Rising black-Latino clash on jobs
More signs of the ever widening rift between Black Americans and illegal Latino immigrants.
From The Washington Times:
“We’re on the cusp of very critical legislation that centers on immigration — both legal and illegal,” Frank Morris Sr., chairman of Choose Black America, a new coalition of black Americans opposed to illegal entry, told reporters at the National Press Club in Northwest. “African Americans are going to be hurt if this legislation moves forward, [and] we are here to sound the alarm.”
[...]
In this region, recent marches and rallies have drawn attention away from the homeless community in the District, said Arafa Speaks, 51, a homeless woman living in the Open Door shelter in Northwest.
Area residents attending the press conference said that black students are held back in already poor school districts by peers who don’t speak English, and that monies for improved educational facilities are spent on bilingual teachers.
As many who grew up and went to school here in America know, one of the “rites of passage” is getting a low-wage job at a fast food restaurant, a mall, a cinema or the like in high school around the age of 16. In some families it is a must as the extra income is needed. But what are large numbers of teenagers to do when they are not qualified for these menial jobs because they don’t speak Spanish?
Black teens and adults have difficulty finding low-wage jobs because they are filled by illegals, residents said.
Educated blacks, too, such as teachers who cannot speak Spanish, are released from teaching positions when illegals “flood” historically black neighborhoods, said Sammie Whiting-Ellis, an educational consultant.
“It just infuriates me that our children’s education has to be shortchanged for a subculture that in many instances doesn’t want to assimilate,” said the Northwest resident, who is in her 60s and has watched the D.C. landscape change for more than 30 years.
Choose Black America, an organization opposed to illegal immigration on partially on these grounds, stated on their website:
“Mass illegal immigration has been a major impediment to black advancement in this country over the past 25 years,” declared Dr. Frank Morris Sr., chairman of Choose Black America “All Americans are harmed by rampant illegal immigration, but it is blacks, in particular, who have lost economic opportunities, watched their kids’ schools flood with non-English speaking students, and felt the direct impact in countless ways. Our government has failed us, our elected officials have failed us, and now they are prepared to compound the damage with an amnesty and guest worker program that will set black Americans back a hundred years.”
One would think that generally Black Americans are pro-illegal immigration, until you speak to one who lives in a place like Los Angeles or other larger cities where the situation in the inner city amongst blacks is getting much worse.
While Los Angeles is ground zero for black-Hispanic friction these days, echoes of Vaughn’s words are rising throughout urban black America as Congress labors over immigration reform. In cities where almost half of the young black men are unemployed, a debate is raging over whether Latinos - undocumented and not - are elbowing aside blacks for jobs in stores, restaurants, hotels, manufacturing plants, and elsewhere
Hispanics and blacks tend to gravitate to the same inner-city areas and low-skill labor markets - and the result is a clash over jobs that require less skill and less education, experts say.
“In this era of mass immigration, no group has benefited less or been harmed more than the African-American population,” says Vernon Briggs, a Cornell University professor who researches immigration policy and the American labor force.
The fact is that this is a fact of life that we must all, regardless of race, deal with. Many myself included, have stated that the logical answer to this is that Black Americans MUST do more to educate themselves. This is especially true for Black American Muslims who, as far as I can see anecdotally, tend to be even less educated (generally speaking) than the Black American population in general as a large number of them converted to Islam in the prisons.
So saying that they need to educate themselves is very easy. And I agree. However, when one looks at the situation on the ground, they will see what a daunting task this really is. The situation is potentially devastating. And those of you who attend or have ever attended an inner city masjid know EXACTLY what I’m talking about.
Those that have been to inner city masjids know that there is a reason the sadaqah box is cemented into the floor and has huge bolts and massive locks. They have often found that many brothers live in these masjids.
Further, once you strike up a conversation with one of these brothers living in the masjid you find that he has 2-3 wives (on welfare) and several children.
The poor will certainly always be amongst us and I am not berating the genuinely poor. I am talking about the lazy here. And this has caused a glaring near total lack of a “middle class” (for lack of a better term) amongst Black American Muslims. How many urban masjids are in the condition described above? 75% perhaps? 85%? 90%?
Yet, the prevelant approach to solving the problem?: Let’s just pretend that the situation doesn’t exist and maybe it will go away!
Filed under: Race
You must live in the northeast near NY or Philly because I really don’t understand your impression of African American Muslims. Maybe because I grew up in Atlanta and almost every Muslim I knew went to college. So I don’t have that impression that you have. I mean I know there are problems but I think AA Muslims are are just as educated or more educated than the non Muslim AA population.
