December 7, 2012

Dogs that don't bark

One of the hardest things for intellectuals to be aware of is the absence of evidence. So, it's worth noting some explicit evidence of absence.

For example, I've been pointing out for years that it's imprudent of intellectuals to bet the country on massive Latin American immigration without considering just how intellectual the country is going to wind up being afterward. Here in Los Angeles we're a couple of generations ahead of you in the Northeast.

From the Los Angeles Times "Jacket Copy" column on publishing, May 12, 2012, about a Spanish-language book fair in Los Angeles that is an offshoot of the big annual trade show for Spanish language publishers in Guadalajara:
Finally, LéaLA attempts to help make amends for a bizarre L.A. cultural phenomenon: the city’s near-absence of Spanish-language bookstores. Apart from public libraries, university bookstores (which stock course-related titles) and a handful of small shops like Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore in Sylmar and the Libros Schmibros bookstore/lending library in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles -- with the United States’ largest Spanish-speaking population -- has virtually no place to find and buy Spanish-language books.

It's a bit of an exaggeration to say that Los Angeles has virtually no place to find and buy Spanish-language books. For example, there's a shelf in my local Barnes & Noble devoted to Spanish-language books. But, still ....

84 comments:

Cornelius said...

This isn't just Latin Americans, even the Spanish are far less intellectual than other Europeans. I think that's why you see countries like Greece and Turkey producing more eminent scientists than Spain, despite Spain's higher average IQ.

Anonymous said...

Why read when you can watch A Que No Puedes? That blonde chick doesn't wear underwear!!!

It's great! My whole family piled around the television to watch the show one night because someone we knew was appearing in a string bikini.

You know the Germans thought that the secret to warfare was to have really awesome armies, and really awesome technology, and discipline, and intelligence.

But that's not the secret at all. The secret is to have chicks in bikinis. NO ONE will say "Oh no sorry...I don't want to be conquered by chicks in bikinis!"

Seriously...1000's of years of European IQ, art, science, technology....All Crumbled in the Face of fake Titties and bare Asses







Brazilian said...

You knw why we don't read books in Brazil Senhor Sailer?

It's because our women have BIG BUTTS!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR33y0BCsDQ

Chicago said...

They don't read whether it's in English or Spanish. At the annual Printers Row Book Fair, centrally located, there's many thousands of visitors over a two day period. Strolling through it one never sees any Hispanics at all except some South American visitors and a few stray ones of indeterminate origin. Hispanic neighborhoods have no bookstores except for some small religious oriented ones. The small amount they do read is usually rubbish. They have no interest whatsoever in reading.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

There is an assumption that if we would only have Hispanic heroes in kid's coloring books or taught pre-calc with rap lyrics, NAM's would soon catch up.

What would be the evidence for this?

Anonymous said...

All the intellectual Mexicans who enjoy reading are . . . in Mexico. They're also white. The Amerinds coming across the border don't like to read. What's so hard to understand about this?

Anonymous said...

"a bizarre L.A. cultural phenomenon"

Every traveler's account I've ever read was high in praise of the literary prowess of the average peon or vacquero. Standards must have slipped, no doubt Anglos are to blame.

Honestly, why is this bizarre? When are people going to realize a civilization can produce great literary works and still have a population that consists overwhelmingly of slack-jawed yokels. Every literate civilization produced scholars and saints, but your average peasant had nothing to do with that. Moreover, hordes of peasants in Latin America didn't speak Spanish as a mother tongue. But your average SWPL doesn't think this way. They think a few good writers= a civilization of potential Rhodes scholars, that's partially thanks to the agit-prop that passes for World History these days. We are reminded about the glories of Medieval Cordoba, when compared to London, for example. We are not, however, treated to descriptions of the hordes of slack-jawed peasants who inhabited the Dar al Islam.

But that's not important. Listen up, Anglos, you are responsible not just for your own sins, but for the failings of Castilian and Catalan hacendados, the Counter-Reformation, and any other 3rd party mismanagement or duplicity anywhere (including Rwanda, where our leaders like to remind us "we failed.")

