My brother is on a mission in Honduras and asked me about immigration in the US. I told him what we had been talking about in class and asked him what people are saying there.
This is what he wrote: "Well the whole immigration thing, I have heard people tell me that when language was confused at the Tower of Babel that there were Spanish speakers and English speakers, and the Spanish speakers lived here in America namely California, Texas, Florida, and New York. The Spanish speakers were the majority but slowly the English speakers took over and are continually trying to get rid of the Spanish speakers by sending them to Central America. I tried to explain the discovery of America and other basic historic facts but he persisted, and since he is my friend and I didn't want to tell him he was being an idiot I just gave up. Also I have heard that the immigration law in Arizona is that they stop anyone from Honduras and shoot then. That is a big one down here, all the police force in the United States exist just to kill illegal immigrants. These are just a few, people really stretch their imaginations when it comes to making stories about the United States."
I thought I'd share since it is always good to hear from the other side and all of could probably use a good laugh as we head to the end of the semester.
Monday, March 28, 2011
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This is great. Not only is it good to look at the issue from their perspective ON US, but I it is also good to earn a bit better perspective on how THEY really are. This isn't foreign to the discussions we have had in class, but i think it is always important to mention even in repetition. We so often look at immigrants coming in and think of them as drug lords or coyotes, or ANYTHING else we can think of that is negative and automatically a stereotype is tethered to them. Not only do we have illegal immigrants coming that are really good people, but we actually have LEGAL immigrants who have gone through everything that we have asked them to go through, and are STILL taking flack from Americans as a response to this. These instances are, at least in my mind, what are leading to the negative rumors about our atrocities in America, like shooting illegals on the spot. Anyway, little mind vomit there for ya! :)
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like they might be getting their information from TV and other sources.
ReplyDeleteThere ARE people who cross the border who are shot at, but they are typically doing illegal things, or they are being shot at by non-government related people.
Sometimes (and this goes for everyone) people have a hard time differenciating between the government, and the citizens.
As for the Tower of Babel, if they are LDS, they would benefit from more research.
If I remember correctly, the Tower came before the Earth was divided in the days of Peleg, thus, there were no continents when the languages were confounded. The institute OT manual states that the Earth being divided meant continents being formed, not a political division, as other religions teach.
(http://institute.lds.org/manual/old-testament-institute-student-manual-1/ot-in1-03-gen-b-4.asp)