US Latinos dislike Muslim immigrants
simple.lan...@gmail.com
Like many workers at the meatpacking plant here, Raul A. Garcia, a
Mexican-American, has watched with some discomfort as hundreds of
Somali immigrants have moved to town in the past couple of years, many
of them to fill jobs once held by Latino workers taken away in
immigration raids.
Mr. Garcia has been particularly troubled by the Somalis’ demand that
they be allowed special breaks for prayers that are obligatory for
devout Muslims. The breaks, he said, would inconvenience everyone
else.
“The Latino is very humble,” said Mr. Garcia, 73, who has worked at
the plant, owned by JBS U.S.A. Inc., since 1994. “But they are
arrogant,” he said of the Somali workers. “They act like the United
States owes them.”
Mr. Garcia was among more than 1,000 Latino and other workers who
protested a decision last month by the plant’s management to cut their
work day — and their pay — by 15 minutes to give scores of Somali
workers time for evening prayers.
After several days of strikes and disruptions, the plant’s management
abandoned the plan.
But the dispute peeled back a layer of civility in this southern
Nebraska city of 47,000, revealing slow-burning racial and ethnic
tensions that have been an unexpected aftermath of the enforcement
raids at workplaces by federal immigration authorities.
Grand Island is among a half dozen or so cities where discord has
arisen with the arrival of Somali workers, many of whom were recruited
by employers from elsewhere in the United States after immigration
raids sharply reduced their Latino work forces.
The Somalis are by and large in this country legally as political
refugees and therefore are not singled out by immigration authorities.
In some of these places, including Grand Island, this newest wave of
immigrant workers has had the effect of unifying the other ethnic
populations against the Somalis and has also diverted some of the
longstanding hostility toward Latino immigrants among some native-born
residents.
“Every wave of immigrants has had to struggle to get assimilated,”
said Margaret Hornady, the mayor of Grand Island and a longtime
resident of Nebraska. “Right now, it’s so volatile.”
The federal immigration crackdown has hit meat- and poultry-packing
plants particularly hard, with more than 2,000 immigrant workers in at
least nine places detained since 2006 in major raids, most on
immigration violations.
Struggling to fill the grueling low-wage jobs that attract few
American workers, the plants have placed advertisements in immigrant
newspapers and circulated fliers in immigrant neighborhoods.
Some companies, like Swift & Company, which owned the plant in Grand
Island until being bought up by the Brazilian conglomerate JBS last
year, have made a particular pitch for Somalis because of their legal
status. Tens of thousands of Somali refugees fleeing civil war have
settled in the United States since the 1990s, with the largest
concentration in Minnesota.
But the companies are learning that in trying to solve one problem
they have created another.
Early last month, about 220 Somali Muslims walked off the job at a JBS
meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colo., saying the company had prevented
them from observing their prayer schedule. (More than 100 of the
workers were later fired.)
Days later, a poultry company in Minnesota agreed to allow Muslim
workers prayer breaks and the right to refuse handling pork products,
settling a lawsuit filed by nine Somali workers.
In August, the management of a Tyson chicken plant in Shelbyville,
Tenn., designated a Muslim holy day as a paid holiday, acceding to a
demand by Somali workers. The plant had originally agreed to
substitute the Muslim holy day for Labor Day, but reinstated Labor Day
after a barrage of criticism from non-Muslims.
In some workplaces, newly arrived Somali Muslims have not protested
their working conditions. That has been the case at Agriprocessors, a
meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. About 150 Somali Muslims have
found jobs there, most of them recruited by a staffing company after
the plant lost about half its work force in an immigration raid in
May.
Jack Shandley, a senior vice president for JBS U.S.A., said in an e-
mail message that “integrating persons of diverse backgrounds
regularly presents new and different issues.”
“Religious accommodation is only one workplace diversity issue that
has been addressed,” Mr. Shandley said.