What I do notice is that we tend to choose to be out of the mainstream and make career choices that lead to earning less money thus leading us to have less resources than other communities. So many are underemployed, self-employed or working in social services. I think we need to strive for balance so that we have the resources for community development but also are not absorbed into this culture of overconsumption.
Um Abdillah:
Two factors that may affect your impression
#1 - Even amongst African Americans in general, black Atlantans are generally more upwardly mobile than African Americans in the rest of the country. Atlanta draws a lot of educated African Americans in general to move there. Cynthia Tucker herself wrote an article in which she thought that her suroundings (AA professionals) more reflected the general AA population nad thought that the statitics were wrong. Until she saw for herself
#2 - Atlanta has a large community of Muslims from WD Mohammed's community as well who tend to be more upwardly mobile than other African-American Muslims on top of the first factor.
However, in spite of that, here in the Northeast, there are several times more African American Muslims than Atlanta and it outweighs them. Then you also have to include places such as Detroit and Chicago where there are larger African-American Muslim populations.
My point is that unlike the Black American population in general where you see a good number of African American doctors, lawyers, journalists, engineers etc, it is a relative rarity in the African-American Muslim community (especially outside WD Mohammed's community)
By Allah's Grace, I have been allowed to travel a lot, see many communities and meet many brothers as well as work in the prison system with Muslims. I take no pleasure in saying these things, but this is what I have seen, and can speak with a degree of knowledge on it.
ohhh, you know I sort of thought this as I couldnt understand that there were not as many middle class AA Muslims in other cities that I’ve lived in.
So I googled that Cynthia Tucker article and its distressing to read her experience with AA men having poor work ethic. Her post led me to this other site by Steve Sailor. I dont know if you have read any of this work and I’m sure most write him off as racist but this article is really interesting. Its sad that we can’t have frank discussions in this society about race, education etc without glossing over the more uncomfortable issues. It goes back to a comment I made on Umm Zaids site that not every one should go to college, that doesnt mean you are relegated to jail or unemployement. There are plenty of blue collar jobs that pay a good wage but many AA’s seem to think its college or nothing and end up perpetually unemployed or underemployed.
It is very hard for an African-American in a place like New York to get any entry level job that does not absolutely require English; because all of those jobs are filled by immigrants. These include fast food jobs, restaurant workers, housecleaners, per-diem construction work, moving jobs, janitorial jobs, etc. Most of these jobs go to Latinos, but not all of them. Furthermore, some professions, like New York taxi drivers, make it very difficult for those with criminal records to get a job in a field that was once full of African-Americans
Work ethic is an issue however
Um Abdillah
Those are some excellent points. Of course we should not make a child think that if he does not graduate from college he/she may as well go sell crack. It is all about creating a culture of good work ethic. African-
American Muslims, in general, do not encourage their children to go above and beyond and excel at high levels in everything they do.
The “just get by/make a quick buck” culture is something that is throughout the American culture, but it is especially bad in the black community. You can see it in many older black TV shows where the male protaganist often wanted to make a quick buck via some scheme.
As for addressing issues, even in the Muslim community we don’t want to talk about uncomfortable issues. In fact, we want to live by slogans.
I get so frustrated when brothers deny what is right in front of their eyes and do not want to address it.
Umar:
It is those types of REALITIES that we are trained to ignore
Bro. Umar,
Im not buying that. I live in TX, and my city has a much more sizable hispanic population than NYC and there is plenty of work for those who want it. The problem is people dont want to do hard labor or low status jobs. Also I know the wages are low so you know if you dont want to work low wage, go to community college and get your electricians license, or welding or plumbing and go out and make 40K or more.
Um Abdillah,
I have worked with people in trying to establish programs that offered *FREE* training in those skills to inner city or “at risk” (read: black) youth. All they had to do was show up, exert some effort and study. Many of these programs were established during the Clinton Administration who were offering grant money for these types of programs.
The programs got very little participation or they would come for a few classes and drop out and many of these programs failed and closed their doors.
The culprit? Racism of course
Um Abdullah, whether you wish to buy it or not does not change the facts. In New York, you can look for a job all day everyday and want the job; but unless you are a a part of the right group, you will not get hired. That is a reality. Go to one Popeye's and they are all Colombian, go to the next and they are all Dominican, go to the next they are all Bengali, etc. and if you are not a part of their group you will not get hired.
Um Abdullah, how are you gonna pay the rent while you are at Community College?