If the occasional Spanish speaking bookworm can't find reading material thanks to centuries of ignorance and decay to our South, and disinterest in the population in founding and funding bookstores, Anglos should subsidize a Spanish selection at your local bookstore.

I'm sure that when we English speakers came to the US the Cherokee made sure to carry a selection of Shakespeare or Marlowe at their bookstores.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone mentioned yet that until the 1960's a person with a Spanish surname couldn't be President? I'm sure it relates somehow.

TontoBubbaGoldstein said...

Maybe they read all their stuff on e-readers and the internet?



BWAHAHAHAHA!!

Bazinga!

James QC said...

Well, there are those handful of places. But have you guys stopped to consider that the vast majority of Latino contribution to literature in the US is sprayed across the walls of buildings, bridge overpasses, and street signs, from Boston to LA? Much like ebonics, and the brilliant creativity of black street rappers which bests the works of Shakespeare and Beethoven, this is not to be underestimated as a true expression of talent and intellect.

Anonymous said...

El Rio Amazon.

Peter

Matt said...

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, about the shelf in Barnes and Noble et al. I wish you could find that many Italian books in the bookstore. Anyways, Amazon has Spanish language books of all shapes and sizes if that's what they're after.

It strikes me as stupid anyway, to suggest that the reason Hispanics don't read is that they don't have any Spanish books. Isn't that just obviously stupid aside from any question of the facts of Spanish book availability?

Why don't our pundits take a look at the various white cultures out there and see if they have identical reading habits, and if they don't maybe think about why that might be for a minute? Just a minute, is all I ask.

J said...

It is very sad. In many Latin American capitals you cannot buy a book except primary school texts. Latin writers live from translations of their works because there is no local market.

Anonymous said...

Mexicans famously do not read much. Argentines and Spaniards a fair bit. Spanish language rights for books in Europe typically go at about 2/3 of Italian or French rights and a bit less than half German rights, or about what you'd expect based on population.

Anonymous said...

I haven't got the figures at hand, but there is a very famous comparison between the number of new book titles published in English in any given year, and the number published in Arabic.
'Orders of magnitude' springs to mind.

Anonymous said...

But then again, I remember watching a TV travelogue about Buenos Aires, which highlighted the fact that the residents of Buenos Aires were massive, obsessive bibliophiles.
Apparently the city is awash with second-hand bookshops, and the second-hand bookship is, believe it or not, *the* trendy place to be seen.

rightsaidfred said...

In a nearby corporate chain bookstore (Hastings) the subject section placards have Spanish subtitles. This is in a store in a town with few Hispanics, and I have yet to see one book in Spanish on the shelves in that store. Tokenism at its finest.

Harry Baldwin said...

The same malign forces that put liquor stores, pawn shops, and payday lenders in black neighborhoods are no doubt keeping book stores out of Hispanic ones.

read it said...

They need a bookstore like a fish needs a bicycle.

Skeptical Economist said...

The absence of Spanish language bookstores is (at least in part) a good thing. It is evidence of assimilation and the failure of the immigrant community to form a separate society of any depth and substance (street gangs don't count).

Our host has noted on many occasions the remarkable dearth of civil society in the LA immigrant community. This can be taken as a positive sign of integration and as negative evidence that the immigrant community is simply incapable of building anything.

Given the weakness of civil society in Mexico the latter is a better explanation than the former. Note the contrast (both positive and negative) with the Cuban community in Florida.

Anonymous said...

"Libros Schmibros is part library, part used-book seller, >>>>>>totally chill<<<<<"

Let me translate, there is no place for "Hispanic" Hipsters and wanna bees to hang out.

My guess is most of the people there are semi assimilated white people of South American ancestry and other white people who have "high school Spanish" skills.

OK so what? The US is having trouble employing people, so if a few people can get work as baristas in a store selling books about Hugo and Ceasar Chavez that's a good thing, until the the money runs out. Which according to Fed Chairman Bernanke, is never.

