Tag: immigrants

“Los Doyers” Fans Turned a Racist Insult into a Point of Pride

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❝ If you watched Games 1 and 2 of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, live from LA, you saw them: screaming and passionate fans, wearing T-shirts, jerseys, and more with “Los Doyers” written in the Blue Crew’s classic flowing script. Fans can buy officially licensed gear from various Dodger Stadium clothing stores, or pirated ones at the swap meet. Regardless of provenance, however, one thing is clear: “Los Doyers” memorabilia is everywhere right now in Southern California—and, thanks to the World Series, it finally has a national audience.

I’m sure the folks watching across the country—especially those who don’t speak Spanish—must be wondering why Dodgers fans can’t spell. That’s not the case; “Los Doyers” is a play on how “Dodgers” is pronounced in Spanish, a language that doesn’t have a “j” sound. In other words, it’s how our parents and uncles and aunts and immigrant cousins and even ourselves call the Los Angeles franchise—nothing but #respect, you know?

❝ But “Los Doyers” also represents two of the greatest reappropriation stories in American sports: how Latinos learned to love a team that literally built their foundation on the bulldozed homes and dreams of Mexican-American families, and took a term originally used to deride Latinos and made it their own.

RTFA. Good journalism. A solid cultural record of workingclass spirit, immigrant pride, how something as basic as supporting your town’s sports team brings folks together.

Trump’s latest terrorist attack lie was stupid – and racist as ever!

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❝ Saturday night, President Donald Trump held a rally in Melbourne, Florida, where he attempted to defend his controversial “Muslim ban” executive order by pointing to the consequences of migration in Europe. He focused on an unspecified event that took place “last night in Sweden:”

“When you look at what’s happening in Germany, when you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden — Sweden! Who would believe this? Sweden! They took in large numbers, they’re having problems like they never thought possible.”

❝ The only problem is that nothing happened the prior night in Sweden. The Swedish daily Aftonbladet quickly compiled a list of of noteworthy things that happened on Friday; they included a drunken-driving arrest and “some technical problems” during 87-year-old crooner Owe Thörnqvist’s rehearsal prior to the Melodifestivalen song competition.

❝ …Trump, in the grand tradition of the Bowling Green Massacre, simply invented a terrorist attack allegedly committed by immigrants out of whole cloth.

❝ …Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt tweeted “Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking?” Ikea and Abba jokes flew fast and furious using the hashtag #SwedenIncident

❝ Jokes aside, though, there’s a very real question going on here: What on Earth was the president of the United States talking about? What does he think is going on in Sweden?…

If you spend any time in the conservative media, particularly alt-right or anti-Islam sites, there’s a clear narrative about Sweden: Muslim migrants are raping Swedish women at unprecedented numbers.

❝ Breitbart…Virginia Dare, an alt-right site focusing on immigration…Pamela Geller, a widely-read anti-Muslim blogger who once published a piece alleging that Barack Obama was the love child of Malcolm X, wrote a piece titled “Sweden Crumbling: Demands for military intervention as thugs turn Malmo into ‘no-go zone.’”…

❝ …The odds are, given the consistency of the narrative about Sweden in the right-wing mediasphere, that Trump heard…claims about a Swedish refugee rape epidemic somewhere — and appropriated them to justify his travel ban.

The problem, though, is that this “rape epidemic” is as fake as the Bowling Green Massacre.

It all fits within the filthy state of mind that is characteristic of American racism. Anyone less white than a bar of Ivory soap must be slavering over our white wives and daughters. If they’re furriners – all the more reason to suspect them of planning mass rape. And if you accept lies as racial characteristics, well, then, they must be happening. Only the mainstream ain’t reporting it.

The paranoia that afflicts a populace that can’t decide which lifestyle it prefers – ignorance or stupidity – will continue to accept both as gospel.

Statue of Liberty Poem

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Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

There is no fine print saying this is subject to
approval or executive order by some lying scumbag…

Save the day

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It was a big deal in the neighborhood where I grew up – to be a second generation American. My mom and dad, all their brothers and sisters, were the first generation in their respective families to be born in the USA.

It’s a shame how many Americans have forgotten what a good feeling that was. How it was available to all.