So my thing is why do people stay in NYC if there are no jobs, move south or to the midwest, plenty of work to be done there. Go to New Orleans they are desperate for workers now. Basically we, all humans, like to place the blame externally when really its something within us that we won’t utilize the opportunities that are there. I speak from experience. I had opportunities for some great jobs right out of college but I had a bad attitude, always thought people were racist and I had a poor work ethic, so even when jobs were literally at my doorstep I couldnt see it because I just had a bad attitude about life. Opportunity is there but you have to be open to it, hard working, and humble enough to take a low wage job that will lead to other opportunities.
Why is it that women can work a full time job, go to school at night or on the weekends, take care of a house, and children and men can’t go out and work and go to school at the same time. Its not that difficult. Take your classes during the day, get a job at night (janitorial, pizza delivery, UPS, etc) or take classes at night.
College is marketed like its supposed to be some vacation from real life or something. Most people work and go to school, and survive as long as you keep your expenses low, like no car payments, clothes shopping, eating out. It takes sacrifice and hard work but it can be done.
Um Abdullah you are not living in the real world, many people can't just pick-up and move like that. You are also dancing around the issue and dont even want to look at the fact that immigrants are preffered for employment in NYC, your suggestion to this is "tough luck, get the hell out of New York." What will happen when this begins to happen in the South and Midwest? Are they suppossed to run then as well. BTW, the Latino population of New York is much larger than that of Houston or Dallas.
Byt the way UPS? That is one of the hrdest jobs in America to get in many places.
I’m not saying its easy but what I meant was that the problem is not really with other peoples predjudice but with many Black men’s sense of helplessness, laziness, lack of vision, short term thinking, etc. I mean you know that discrimination can only account for some of the unemployment but why is it such a huge disparity. I think I read its like 72% unemployment for black highschool drop outs while hispanics and whites are in the 10-25% . I mean what are they doing to eat and survive. Maybe alot of the are hustling under the radar of bean counters but that number is crazy.
I still don’t get why people stay in NYC if there are no jobs as you say. And yes it is easy to just up and move. People come here from across the world with nothing and make a decent living. All those black people moved to new york 100 years and they had much less resources than we do now. You can go to another city, sign up with a temp agency and get work almost immediately.
To me the issue is a mindset that feels the world is against them and they just give up or some who just dont want to work and like living off of their girlfriends, mommas or what ever. And I know you know its true because you’ve written about those type of men on your blog before.
Anyway I know its not easy, I just wanted to emphasise that its more of overcoming internal issues than society’s discrimination
I don’t know about UPS, I see lots of black men working there. Its probably hard if you have a criminal record.
Ultimately these brothers need Islam, with a strong emphasis on being a Man and providing for your family and on the dignity of hard work, no matter how menial.
Actually, a lot of Black-Americans (i.e, NOT W Africans, Hatians, Jamaicans etc) ARE leaving New York.
New York City is losing Black-American population.
Um Abdillah is right in that African-Americans have this terrible sense of entitlement that holds them back. Sometimes this sense of entitlement leads them to steal what they think is rightfully theirs. I have met brothers who have stolen from the MASJID and admitted that this was their rationale
Now you blame inmigrants for your oun faults , blaks blame slavery, whites , capitalism , strugle ETC . please stop and smel the roses nobody si to blame but yourself, if you where in arace agains latinos inmigrants you are a looser , how in hell is that the inmigrants came and take jobs that are run for english speaking bosses , because latinos have ambition and dont want to waste time dreaming to become rich or whining how U.S policies in their own contry are afecting their resurses or standard of live from thge city to the farm , US take no prisioners , but we dont like to waste time looking for excuces or yelling Down with america and their sistem ! ( like some muslims ) we love and admire this sistem and is the reazon we are here , you are a liar when you state we dont want to asimilate , you are lair when you balmes inmigrants for your own fault in the black comunity ( now you are coping whet your nemessis white tell the americas ) , i personaly hire diversity , and the ones that jump the ship a soon they see the high rush are black , yes lisent the true and dont play the race card with us , you have national examples that your young generations look after on how to excuse yourself for how everithing is wrong in you black life .
I think you need to lisent a Criss Rock , Cosby and others that in a joke or not try to help you and temaind you that this is a race and you are just whining at the start line when all the others are ahead of you .
so the questins is …… insted of balming others , what you are going to do abot it .?
HO !
sorry I forget to tell you , and move your son and daugthers to learn other lenguage , ( ASIAN ) because after the hi$panic wave , the Asian wave is coming and those kids dont like to have a entry level job they hit hard for the top, they will be your booses.
but SHHHHHHHHHHHHH , lisen ,are you lisening ……. BBBBrrrrrrOOOOOMMMMM
to late loser ,they all ready pass you , some of them are all ready siting in the big chair of some American Company in this moment .
so , the question is….. is Accion are better than words ?
what you are going to do about it ?