Anonymous said...

http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/2012/oct/18/essay-faulkner-film/

Anonymous said...

Yes, Barnes & Nobles downsized the classic children's fiction section to put in a shelf for Spanish books. However, these are mostly early reader selections, and almost all are just Spanish translations of books written by Anglo Authors like El gato en el sombrero. There are quite a few Spanish speaking families with small children who hang around this shelf but they tend to read the books aloud to their kids, then put them back, not buy them. So I'd say selling books to Latinos isn't a particularly astute business model.

DaveinHackensack said...

This isn't just a blind spot about average Hispanic Americans. It's a blind spot about the whole left half of the Bell Curve, and it's one a lot of elites have. As I mentioned in a post about liberal economist Jeffrey Sachs a few years back, I think it's a consequence of not having gone to public schools.

Even the best public schools usually have a handful of representative left halfers. Maybe that's not the case in private schools. To private school-educated elites, the idea that there's anyone who doesn't like to read books must be beyond their ken. But lots of Americans simply don't read.

Anonymous said...

http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/2012/sep/24/movie-review-ross-mcelwee/

Henry Canaday said...

I have just been reading James Fenimore Cooper’s “Last of The Mohicans,” for the first time since I was very young. It’s a great adventure story, told in sentences much more complex than anyone would write for young people today. It’s also a reminder that the paleface has been Anglo-morphizing Indians for very long time.

Anthony said...

The only Spanish-language "bookstore" I can think of in the Bay Area is actually a Spanish import store, where, besides Spanish books, you can get paella pans big enough to lie down in. Searching around, it looks like there are a few in the Mission District of San Francisco, too.

We want our kids to learn Spanish (because we have Spanish-speaking family), and found that the best place to get Spanish-language kids' books was Borders, before they closed.

Anonymous said...

Even in Spain, there are almost as many books in Catalan as in Spanish (Castilian). Spaniards aren't that literate, and indios and mestizos less so.

Reg Cæsar said...

Don't be silly. They're reading the latest literary best sellers on their hot Kindles and Nooks. Who needs paper? It burns.

And why would you choose Yiddish over Ladino for a Spanish-language bookstore name?

Anonymous said...

The Spanish section at B&N doesn't actually sell much. It's there to add a veneer of cosmopolitanism for the SWPLs.

Mark Plus said...

Years ago I read that the L.A. Times' annual Festival of Books hardly needs security because the criminal element avoids places with books. A security guard even compared books to Kryptonite when it came to repelling gang members.

Anonyia said...

There is a Spanish language section at my local bookstore too: the only book in it that seems to have been picked through was Twilight...

Anonymous said...

Latino immigrants are sadly the rule, not the exception. How many Farsi bookstores does LA have? Arab speakers don't even read in their home countries, never mind overseas

In defense of that, Arabs are not very literate or literary. Written Arabic is difficult as well. Kudos to Kemal for forcible switching Turkish from the Arabic alphabet to the Roman one.

Anonymous said...

The Spanish section in US bookstores is for SWPLS pretending to learn a language and teach it to their children.

Ced said...

As a society we have 'jumped the shark.'

I am not white. I was lucky to be raised in an house full of books. As a kid 95% of the books I read had white heroes and main characters.

As a kid I didn't give a damn about the race/ethnicity of the characters!

Six year old kids don't care about this stuff. All they want is a good memorable story.


Anonymous said...

The nice parts of Mexico City are majority Jorge Ramos types on the street, and have plenty of bookstores.

Anonymous said...

What percentage of books read by natives are completely wotrthless or worse? TWILIGHT books sales were $1.6 billion. How much space at a bookstore is devoted to Oprah's Book Club? If anything on the this blog were in a book, would that book ever be permitted in a bookstore? People reading a lot are mostly soaking up fluff and leftist propaganda.

