{"id":6401,"date":"2006-01-21T09:59:19","date_gmt":"2006-01-21T14:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6401"},"modified":"2006-01-21T09:59:19","modified_gmt":"2006-01-21T14:59:19","slug":"fending-off-the-influx-from-barrytown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/fending-off-the-influx-from-barrytown\/","title":{"rendered":"Fending off the influx from ‘Barrytown’"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Editor’s Note: Yes, Morbo sort of retired<\/a> a few weeks ago, but he suggested he might come back on occasion, when he has something to contribute. Thankfully, today is one of those days. Enjoy. -CB<\/i>]<\/p>\n

Guest Post by Morbo<\/a><\/p>\n

Back in 1974, the band Steely Dan recorded a really cool song called “Barrytown<\/a>,” which is an interesting rumination on personal prejudices. (The song was covered<\/a> by singer\/pianist Ben Folds in 2000.) The song begins:<\/p>\n

I’m not one to look behind, I know that times must change
\nBut over there in Barrytown they do things very strange
\nAnd though you’re not my enemy
\nI like things like they used to be
\nAnd though you’d like some company
\nI’m standing by myself
\nGo play with someone else
\nI can see by what you carry that you come from Barrytown<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I thought about “Barrytown” recently after reading a piece<\/a> by John B. Judis in a recent edition of The New Republic. Judis traveled to Arizona in an effort to find out way so many people are upset about Hispanic immigration.<\/p>\n

The usual answer is that Mexicans are stealing jobs that rightfully belong to Americans. Judis made short work of this. Employers are begging for applicants in Arizona. Even unskilled workers, he notes, “are constantly in demand.” Judis interviewed one owner of restaurant\/resort facility who said, “Even though we pay larger than average and full medical and dental, we cannot find enough employees.”<\/p>\n

Everyone agreed on this point. The state simply does not have a job-shortage problem. In fact, many positions are unfilled.<\/p>\n

Some anti-immigrant leaders told Judis they were concerned that Iraqi terrorists were using Hispanic networks to slip agents into the country. It’s an interesting assertion, but it has one drawback: There is absolutely no evidence it is happening.<\/p>\n

So it isn’t work after all — at least not in Arizona. And it’s not terrorism. Why, then, are so many people upset about Hispanic immigration (legal and otherwise) to the point that some actually join vigilante groups patrolling the border?
\n
\nJudis interviewed several anti-immigrant activists, and soon the truth came out: “[T]hey invariably became most animated, and most candid, when talking about what they see as the unwillingness of Mexican immigrants — legal or illegal — to assimilate into American culture,” Judis wrote.<\/p>\n

Dave Wagner, a former newspaper reporter who is writing a book about Arizona politics, put his finger on it when he said, “Mexican and Mexican-Americans have their own culture and stores. It is possible if you are Spanish-speaking to disappear into that culture. That scares the hell out of some people.”<\/p>\n

Could it really be this simple — that some people are afraid that immigrants have their own culture and their own shops? Apparently so.<\/p>\n

The irony is, most of us are here because of immigrants who did exactly the same thing. Why do you think so many large cities have ethnic neighborhoods? A first-generation immigrant in early 20th century America from, say, Poland, could settle in a large city, shop at a Polish grocery, read a Polish-language newspaper, live in an area with other Poles where Polish was the lingua franca and enjoy familiar food, games, traditions and customs brought over from the old country.<\/p>\n

Some of those foods, games and customs leaked out of the Polish community and were adopted by others. That experience enriched the culture; it did not degrade it. And while first-generation immigrants were often satisfied to live in an insular community, their children were not. They learned the dominant language and engaged the wider culture.<\/p>\n

In short, Hispanic immigrants are doing pretty much what immigrants from Italy, Ireland, Lithuania, Germany and so on did 100 years ago. Why are some people so upset about that today? My guess it has more to do with the color of a Hispanic person’s skin than the content of his culture.<\/p>\n

To quote “Barrytown” again:<\/p>\n

Don’t believe I’m taken in by stories I have heard
\nI just read the daily news and swear by every word
\nAnd don’t think that I’m out of line
\nFor speaking out for what is mine
\nI’d like to see you do just fine
\nBut look at what you wear
\nAnd the way you cut your hair
\nI can see by what you carry that you come from Barrytown<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Editor’s Note: Yes, Morbo sort of retired a few weeks ago, but he suggested he might come back on occasion, when he has something to contribute. Thankfully, today is one of those days. Enjoy. -CB] Guest Post by Morbo Back in 1974, the band Steely Dan recorded a really cool song called “Barrytown,” which is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}