Worth a watch. Good interviews with locals.
Some towns have gotten 50% bigger in less than 2 years as new people moved in. Schools and infrastructure were not prepared.
Why is this happening? And - as seen in the comments on this thread - why are you a racist if you ask about it?
To be clear: immigration is important, and necessary, but I had not heard or seen the impact that this huge surge of people have had on many small towns until I saw this.
If your reaction to someone asking this simple question is anger: that’s a problem. Feel free to treat me like an idiot and back up your opinion with data. Otherwise, I don’t understand why we should be obligated to treat this massive influx of people better than our own citizens. No other country does it.
You guys don’t even try to hide the racism and xenophobia anymore do you?
They’ve gone full hood-off.
What is racist or xenophobic about any of this?
Alright so I don’t care enough or have the time to go through this hour long video and break it down point by point, but I will talk about the opening minutes. This guy, with seemingly zero self awareness, approaches a group of people with his cell phone out saying “hey, I want to ask you some questions about [insert your assumed nationality here].” In this case Haitians who have spent the last several weeks being harassed, vilified, and threatened on a national media broadcast level that they neither asked for or likely know how to handle. My reaction to that if I were them would be “no thank you, please leave me alone”. This appears to be what they do - they politely said no. Then the camera man proceeds to paint them in a negative light immediately for it “why won’t they answer my questions?! Why??” Gets in his car to leave. That group went inside and got someone - probably someone willing to speak for them - but by the time she comes out the camera man has now painted them negatively again “they ran me out of here, they ran away, they scattered and got in their cars and left, oh this woman is coming at me aggressively go go get out of here go.”
They did no such thing, they indicated politely he should leave, and he did. There was no aggression, and the when a woman came to speak with him he zoomed off assuming she was a threat somehow? And then getting offended when she did exactly what he just did and filmed it.
This guy is not a reporter, has no credentials, is making wild baseless accusations in this first few minutes of his video, and its plain to see. This sets the tone for the rest of whatever dribble this guy has to say. The assumptions he made in that interaction were either racist, xenophobic, or just plain dumb because he has no idea why they might be a little on defensive and cautious about having conversations with random people approaching them ready to record them on a cell phone. If you want an interview you approach and ask without recording first, and then you only post video of willing participants. In my quick scroll of the remainder it would appear he did not use this ambush tactic on the people willing to speak to him.
This also you?
I have not been occupying right spaces online. Don’t have the time / energy. And I don’t really put in the effort to try to change anyone’s mind Online because people are change resistant online.
But
I do argue politely IRL for things that would help. Better infrastructure, trains, good jobs, love everyone, let people do what they want as long as it doesn’t hurt others, transparency in money and government, and make good things in America. Still unlikely to change minds but at least making friendships with people different from me.
I guess my overall thesis would be: online discourse is has proven unproductive. I’m tired of reading vitriol and “other side is so dumb wow.”
Disappointed to see the echoiness of the echo chamber on Lemmy
Edit bc quote box didn’t wrap all paragraphs
Yes! Fail to see what digging through my posts have to with anything? You also didn’t make a point
This post is the opposite of all the things in bold that you said with such compassion for others.
Not at all! You can give love and compassion and still ask why tens of thousands of new people are flooding into towns in a short time. Not mutually exclusive at all.
New people you would like others to know need love and compassion like your grandparents or great grandparents needed when they were “new”?
Can you rephrase this? I’m not sure what you are asking
Why aren’t we allowed to talk about? Said while talking about it… and fucking interviews too? You’re right that’s silencing 🤡
I hadn’t heard about any of this until now. And I mean, check the comments of anyone who talks about it. “You’re racist if you ask why this is happening”
I’m sorry, who said you aren’t allowed to talk about it? I know a few Haitians who moved to the US and they are great people.
Clearly you didn’t watch the video. No one said anyone was a bad person. But a lot of people are wondering why certain towns have grown by 50% in 2 years
Great way to hide the bigotry. “It’s about town growth guys, not hate, I promise.”
The accusations of racism and bigotry are unfounded. If you watch the video, all the locals are not racist at all. If you read my post, I challenge you to find anything racist or bigoted.
Many people are asking what’s happening with the population change in their towns, and why. And getting no answers. Just, “you’re racist for asking.” Suspicious and argued in bad faith.
False premise
What do you mean?
We are allowed to talk about it.
“you are allowed to talk about it, but we won’t give you a straight answer. You’re a racist for asking what’s going on.”
New jobs are created in town, intentionally, which are filled by immigrants because they are mobile and seeking employment. End of story.
The questions you are asking probably have underlying racist assumptions like “who put them there” or “why are we allowing them to take over our towns”
Thank you for your answer! My understanding is: these jobs are not offered equally to US citizens. And they do not pay a fair wage.
If someone assumes a question is racist, the responsibility is on them to clarify if that is indeed the case.
I dont have info on the quality of these jobs but I doubt that they are paying slave wages. One of the big employers in springfield is a Honda vehicle assembly plant for example.
Why, what is the impact? You mentioned schools and infrastructure, perhaps those should be funded better? Was that it?
We should increase funding into things like schools and infrastructure, especially when communities are growing. I believe those have high ROI for those communities and the country as a whole.