If Hispanics don't read a lot, it gives them an advantage. Just look how Mexico's deals with immigration from its southern border. They have a more natural psychology not warped by fantasy and utopian visions.

Whiskey said...

Considering the quality of women observed on the street, in shopping malls, and elsewhere of the Mexodus, one can say that most men would pay NOT to ever see them in bikinis, string or otherwise. So that is not it.

Mexico is renowned for having the lowest per-capita book purchases, in the Americas. There are the fewest publishing houses (less than Peru), fewest books read (less than El Salvador which is pretty low), there just isn't much literacy. And the rest of Latin America is pretty bad as well.

Paul Mendez said...

Miguel de Cervantes must be rolling in his grave.

alexis said...

Honestly, why is this bizarre? When are people going to realize a civilization can produce great literary works and still have a population that consists overwhelmingly of slack-jawed yokels. Every literate civilization produced scholars and saints, but your average peasant had nothing to do with that.

"A people is a detour of nature to get to six or seven great men,.... and then to get around them." -Neitszche

Anonymous said...

PHOTOS: 50-year-old 6'6" transsexual basketball player makes college debut

http://www.news10.net/sports/article/219854/3/PHOTOS-66-transsexual-basketball-player-makes-college-debut

el supremo said...

Re: comparison to the standard other immigrants

In NYC at least there are only a few Chinese bookstores, but the large selection of Chinese books in the library get heavily used. There is alot of reading in Chinese by Chinese immigrants, and a mix of fiction, romance novels, popular history, and technical works (test prep, accounting etc)

There are a number of Polish bookstores that do a decent business, and judging by people on the subway Russians read alot of literature in their own language. Greek as well. Many of the Indian migrants read English books.

There are several good quality Japanese bookstores serving a small but well educated population, which is not surprising.

I don't seek the society of Mexican migrants, so don't know much about their book market in New York, but it definately sounds lower than than other immigrants in NYC.

Anonymous said...

Maybe they all have Amazon Kindle accounts.

Victor said...

I used to live in a Korean neigborhood. I distinctly remember several (3 actually) Korean bookstores. There were always customers inside browsing books.

Anonymous said...

The only groups that really read a lot are Northern Europeans, including Ashkenazi Jews.

This is nonsense. Most "Northern Europeans", if they read at all, read low-brow positive thinking books or cookbooks and the like. And Ashkenazi Jews aren't "Northern European" even if they've lived there. They're from the Southern European/Mediterranean culture which is traditionally more literate and bookish than Northern Europeans. You're confusing market size with literary culture. The fact that there are lots of Northern Euros in the US with money to spend on Rick Warren books and dog grooming guides doesn't mean they're more literary.

Anonymous said...

re Kryptonite: That's Chris Rock's gag, in his breakout HBO special. The guard is copping the gag.

Unless Chris Rock heard it from someone else in the 'hood.

kaganovitch said...

of course (as should be obvious from the name)"Libros Schmibros" was founded and is run by a middle-aged jewish guy named kipen ;if it was actually run by our mixtec friends it would have a different name and specialize in bootleg copies of Grand Theft Auto rather than spanish language marxist claptrap

alonzo portfolio said...

Yeah, but nobody from anywhere under a certain age likes to read. I knew an Egyptian 20-something with a good brain, a laid-off Delta Pilot who was managing his father-in-law's magazine store. He once said to me with wonder in his voice, "you like to read, don't you?"

DaveinHackensack said...

"A security guard even compared books to Kryptonite when it came to repelling gang members."

He borrowed that from Chris Rock.

Unknown said...

I've always had fun watching the ethnic and age demographics in bookstores here. One thing I've learned? The only people who are really into "literary" fiction are SWPLs with a smattering of East Asians. I have a feeling that the right side of the South Asian bell curve is a bit more into lit fic than the East Asian side is, but not enough of an anecdotal sample range for me to be sure. The primary printed material for my co-ethnics seems to be religious stuff and sheet music. Every semi-respectable Hawaiian home has a shelf of dumb bible commentary and 30 year old out of print fakebooks.

