Immigration Hysteria and Hispanic Impassivity or Our time to Tell the Demagogues, ‘Por qué no te ca

This is another personal opinion that, while not having anything to do with advertising to US Hispanics, has everything to do with advertising to Hispanics.

You’d have to live in another planet not to notice how Immigration has reached center stage in the presidential debates and promises to gain even more importance as primaries come into full fervor.

Immigration. Not Iraq. Or the mortgage mess. Or the housing market bust and its effects in the economy. Or the embarrassing fact that 16% population lacks access to health care and even more has such limited coverage that they go without treatment. Or global warming. Immigration it is.

And the tenor of the debate grows increasingly threatening, with the free use of derogatory terms like “Illegal Alien”, the N word against Latinos. It is mean-spirited, as politicians, pundits and TV commentators demand the massive deportation of 12 million people, seek to deny education to their children, adding even more fuel to the raging inferno of anti-immigrant sentiment. Assertions are routinely packed with exaggeration, loaded with misconstrued truths, flawed analysis of frightening consequences.

Patrick Buchanan, in his new book, “Day of Reckoning”, argues that: “America is coming apart, decomposing, and…the likelihood of her survival as one nation…is improbable — and impossible if America continues on her current course”. As quoted in the Drudge Report, Buchanan’s Mein Kampf argues that:

– “The Third World invasion through Mexico is a graver threat to our survival as one nation than anything happening in Afghanistan or Iraq
– European-Americans, 89% of the nation when JFK took the oath, are now 66% and sinking. Before 2050, America is a Third World nation
– By 2060, America will add 167 million people and 105 million immigrants will be here, triple the 37 million today.
– Hispanics will be over 100 million in 2050 and concentrated in a Southwest most Mexicans believe belongs to them”

This doomsday scenario is now making the rounds of talks shows, newscasts, book reviews, newsmagazines, reaching millions of people.

CNN’s Lou Dobbs ratings remains solid with his slanted reporting dedicating a major portion of his daily newscast to rabid anti-immigrant rants. And his arguments, not long ago limited to the lunatic fringe, are now becoming those of mainstream America.

And there’s more. A November 2007 study from the Center for Immigration Studies paints a picture of Latino immigrants abusing social services while making an insignificant contribution to the economy. “A large proportion of recent immigrants, both legal and illegal, are low-skilled workers and about one-third of those have not completed high school, giving them significantly less education than Americans born in the United States”. The effect, according to Steven A. Camarota who conducted the research, is negative. While an impressive array of researchers challenged the report’s conclusions, the anti Latino message won the headlines.

Voices of reason are timid, tepidly tiptoeing — as someone said long ago-and pusillanimously pussyfooting around the issue.

It’s a deafening silence out there.

No one is arguing firmly and cohesively that solutions can be found that take into consideration some 12 million people who need to regularize their status. Little is being said that the overwhelming majority of Latinos have to come to this country to work: in the fields and factories, in the kitchens, cleaning the White Man’s backyards and taking care of their children.

So it’s up to Hispanics as a community to raise our voice and tell the truth about our contribution to this nation. And in doing so, we need to warn the rest of the nation about the dangers of accepting these racists arguments – dangers to the economy, for Latinos contribute immensely and dangers to the soul of our nation, which was founded on human decency.

And there’s a story to be told. Take, for example, Riverside, New Jersey, the small town along the Delaware where not long ago the local authorities decided to follow the example of neighboring Hazelton, Pennsylvania, and enacted legislation penalizing employers or landlords of undocumented immigrants. The effect in the economy, according the September 25, 2007 New York Times, was short of devastating. “With the departure of so many people, the local economy suffered. Hair salons, restaurants and corner shops that catered to the immigrants saw business plummet; several closed. Once-boarded-up storefronts downtown were boarded up again.” The Times goes to quote many people who want immigrants back. Read for yourself: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/nyregion/26riverside.html>

And there’s the inspiring, heart-warming case of Newburgh, New York, a small community along the Hudson river. Almost a ghost town for years, with a paralyzed local economy, the influx of Latinos ushered in an era of change. Change for the better. “In a March 04, 2007 article, The Times-Herald Record highlights Latino contribution to the local economy “’If it weren’t for the Hispanics in this city, they could have plowed Newburgh into the river 10 years ago,” said Kevin Barrett, who’s trying to form a Business Improvement District on Broadway. “They’re the entrepreneurial spirit here.'” http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070304/NEWS/703040342>

And similar stories abound in news reports, opinion blogs, radio and TV reports throughout the nation. But no one is telling them. And now, more than ever, they need to be told.

I, for one, refuse to believe that most people in this country are racist xenophobes. If some 54% of the public, according to a September 2007 ABC News Poll, now believe that immigrants damage this country is simply because there hasn’t been any balance in the reporting.

That’s why this opinion has everything to do with advertising to Hispanics. Because we the advertising community can and should tell that story. With the same skills that we sell soap and credit cards, vehicles and vacations, with the same scientific rigor and approach that lets us select, target and measure our campaigns. We can show the facts and convince the General Public that we US Hispanics are making a positive contribution to this nation and will not sit idly by as we serve as scapegoats.

In recent weeks, the phrase “Por qué no te callas” spread like prairie fire across all media, from Internet sites to rintgones. It’s time we use it and tell those spewing racist demagoguery, “Por qué no te callas?”

Otherwise we may not have a market to sell to.

By Carlos F. Torres, partner, Directo Hispano
ct*****@************no.com
http://www.directohispano.com