A particularly offensive opinion piece appeared in our local newspaper on February 25. Although we are often advised to simply ignore provocative pieces of this type. This one was deemed too offensive to ignore. The extended assualt on the local police chief is little more than a cheap shot. The noted incident occured in a neighboring county, our police chief was not involved, and the purpetrator was not Hispanic. None-the-less the author siezed the opportunity to fan the flames of prejudice. The suggestion that all immigrants are part of a financial drain on emergency and social services, educational resources and the cuase of financial shortfalls in the county and state threaten to challenge budgetary decision making and once again place the burden for economic hardship on our immigrant population. In more subtle ways the subtext targets the county's Hispanic population, poisons sensibilities and sends a decidedly antagonistic message to the Hispanic population.
We have decided to share access to the original article "The 2010 Mexican Roundup" with the NIOT community. We are also sharing the response from our organization which was directed to churches, schools, political leaders and a broad spectrum of media outlets. In addition to this electronic distribution the response was read into the record of the Board of County Supervisors meeting on Tuesday March 2 and broadcast over the county's cable coverage of that meeting. The piece also appeared on the opinion page of the New & Messenger the day after the supervior's meeting (March 3, 2010).
In preparing the response an effort was made to focus on issues of tolerance, community building and social norms. In the past two years there have been three murders that appear to have been motivated by hate in the county.
A particularly offensive opinion piece appeared in our local newspaper on February 25. Although we are often advised to simply ignore provocative pieces of this type. This one was deemed too offensive to ignore. The extended assualt on the local police chief is little more than a cheap shot. The noted incident occured in a neighboring county, our police chief was not involved, and the purpetrator was not Hispanic. None-the-less the author siezed the opportunity to fan the flames of prejudice. The suggestion that all immigrants are part of a financial drain on emergency and social services, educational resources and the cuase of financial shortfalls in the county and state threaten to challenge budgetary decision making and once again place the burden for economic hardship on our immigrant population. In more subtle ways the subtext targets the county's Hispanic population, poisons sensibilities and sends a decidedly antagonistic message to the Hispanic population.
We have decided to share access to the original article "The 2010 Mexican Roundup" with the NIOT community. We are also sharing the response from our organization which was directed to churches, schools, political leaders and a broad spectrum of media outlets. In addition to this electronic distribution the response was read into the record of the Board of County Supervisors meeting on Tuesday March 2 and broadcast over the county's cable coverage of that meeting. The piece also appeared on the opinion page of the New & Messenger the day after the supervior's meeting (March 3, 2010).
In preparing the response an effort was made to focus on issues of tolerance, community building and social norms. In the past two years there have been three murders that appear to have been motivated by hate in the county.
The 2010 Mexican Roundup / Michael Shannon (February 25, 2010) http://www.unityitc.org/documents/Shannon%20Column.pdf
Stop hateful name calling / Dexter Fox (March 2, 2010)www.unityitc.org/documents/Stop hate.pdf