Nationwide, employment discrimination complaints by Muslim workers
have more than doubled in the past decade, to 607 in the 2007 fiscal
year, from 285 in the 1998 fiscal year, according to the federal Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission, which has sent representatives to
Grand Island to interview Somali workers.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids employers to discriminate based
on religion and says that employers must “reasonably accommodate”
religious practices. But the act offers some exceptions, including
instances when adjustments would cause “undue hardship” on the
company’s business interests.
The new tensions here extend well beyond the walls of the plant.
Scratch beneath Grand Island’s surface and there is resentment,
discomfort and mistrust everywhere, some residents say — between the
white community and the various immigrant communities; between the
older immigrant communities, like the Latinos, and the newer ones,
namely the Somalis and the Sudanese, another refugee community that
has grown here in recent years; and between the Somalis, who are
largely Muslim, and the Sudanese, who are largely Christian.
In dozens of interviews here, white, Latino and other residents seemed
mostly bewildered, if not downright suspicious, of the Somalis, very
few of whom speak English.
“I kind of admire all the effort they make to follow that religion,
but sometimes you have to adapt to the workplace,” said Fidencio
Sandoval, a plant worker born in Mexico who has become an American
citizen. “A new culture comes in with their demands and says, ‘This is
what we want.’ This is kind of new for me.”
Ms. Hornady, the mayor, suggested somewhat apologetically that she had
been having difficulty adjusting to the presence of Somalis. She said
she found the sight of Somali women, many of whom wear Muslim
headdresses, or hijabs, “startling.”
“I’m sorry, but after 9/11, it gives some of us a turn,” she said.
Not only do the hijabs suggest female subjugation, Ms. Hornady said,
but the sight of Muslims in town made her think of Osama bin Laden and
the attacks on the United States.
“I know that that’s horrible and that’s prejudice,” she said. “I’m
working very hard on it.”
She added, “Aren’t a lot of thoughtful Americans struggling with
this?”
For their part, the Somalis say they feel aggrieved and not
particularly welcome.
“A lot of people look at you weird — they judge you,” said Abdisamad
Jama, 22, a Somali who moved to Grand Island two years ago to work as
an interpreter at the plant and now freelances. “Or sometimes they
will say, ‘Go back to your country.’ ”
Founded in the mid-19th century by German immigrants, Grand Island
gradually became more diverse in the mid- and late-20th century with
the arrival of Latino workers, mainly Mexicans.
The Latinos came at first to work in the agricultural fields; later
arrivals found employment in the meatpacking plant. Refugees from Laos
and, in the past few years, Sudan followed, and many of them also
found work in the plant, which is now the city’s largest employer,
with about 2,700 workers.
In December 2006, in an event that would deeply affect the city and
alter its uneasy balance of ethnicities, immigration authorities
raided the plant and took away more than 200 illegal Latino workers.
Another 200 or so workers quit soon afterward.
The raid was one of six sweeps by federal agents at plants owned by
Swift, gutting the company of about 1,200 workers in one day and
forcing the plants to slow their operations.
Many of the Somalis who eventually arrived to fill those jobs were
practicing Muslims and their faith obliges them to pray at five fixed
times every day. In Grand Island, the workers would grab prayer time
whenever they could, during scheduled rest periods or on restroom
breaks. But during the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims fast in daylight
hours and break their fast in a ritualistic ceremony at sundown. A
more formal accommodation of their needs was necessary, the Somali
workers said.
Last year, the Somalis here demanded time off for the Ramadan
ceremony. The company refused, saying it could not afford to let so
many workers step away from the production line at one time. Dozens of
Somalis quit, though they eventually returned to work.
The situation repeated itself last month. Dennis Sydow, the plant’s
vice president and general manager, said a delegation of Somali
workers approached him on Sept. 10 about allowing them to take their
dinner break at 7:30 p.m., near sundown, rather than at the normal
time of 8 to 8:30.
Mr. Sydow rejected the request, saying the production line would slow
to a crawl and the Somalis’ co-workers would unfairly have to take up
the slack.
The Somalis said their co-workers did not offer a lot of support.
“Latinos were sometimes saying, ‘Don’t pray, don’t pray,’ ” said
Abdifatah Warsame, 21.
