A Nation of Immigrants - Page 2

Originally Posted by buckminsterfullerene

From the flag raising debate I understood the point of view of carnivore, it has been an issue that anti-immigration groups have been using against the DREAM Act movement for a long time. They keep on focusing on the people carrying a Mexican flag and shouting in spanish, and a lot of pro-immigration organizations are taking notice of that and making it one of the main objectives to let people know before protesting to bring out american flags and not their foreign flags. And it does disappoint me it has to be that way, we are losing our freedom of expression, we are losing our cultural background and after we lose that some of us are getting deported, it just does not sound right to me.

I apologize for the comments I am about to make but it reminds me of something, I was seeing this documentary on the Greensboro Four. Did you know that the first time that sat in that whites only counter the manager brought a black cook to try to persuade them to leave, and the black cook told the Greensboro Four that they should leave because they are giving a bad name to the black community. Imagine if they left, one of the most significant historical moments in this country's civil rights movement would have never happened, imagine if we let go of our cultural identity. We would be nothing more than foreign individuals dressed in American clothing, at least that is how I feel they would look at us. We cannot be American to those people because we never looked like the average american person, yet we cannot be from our countries of birth because we left at a very young age, came to this country, called it home and accustomed to its culture and its ways.

I think that the dreamer community has its own special blend of culture, and the thing is that we are not all mexican, I am not mexican, I am colombian raised in the United States, and there are people from the UK, there are people from Russia, there are people from Europe, Asia, Africa, South and Central America, and there might be people from Australia (I have not found one yet however). Our blend is part of our country of birth and part of this country, we are a mix, and it should be to this country's great advantage because not only can we navigate this country's culture, but we can navigate the culture of our parents, yet we pledge allegiance to the flag of this country the United States of America, at least I have been pledging allegiance to our flag since elementary school and believe in it, I know its history much better than I have ever known the history of my country of birth.

This is after all a nation of immigrants, which has historically been made stronger by its immigrant population.

Originally Posted by carnivore

This is indeed a land of immigrants, but legal ones. We have to know our place.

Originally Posted by DreamerSD23

Selling out on yourself and your heritage gets you nowhere.

Originally Posted by Al in SoCal

Coming over legally back in the day was simply getting off a boat and people smugly reply that their ancestors came here legally. You can't expect to come here legally when there are so few legal mechanisms to do that. The US practically forces people into marriages of convenience.

The whole "legal immigrant" thing really riles me up - a guy who no woman in her right mind would be interested in can browse a website full of women, meet her for 1 hour - then marry her can legally get a sex slave for 2 years, and people claim that it's ok while someone who was brought here when they were too young to remember, played by all the rules is illegal. Spare me the legal vs. illegal argument.

Originally Posted by DreamerSD23

Selling out on yourself and your heritage gets you nowhere.

Originally Posted by carnivore

America is not suppose to take care of the whole world. You want to come here, obey the laws or GTFO. How many times do I have to say this, we as illegals are not entitled to anything. We don't demand for citizenship, we ask for it.