and pink Valentines Day paper. Cupids and hearts encase her name. At times, she seems amazingly mature for her age. At others, she seems more insecure than most 15-year-olds. "We try to ignore it as much as we can, but it just gets worse and worse,” Mayra said about the racist slurs yelled at her in the crowded hallways of Edmond Memorial High School. The first incident occurred in early November, within a week of the passage of House Bill 1804, Oklahoma's stringent immigration enforcement statute. A fellow student, a football player, yelled at her in the hallway. "He kept calling me names,” she said. "He kept telling me to go back to Mexico. I tried to tell him that I was born here, but he didn't believe me.” Other students laughed. "I guess they all agreed with him,” she said. Mayra did not tell the principal. She feared he would not believe her. Instead, she told her Spanish teacher. A few other Hispanic students were experiencing the same thing, she said. They were told by the teacher that something would be done. But the behavior continued, Mayra said. School officials say the information was not passed on. They say if they had known, something would have been done. But they conceded there have been issues in the past.
25 comments:
These are isolated cases. Let's not get all worked up over it. Many Latino students are bullying Black and White students also. Nothing new here. It happens all the time.
These are isolated cases. Let's not get all worked up over it. Many Latino students are bullying Black and White students also. Nothing new here. It happens all the time.
Pat,
Racial Profiling and Bullying are happening because of all of the restrictionist laws being imposed. This happening in Oklahoma, the home of bill 1804, is very, very telling! If there were one or two cases, you may have a point. However, there are a countless number of cases coming up every day. How many go unreported?
No, they are occuring because the majority of illegal aliens in this country are Latinos.
Laws do restict. That is what laws are meant to do and why they are in place. Otherwise laws would have no meaning at all.
From Anon 4
From Anon 4
These are isolated cases. Let's not get all worked up over it. Nothing new here. It happens all the time.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Nothing to look at here. Just go home, folks.
Racial Profiling is Wrong! This type of bullying, due to race, is wrong. It is happening more due to the restrictionist laws, as it did in this article, in Oklahoma.
It has to stop!
Dee,
These incidents are a natural consequence of your "beautiful" multi-ethnic society. It has nothing to do with restrictionist laws. Furthermore, in order to quell ethnic tensions (which arise from human nature) and enforce equality and adequate mixing, we must institute tyrannical PC laws.
Dee,
On your border idea: fine. I could live with hiring thousands more trained border agents. But we will need surveillance towers, access roads, special units to intercept the border crossers, helicopters, etc. In order to be as effective as a wall, we would need a lot of agents and infrastructure.
The problem is, all Congress has to do is avoid funding this costly program. Just because a bill is passed doesn't mean it will be funded.
The two most effective things that will deter illegal immigration immensely would be a physical barrier (double layered fence) on the border to assist the BP and the passing of the Save Act which will mandate that employers only hire legal workers.
Of course the pro-illegals object to both.
More and more Latino Citizens are wrongly impacted by all of this racial profiling as my latest posts have illustrated.
Ruben Navarette agrees in his latest column: "two-thirds of Latinos say that the failure (of immigration reform) has made life more difficult for Latinos overall and roughly half say that it has affected them personally.”
Part of the problem is that the right-wingers weren't content to just attack illegal immigrants. They had to attack an entire culture, which is shared by legal immigrants and U.S.-born Hispanics. And so, a discussion that should have been about exactly three things – improving border security, smoothing the path for legal immigrants, and deciding the fate of 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States – became about outlawing taco trucks, limiting the number of people in a home, blasting pizza parlors for taking pesos, banning Spanish-language library books, and other nonsense."
Legal HIspanc citizens can blame their illegal amigos for the quandry that they are in. If the majority of illegals in this country were Chinese then it would be Chinese citizens who would be looked at with suspicion instead. Unless there is huge majority of Latino citizens being impacted negatively by being asked for I.D. then you have no leg to stand on, dee.
As far as outlawing taco trucks, it probably has to do with them not complying with health standards and/or licenses to operate them. Also there are laws about how many people can occupy a home or a building. These laws aren't new they have always been on the books.
Again you use isolated incidents and paint a broad brush about the isolated complaints of the use of pesos in a pizza parlor. I don't know of any public libraries that ban Spanish language books. They may not be found as readily as those in English but then this is an English speaking country so one would expect that.
Is that all you have to do is whine in here all day about the same things over and over that have nothing to do with you as an American citizen?
