The Misguided “Drop Dobbs Now” Latino Campaign
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By Ricardo González.
Lou Dobbs goes overboard on the immigration issue. There is absolutely no doubt about it — at least that’s the view of most Latinos. He is now even being tied to a group that has been designated by some as a hate group (FAIR – Federation for American Immigration Reform).
Does he use sensationalism? No question. Does he dislike Latinos? It appears that way but I do not know the man’s true heart. I do know that some people say one thing for ratings and actually believe something different. The truth is that some people honestly like documented aka: “legal” Latinos and dislike the undocumented. Well, I’m not sure if they dislike the people or dislike the idea of people entering the country outside the bounds of established federal law. As with most things, complexity exists.
Whatever the case, many Latino social organizations are uniting in a “Drop Dobbs” campaign. Their goal? Force CNN to dump Lou Dobbs from their list of commentators.
Latinos are making another tactical mistake just like they did a few years back when they organized major street protests. Perhaps not on the same scale but a mistake nonetheless. All the protests did was to awaken the proverbial “sleeping giant” and forced people to “get off the fence” about Latinos. It created a high amount of negative publicity and a severe backlash against Latinos. There are ways to combat ignorance and the “Drop Dobbs” campaign, at least in my opinion, isn’t one of them.
Why not just go on Lou Dobbs with intelligent counter arguments? Why not use his already existing platform and speak directly to it. Latinos have not been watching him but they will start now due to this new attention. Why give him more fame for his vitriolic form of expression? He must love that! I am sure he would be more than happy now to have a leading Latino from La Raza come on his show so he could try to show them up.
The problem here is that Latinos are falling into a trap of calling for the stoppage of free speech. Dobbs has every right in the United States to his views and if he has the platform to air them, that is entirely his (and CNN’s) business.
With the Latino poverty rate in the mid 20 percentile range and the Latino high school drop-out rate hovering near 50 percent, one would think our Latino leaders would have a lot better things to do than to devote time and resources to a “Drop Dobbs” campaign. I sure do! What’s next, “Dump O’Reilly”? “Dump Hannity?” “Dump Limbaugh?” “Dump Who?” My goodness, the list is endless. We should all focus our attention on other, much more important cultural matters than worrying about what people like Lou Dobbs say.
Ricardo González is the Founder and Executive Director of “Bilingual America www.bilingualamerica.com.”
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Lou Dobbs is married to a Hispana from Mexican origins and he also knows what he is talking about. I do not see him going overboard on the immigration issue. He believes in documented immigration and America should always support documented immigration. What we need is people like Dobbs confronting those who want to change the rules. By the way, Dobbs´ book defending the average Americans and exposing the abuses of Big Government is excellent. Good article, but let us stick to principle!
Lou, Not going overboard!??? I’m sorry to be so blunt, but what planet do you live on? What would it take for him to “go overboard” according to you, would he need to pull in a short dark Mexican and light him on fire on air to be considered “overboard”?? He has talked about our PRESIDENT’S – the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES’ – “cotton-picking brain.” You are clearly speaking without having watched him, otherwise you would know that he hates immigrants, period. He has PROCLAIMED how he is against “illegal AND LEGAL immigration.” Watch this video and you’ll learn a little about how lou dobbs rambles and raves to spew out as many falsities as possible to make everyone afraid of all “those people” “overstaying” – but note he provides no factual support for his claims: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Let9Vnikq_Q
He’’s saying it like it IS and I’m glad to see PC make a disappearance. Why are some people so sensitive about Americans not wanting illegals breaking our laws? It’s ridiculous. I don’t see why citizens defend the illegal but not the country they are a part of and has given them opportunity and freedom. If they dislike America maybe they should give the illegal their spot here and leave.
Finally, someone who speaks a tale of reasonableness and rationality. I’m really happy to read an article like this. The so call “hate issue” might be an important topic of discussion in the high ranking round tables of our leaders, but we need to understand that we, as a community, have far more critical issues in this country: as the article mentioned the spread of analphabetism until now feasts in the very heart of our communities, the hungry children of our “little villages” , the old people who cannot pay their doctor’s bills, the families forced to give up their houses, in the words of JFK a latino community with “ to many slams and too few schools”. These are the real issues which should drive the efforts of our leaders for poverty and ignorance know no race barrier. Some issues like the one of Dobbs have taken the front sit to the issues that should matter the most. This action, perhaps a deliberated one by some latino groups less responsible than this, seems to be born out of pride and old burning feelings of inferiority. That’s why I congratulate the writer of this article. It is reason and not passion which should guider our deliberations.