Noah Nehm said...

Go to the Wikipedia home page and look at the article count.

That should tell you everything you need to know.

Anonymous said...

Might it also be possible that a large percentage of the Latino population of LA only speaks English at this point. Much of them are second, third and even fourth generation at this point.

Seth said...

There was a Spanish bookstore around the corner from me on 204th Street in upper Manhattan until it closed recently.

The store sold an eclectic selection of stuff...a lot of brujeria (New Agey books), many books about Balaguer and Trujillo, the novels of Juan Bosch, etc...it was run by Dominicans for the local population.

One day I was walking by and in the window I saw a few odd titles, one of which was "Los Protocolos de los sabios de sion" or "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," in a brand-new Spanish language edition.

They also had a book called "Opus Judei," an expose from the 1930s of Opus Dei as a Jewish cult within the Vatican, and a third title whose cover showed the hand of world Jewry manipulating all world currencies and governments.

These books were in the front window of a Manhattan storefront in 2003!

I asked them to remove them from the window, which they did without comment or question.

Latin Americans are weird on the Jewish question. Go to Mexico and you will see bootlegged copies of "Los hornos de Hitler" ("Hitler's Ovens") everywhere. One of the weirder sights is to be found in the Judaica sections in Mexican bookstores, where "Mi lucha" (Mein Kampf) is frequently shelved right by the Diary of Anne Frank.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous:" And Ashkenazi Jews aren't "Northern European" even if they've lived there. They're from the Southern European/Mediterranean culture which is traditionally more literate and bookish than Northern Europeans."

This is wrong;culturally, Ashkenazi Jews are northern European (cf the fact that Yiddish is a primarily a mixture of German and Hebrew).

As for Southern Europe/Med being "traditionally more literate and bookish than Northern Europeans," that depends on what you mean by "traditionally." Yes, Southern Euros/Meds have been reading longer than have Northern Euros (writing having first developed in the Middle East), but Northern Euros developed significantly higher rates of literacy from the Reformation on (cf New England, which was the most literate society in the World in the 17th century).


"You're confusing market size with literary culture. The fact that there are lots of Northern Euros in the US with money to spend on Rick Warren books and dog grooming guides doesn't mean they're more literary."

Any data on what sells in England vs what sells in Italy?

Marlowe said...

You telling me the average Spanish American cannot tell his Borges from his Manuel Puig from his Mario Vargas Llosa from his Gabriel Garcia Marquez? Seriously?

At least they get AC/DC in Buenos Aires.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but nobody from anywhere under a certain age likes to read.

Except nerds.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha "I asked them to remove them from the window, which they did without comment or question."

So Mexicans are pushovers and you feel the need to dictate what is in a shop's window.

I seriously doubt your average mexican even knows what a 'jew' is.

Anonymous said...

And Whiskey totally missed the point.

fnn said...

This is nonsense. Most "Northern Europeans", if they read at all, read low-brow positive thinking books or cookbooks and the like.

There are a lot of Northern Europeans beyond the boundaries of the Wisconsin suburb where you live:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thilo_Sarrazin#Immigration.2C_Islam_and_social_welfare_controversy
"Within two months, Sarrazin's book Deutschland schafft sich ab ("Germany Is Doing Away With Itself" or "Germany Is Abolishing Itself"), published end of August 2010, became the highest sold book on politics by a German-language author in a decade, with overall sales hitting 1.1 million copies[3] and the first editions sold out within a matter of hours or days. In the 13th edition Sarrazin added a brief foreword commenting on the nation-wide debate his book has sparked.[20] As of May 2011, 1.5 million copies were sold.[21]"

Anonymous said...

"Latino immigrants are sadly the rule, not the exception. How many Farsi bookstores does LA have? Arab speakers don't even read in their home countries, never mind overseas. I've noticed most Indian groceries sell videos - not books in any language. Even Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants open fewer bookstores than you might guess. The only groups that really read a lot are Northern Europeans, including Ashkenazi Jews. I'm curious how enthusiastic about reading Sephardic Jews tend to be? I would guess much less than European Jews."