Dee,
I was born in a US Army hospital in Virginia while my father was fighting in Vietnam (one of three tours of duty there encompassed by 25 yrs of active duty service). I served honorably in the USAF for six years - my brother served in the USMC for 8 yrs - my wife served in the USAF for 8 yrs.
Yet, I find myself questioning my decision to continue living in a state like Arizona (since 1989) that tolerates this sort of racial profiling/saturation raids. I fear my children might get caught up in a racial sort of dragnet simply because they happen to be driving to the mall.
Yeah, I want criminals off the street. Yeah, my family theoretically has nothing to worry about if we get caught up in the racial net...theoretically. But, this is the USA where the Constitution provides us all basic rights. I am sure the ever-changing intent and spirit of the Constitution would frown upon racial profiling in general.
Great job with the blog, Dee. Keep up the great work, and don't let the naysayers bring you down. They are entitled to their opinion, and my Hispanic family proudly served in the US military so they can continue to have such opinions. George.
George, congrats on your father who served proudly and I am very proud of all who serve our country. Even though most times thrown into wars that hold no marrett and shouldn't be fought to begin with but thats a whole 'nother discussion. To add to Dee's last post and to pat's responce. WHAT IF pat, if the owners (politians, elites, CEO's) of this country decided they no longer want Canadians in this country for whatever reason, they decide we need a northern fence, decide to attack all things canadian and as it just so happens, alot of canadians are WHITE. What IF "YOU" are questioned on your legal status just for being white and thought an ILLEEEEEGAL canadian. Wouldn't you then think thats racial profiling? hmmmmm...
George,
Welcome to my blog and I hope you come back often.
Thank you for your service and your families service to our country.
Many of my family members have served proudly as well.
I agree with you that the Racial Profiling has to stop! It is proven that DWB and racial profiling against Latinos are happening, especially in states that have passed restrictionist laws, like in AZ.
I do like your blog. I visited it today! I will be posting your letter on a blog tonight!
anon1, this is where you go wrong. Latinos have one of the highest quotas for LEGAL immigration into our country so how can you claim that we don't want Latino immigrants? Latinos also make up the majority-minority in this country. This is about illegal aliens. What part of that don't you get?
Our immigration policies seek an equal balance of immigrants from different ethnic groups to guarantee assimilation and so as to not alter or deplete the cultural demographics of this country and it's traditional society.
Our government hasn't decided they no longer want Latino immigrants. It is just that we don't want the illegal kind of any ethnic group. Do you get it now?
I am all for a fence on our northern border too. Terrorism is a real threat from both of our borders. But right now our southern border is the one leaking like a sieve.
If the majority of illegals were Anglo in this country, I wouldn't mind being questioned because I am also Anglo. I would take it to mean that because the Anglo illegals make up the majority of illegals, Anglos like myself will be suspect and questioned. I would call it criminal or illegal alien profiling, however. I have nothing to hide though so I would just show my I.D. and I would be on my way. Much ado about nothing.
Pat,
You are in such denial.
Please allow this to sink in:
Racial Profiling is wrong!
Racial Profiling is wrong!!
Racial Profiling is wrong!!!
It must stop!
I am not in denial about anything. Latinos are being targeted because latinos make up the majority of illegals in this country. They only way law enforcement can find out if they are in this country legally is to ask for I.D. As I have said countless times but you refuse to address this is what has a Latino citizen to fear? They have proper I.D.
It is all smoke and mirrors on your part anyway, dee. Your concern isn't for a little incovenience for Latino citizens, your concern is for protecting illegal aliens from detection, capture and deportation. That is very un-American.
The best thing about you Pat is you are real!
I want the American Public to understand you are real!
No one could possibly make you up!
Yeah, and there are millions more just like me. We are the majority in this country and we will be taking our country back. There are 40 million of you and 260million of us.
WOW that's scary, a chill goes down my spine, I got a glimpse of myself standing alone surrounded by ANTI's, "They live among us, OMG!!!," lol
Kind of reminds me of what ANTI's think to themselves when they're surrounded by ppl of color
Anon1,
You are right. What a scary thought. All of us surrounded by Pats. Yikes!!
It has nothing to do with skin color but about being surrounded by law abiding Americans of all colors. I would rather be surrounded by them then ethnocentric seditionists.
(wakes up from nightmare) I'M SURROUNDED BY ANTI'S!!!
Guess you would rather be surrounded by traitors?
re-read the post, I WAS talking about traitors:
Anon 1 said...
(wakes up from nightmare) I'M SURROUNDED BY ANTI'S!!!
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