Benjamin: you rightly say “reason and not passion should gude our deliberations”. So let us agree:
reason = respect the laws of the U.S.
passion = disrespect the law of the U.S. and try to convince others that they are not reasonable.
Dobbs stand for reason. You may disagree with his tone. Latino leaders trying to have CNN fire him stand for passion.
So are you for reason or for passion?
Lynn, the columnist´s opinion is his own opinion. It does not necessarily represent The Americano´s view. Or is it that every column in every newspaper agrees with the editorial line of the newspaper? I think The Americano is doing a very good job offering opinion and news with their own take. At least it is a much better source of infromation than the old idiotic media…
So… according to the writer…. Dobbs has a “vitriolic form of expression” because he defends legal immigration. For what I read in The Americano, I do not think the publishers agree with this columnist on this topic. But yet, this is ghe greatness of free speech in America. Just the one thing the FCC and the liberal democrats want to take away from us. Congratulations to The Americano!
Three things Ricardo:
1) Clearly you haven’t even read the DropDobbs campaign and website, or you would know that it is an organized and VARIED coalition, with more than just “Latino” organizations.
2) Clearly you’re speaking about something you don’t know (the Dobbs show), otherwise you would know that the CEO of La Raza has been on Dobbs countless times precisely to use his own platform to clarify his misinformation.
3) Make no mistake, there is NO “cultural matter” that is more important than fighting against the hate towards Latinos. Our kids drop out in many cases because they’re told “they’ll never be able to be anything” or “they’re not worth anything”.
Do not underestimate the sheer power of words. WORDS HAVE CONSEQUENCES. And if you have any doubt that Dobbs’ vitriol has consequences let me go down the list of the most recent hate crimes against Latinos – Latinos who weren’t asked to show their papers before they were grabbed and beaten to a dead pulp, because Latinos are “those people.” Here is a nice illustration of how words have consequences: http://ndn.org/node/3278
Finally,
Maria Anglin, from MySanAntonio.com summarizes the job of Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, and others like them so well in an article from last year about the Luis Ramirez murder in PA (http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/Fear_can_quickly_ignite_into_hate_crimes.html):
Fear, anger and disappointment are emotions that surge within all of us. The young men charged in the attack, who said they’d been drinking, weren’t unruly kids always getting into scrapes with the town cops; they’re reportedly good kids who made good grades and participated in high school sports. In other words, young Americans ready to take on the future before fear, anger and disappointment turned a not-particularly-imposing immigrant into the “boogeyman.”
There is a fear in America that immigrants, especially Mexicans, will change America. They want to speak Spanish whenever they please; that kind of thing stirs fears that can blossom into a full panic. It’s no wonder hate crimes happen; nobody likes the boogeyman. There are those who have made high-profile careers out of fueling fear, anger and disappointment; who dole out large doses of carefully crafted hate speech, gloomy forecasts and xenophobic fear of outsiders to millions of good people itching to blame someone for everything from the price of gasoline to salmonella outbreaks to every crack-cocaine death in America.
And if it’s true that immigrants, just by being in the country’s classrooms, restaurants and front yards, have the power to shift the nation’s values, it is also true that it doesn’t take much goading by some wise guy on TV – or a parent, relative, neighbor, family friend, teacher, mentor or politician – to tilt the balance of fear, anger and disappointment in teenagers learning to find their way in the world into the realm of full-blown hate.
Packs of angry boys can be dangerous; the mob mentality that takes over can turn even the harmless kid who eats paste into a hell of a lot of trouble. Add a little underage drinking and things can get ugly really fast. But those who fan the flames of fear, anger and disappointment are much scarier.
Mr. Dobbs is married to a Latino. How could he be a racist? Maybe it is the people complaining about him that should look in the mirror. I was married to a Salvadorian for 11 years and found that “the good, the bad and the ugly” exists in all colors. Please get past the color issue and just concentrate on being a better person!!!!
Felipe
Wait a minute, I take offense to your comment. No sensible person would make such a heated and race induced comment like yours. Not everyone is anglo or venting as you call it. This country is not only for latinos and their issues it’s about all Americans. I thought this site was to open the line of communication I guess you intend to keep yours closed.
And yes I am Hispanic but unlike you I call myself an American first!
I am proud of this site for inspiring dialogue. This is what this country needs. I agree with Felipe in that communication lines must stay open so all people can express their opinions. We may not like what everyone says, but isn’t that one of the reasons people of all nationalities come to America? Freedom of speech.
Good job.