I hope these types of comments aren't serious. Do you really think intellectual Chinese/Iranians can't read in English?

Anonymous said...

"Yeah, but nobody from anywhere under a certain age likes to read."

Yes, this is more a function of IQ than age, methinks.

Anonymous said...

'"Yeah, but nobody from anywhere under a certain age likes to read.

Except nerds.'

Except students who attend private schools, and white girls.

Unknown said...

Maybe the superiority of English feeds this phenomenon. Try comparing the number of syllables in the Spanish interpretation of English sentences at museums, etc. It takes twice as many.

Also, how good can a language be with the words for "straight" and "right" are three syllables and only different by one letter? ("Derecho" and "derecha.")

Skeptical Economist said...

"You telling me the average Spanish American cannot tell his Borges from his Manuel Puig from his Mario Vargas Llosa from his Gabriel Garcia Marquez? Seriously?"

Friends tell me that Mario Vargas Llosa is a joy in his native language. In English translation, not so much.

Skeptical Economist said...

"Latin Americans are weird on the Jewish question. Go to Mexico and you will see bootlegged copies of "Los hornos de Hitler" ("Hitler's Ovens") everywhere. One of the weirder sights is to be found in the Judaica sections in Mexican bookstores, where "Mi lucha" (Mein Kampf) is frequently shelved right by the Diary of Anne Frank."

Very true. The concept of "La Raza" was devised by José Vasconcelos who later worked as a German agent in Mexico in the 1940s. He certainly didn't have a problem with the Nazi regime although his views on Jews are unknown to me.

Skeptical Economist said...

"Considering the quality of women observed on the street, in shopping malls, and elsewhere of the Mexodus, one can say that most men would pay NOT to ever see them in bikinis, string or otherwise. So that is not it"

The upscale Mexican beaches (for Mexicans, not tourists) are quite a sight... Of course, those aren't the folks entering the U.S.

Reg Cæsar said...

Try comparing the number of syllables in the Spanish interpretation of English sentences at museums, etc. It takes twice as many. --Mallarde Fillmore

Yes, but it takes less time for them to pronounce those many syllables than for us to pronounce our few. So it evens out.

Mr. Anon said...

Obviously what Barnes and Noble needs is a spanish-language teen-paranormal section.

Nick Diaz said...

@Steve Sailer

"For example, I've been pointing out for years that it's imprudent of intellectuals to bet the country on massive Latin American immigration without considering just how intellectual the country is going to wind up being afterward. Here in Los Angeles we're a couple of generations ahead of you in the Northeast."

Yes, because white Americans read a lot and are incredibly intelectual, huh? I wonder, does the average white American male prefer to watch football on T.V and drink beer, or read books at the local library?

Everything that you are saying about Latin American immigrants can be said about Irish immigrants who came to American during the potato famine: they were for the most part poor, uneducated, and a a lot of them were violent. New England WASPS at that time tried to stop immigration from Ireland on the SAME GROUNDS that you are trying to justify stopping Latin American immigration.

Anonymous said...

Seth - I asked them to remove them from the window, which they did without comment or question.

And you're proud of this Stasi boy?

peterike said...

"New England WASPS at that time tried to stop immigration from Ireland on the SAME GROUNDS that you are trying to justify stopping Latin American immigration."

And guess what genius! They were right!

Only with Mexies we're even more right.

Grumpy Old Man said...

There used to be a really good Spanish bookstore in Santa Ana. The owner won a MacArthur, I think.

I also think it went out of business eventually.

Svigor said...

There is an assumption that if we would only have Hispanic heroes in kid's coloring books or taught pre-calc with rap lyrics, NAM's would soon catch up.

What would be the evidence for this?


Human equality, of course.

Years ago I read that the L.A. Times' annual Festival of Books hardly needs security because the criminal element avoids places with books.

