friday afternoon
the sun has finally broken through a grey and drizzly week in austin.
the number twenty one capital metro bus, particularly crowded.
no seats in front.
i make my way to the back of the bus, take out my ipod, and prepare to spend the ride listening to the emancipation of mimi.
as i am untangling my headphones, a black man seated behind me remarks loudly to no one in particular, "austin is too crowded! it's got too many people for a little town."
a white man sitting diagonal from him responds, equally loudly, "it's because of all the college students!"
"and all the illegal aliens!" the first man adds. i am so startled that i can't help but turn my head abruptly toward him. i turn back just as quickly. having just hit "play" on my ipod, i decide to "pause" so that i can eavesdrop on the rest on the conversation.
"oh you think it's bad here," says the second man. "don't go to houston. it's like little mexico there! you can go three miles and only see hispanics."
"you know they work here, but they don't spend their money here. they send it all back to mexico!"
"i heard that last year they sent back X billion dollars!"
the conversation proceeds. the two men talk about how the president is only fighting this war in iraq because the iraqis tried to assassinate george bush senior. feeling "sorry" for those boys over there. because they never even had a chance to get married. have sex! have families. feeling "sorry" for the NEXT president because THIS president has driven us a trillion dollars more deeply into debt. hating the republican party. how it's never done no good for nobody.
i thought it was funny. these two men on the bus complaining about too many mexicans in texas. crowding their cities, changing them into "little mexico," not contributing enough to the economy. i guess i wouldn't have expected that conversation from self-proclaimed democrats, who are also anti-war and anti-bush.
at a certain point, i wanted to turn around and tell them that there are mexicans fighting in iraq, too. that some are "illegal aliens," fighting for their new country. i want to defend mexican contributions to this country. because i think that these men probably have some of the same struggles as working class mexican immigrants.
but despite my ability to translate language and culture, i don't say anything. just ride through. get off at my stop.
@>-->>---
3 comments:
Why am I never on these trips on the bus when someone makes a comment like that? I believe it was either the Pew Foundation or the GAO did a study where they tracked how much illegal aliens earned and sent back home. I believe the total was something like 100 billion, but they only sent 20 billion of it back home. Guess in what nation the other 80% was spent?
I hate situations like that. I've learned from experience that you can't win arguments with people like that- but at the same time it's SO hard to not say anything... I don't know what I would have done. it's probably better to just go on with your day than waste 20 minutes arguing with two morons who don't even factor logic into their discussion- in the end you would have missed your bus stop and they wouldn't have become any less stupid... 20 minutes of your life you'd never get back... I think you made the right choice.
Funny I read this here, I am having somewhat the same conversation over at Cindylu's blog.
In situations like that though I tend to be more outspoken and confrontational, economic ignorance frustrates me no matter what the setting. However, given that you are a female, and the bus is not the safest of places, maybe it was a good idea if you just kept quiet about the whole thing.
On a personal note, I find it much more frustrating discussing immigration with anti-immigrant Democrats than with anti-immigration Republicans. Atleast anti-immigration Republicans are more open to facts and are adamently commited to economic growth, both foundations which can lead you to pro-immigration stances, Democrats, on the other hand, tend to base their views much more on emotion and 'personal experience', two things that give little room for convincing them otherwise with regard to their views on immigration.
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