I grew up on the border of a gentrifying black ghetto. We had our cars broken into several times and had valuables stolen. Once my dad left his expensive HK pistol in his car, and the next day it was gone. Eventually my mom figured out it was best to leave her station wagon unlocked and devoid of valuables.

Once she left a stack of overdue library books in there for weeks, and they never even moved. She probably could have kept a pile of cash hidden inside one of them.

A security guard even compared books to Kryptonite when it came to repelling gang members.

And country or classical music. One day we'll see the rise of malls that play only country or classical music.

As a kid I didn't give a damn about the race/ethnicity of the characters!

Six year old kids don't care about this stuff. All they want is a good memorable story.


Diversity is far more abstract in print. It's funny how often it's whitened up or whitewashed when translated to the screen (e.g., in Harry Potter movies, the image of a black kid and a white kid sucking face are expunged, and in The Walking Dead a prominent black character is back-benched and his inter-racial romance written out of the script).

Loose Age said...

Since in Panama "Tia Chucha" means Aunt Pussy is this store a tres equis XXX porn shop?

Seth said...

Seth - I asked them to remove them from the window, which they did without comment or question.

And you're proud of this Stasi boy?

How is this Stasi behavior exactly? People ask storeowners to cover up the fronts of booty magazines all the time. I didn't ask them to stop selling the books, just to remove them from the window.

Asshole.

Mr. Anon said...

"Nick Diaz said...

Everything that you are saying about Latin American immigrants can be said about Irish immigrants who came to American during the potato famine: they were for the most part poor, uneducated, and a a lot of them were violent."

No, everything that can be said about them can be said MORE about mexicans. They are poorer, less educated, and more violent.

"New England WASPS at that time tried to stop immigration from Ireland on the SAME GROUNDS that you are trying to justify stopping Latin American immigration."

You are wrong (not surprising). Obviously many wasps - the rich ones, who wanted cheap labor - had no problem bringing in the irish. Which is why they came here. Anyway, the fact that those people failed in the past to stop the immigration of some particular group, is no reason why Americans today should just roll over and let anyone in.

This is what we are trying to keep out of our country:

"13 bodies found in vehicles in northern Mexico"

Silver said...

Everything that you are saying about Latin American immigrants can be said about Irish immigrants who came to American during the potato famine: they were for the most part poor, uneducated, and a a lot of them were violent. New England WASPS at that time tried to stop immigration from Ireland on the SAME GROUNDS that you are trying to justify stopping Latin American immigration.

People object to mass immigration for many of the same reasons no matter what country and what immigrants we're talking about.

On the other hand "immigrants" is an absurdly broad class of people. It's the most normal thing in the world to distinguish between immigrant groups and to note that some immigrants (or prospective immigrants) are more similar to yourself than others.

If you don't do this then you have to pretend that one million Nigerians flooding into Mexico would be no different than one million Hondurans. Totally ridiculous -- and exactly the sort of fantastic lie that immigration boosters are capable of conjuring up the fly. They get away with it, too, because white people are not permitted to evaluate whether a policy is good for them or not.

Nick, please stop pretending to be coldly rational about the issue. You are one hundred percent emotional. It's not about "immigration" for you. It's about status: how DARE anyone think that somebody like Nick Diaz is undesirable as an immigrant. How DARE they! What an insult! They must pay and pay dearly! You haven't heard the last of this, Sailer!

Nick, if you ever manage to calm yourself down, would it kill you to admit that when it comes to race and immigration numbers are of the essence? When you get down to it, numbers mean everything. If it were only one person, it really wouldn't matter how horrible he was. He could be an axe murderer, a serial rapist, and a congenital embezzler all rolled into one and yet because it's only one person it's really not going to have any significant sort of impact on society at all. Introduce a thousand or ten thousand or one hundred thousand or a million or ten million such people into a society and at some point their presence would soon start to be felt. The average Latino immigrant of course is nowhere near as horrible as that, but the effects of large numbers of people who are not like yourself and who don't seem to like or respect you very much similarly begin to make themselves felt at some point. It may be ugly to have to hear but it's the truth.

Anonymous said...

More drivel from Nick Diaz;

In previous posts he gave the impression of possibly being of southern European ancestry, but seems to be sounding more & more Mexican all the time.

"Everything that you are saying about Latin American immigrants can be said about Irish immigrants who came to America during the potato famine: they were for the most part poor, uneducated and a lot of them were violent".

Not true at all. Firstly, Irish immigrants at this time knew how to speak English. Nor was there ever any language issues of any kind in regard to Irish immigration, quite unlike Mexicans and other hispanics. They were uneducated? Yes. But this was the 1840's. Public schooling was abysmal at that time, where it even existed. What is the excuse for Mexicans 170 years later? Nor were they anywhere near as violent as Mexicans or other hispanics. Your comparison is not even oranges and apples. It is assinine.

"New England WASPS at that time treid to stop immigration from Ireland on the SAME GROUNDS that you are tyring to justify stopping Latin American immigration".

Another untruth. First no justification is ever needed to stop immigration since it is only a privilege and not a right. Irish immigration was largely concentrated in one area of the country, unlike the immivasion of today's hispanics. Nor did the Irish ask for, or expect any A.A. perks, or do anything but assimilate into American soicety as they were expected to. Less then two decades after their arrival large portions of the federal army in the civil war would consist of Irish brigades.

Anonymous said...

To Nick Diaz:

"Irish immigrants of yesteryear were poor, uneducated and violent, like Mexican ones today". (I'm paraphrasing a bit here, but this is the gist of it).

Untrue, but even had it been true, why should America repeat what would thus have been a mistaken strategy? Following your illogical (not to mention false) statement to its logical conclusion, wouldn't the correct response be..

'Hmmm, we shouldn't let these Mexicans in. We don't want violent, uneducated and poor people here. We don't need them. Lets get the best and brightest' law abiding folks with money to invest in the country.'

Anonymous said...

"Irish immigrants were poor, uneducated and many of them were violent".

And if Mexicans are the same why is this a reason to let them in?

The USA once imported slaves. Should we return to this practice because it once was done?

Dr Van Nostrand said...

When Arabophile/Arabophobe neocon Bernard Lewis pointed out that the Arab world translates fewer books than Spain, I dont think he meant that just to jab the Arab world but also to taunt Spain(the Arabs former subjects)

Isnt it odd how Arabs went out of their way to make a beeline for the Hispanic New World and actually do well for themselves?
Some of them becames heads of state in Argentina and Ecuador.
Also especially odd was that the Hispanic countries were the choice of domicile for fleeing Nazis.
So we have Hispanics(who expelled Jews) creating an environment where Arabs and Nazis feel most comfortable.So why exactly are these idiot liberal Jews for open borders?


Perhaps a good explanation for Spanish anti intellectualism(relative to rest of Europe) isnt so much that Europe ends at the Pyrynees type slur but Spain in 1492 expelled most of its talented subjects ie Muslims and Jews.Catholics were more of the meathead type fit for conquest and adventure but not so much for industry.This explains their foolish schemes of plundering as much as gold as they could and using it to prop up the Spanish economy and it did to Spain what Bernanke's QE7 will do to America around 2015.

Dr Van Nostrand said...

Maybe the superiority of English feeds this phenomenon. Try comparing the number of syllables in the Spanish interpretation of English sentences at museums, etc. It takes twice as many.

Also, how good can a language be with the words for "straight" and "right" are three syllables and only different by one letter? ("Derecho" and "derecha.")"


Please! Let us not get into how weird and illogical English word formations can be

humanitarian and vegetarian ....WTF?

Anonymous said...

There are a couple of Farsi book stores in LA. Not sure where people are getting any ideas otherwise

Anonymous said...

LA used to have many Spanish language book stores in the 1980s and 1990s. They closed along with most of the English language book stores.