After the Somalis went out on strike on Sept. 15, the plant’s
management and the union brokered a deal the next day that would have
shifted the dinner break to 7:45 p.m., close enough to sundown to
satisfy the Somalis. Because of the plant’s complex scheduling rules,
the new dinner break would have also required an earlier end to the
shift, potentially cutting the work day by 15 minutes.
Word of the accord spread quickly throughout the non-Somali work
force, though the reports were infected with false rumors of pay
raises for the Somalis and more severe cuts in the work day for
everyone.
In a counterprotest on Sept. 17, more than 1,000 Latino and Sudanese
workers lined up alongside white workers in opposition to the
concessions to the Somalis.
“We had complaints from the whites, Hispanics and Sudanese,” said
Abdalla Omar, 26, one of the Somali strikers.
The union and the plant management backed down, reverting to the
original dinner schedule. More than 70 Somalis, including Mr. Omar and
Mr. Warsame, stormed out of the plant and did not return; they either
quit or were fired.
Since then, Ramadan has ended and work has returned to normal at the
plant, but most everyone — management, the union and the employees —
says the root causes of the disturbances have not been fully
addressed. A sizeable Somali contingent remains employed at the
factory — Somali leaders say the number is about 100; the union puts
the figure at more than 300, making similar disruptions possible next
year.
“Right now, this is a real kindling box,” said Daniel O. Hoppes,
president of the local chapter of the union, the United Food and
Commercial Workers.
repo
>
You continue to post about things you know nothing about
"simple.language" and ilk are racist, neo-Nazis, bigots, here's
who they are:
Brigitte Gabriel/Simple_Language: Blacks and I.Q
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/cf1d8eb3482bfdc5
Brigitte Gabriel founder of the following orgs, Brigitte “fights’
Islam,
(Brig Gabriel also fights Latinos/Amerindians
Without knowing the American SW, she is a product of Lebanon; smacks
Of racism, the organizations she runs will be deemed “Hate
organizations”.
http://www.americancongressfortruth.com/mission-vision.asp
http://www.actforamerica.org/index.php/learn/frequently-asked-questions
Brigitte use words like “Wetbacks, Hispanics/Latinos need
a higher I.Q genes”. Sounds like a racist and hate organization.
Simple_language.ya...@gmail.com (a Neo-Nazi or similar)
Simple_language: “Hispanics need high I.Q genes””
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.immigration/msg/1f4916e8f...
Simple_language uses neo-Nazi or similar, Richard Lynn,"Eugenics”
who is anti-Non White
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.immigration/msg/7307189f9...
Simple_language’s answer to being anti-Hispanic/Latino (Lets
See what excuse the neo-Nazi has for being anti Spanish/Portuguese)
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/febc439cf580698f
sirwhow...@gmail.com, Says, “You must be confusing Wetbacks with
arslifters”
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/8b8356bd88901086
Lee
"repo" <kcaj...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:b5a9e662-b9f2-4ae6...@r37g2000prr.googlegroups.com...
On Oct 16, 4:38 am, simple.language.ya...@gmail.com wrote:
>
You continue to post about things you know nothing about
"simple.language" and ilk are racist, neo-Nazis, bigots, here's
who they are:
They Islamic race on the whole do get a lot of stick for some reason.
repo
>
These posters and company they represent are anti-Latino/Hispanic/
Amerindian/Spanish/Portueguese, they are trying to smear
Latinos.
Their "subject" line says All Latinos "dislike
for other immigrants". Who are the posters?
Brigitte Gabriel/Simple_Language: Trying to explain away why they
believe Blacks and others have certain I.Qs.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/cf1d8eb3482bfdc5
Brigitte Gabriel is founder of organizations supposedly “fights’
Islam,
Brigitte Gabriel and members of her organizations, also
are anti-Latinos/Amerindians; Gabriel and with the help of her ilk
are on their way to become one of the “Hate” organizations,
which not many normal folks want to join.
Brigitte is surrounded by those who use words like “Wetbacks,
Hispanics/Latinos need
a higher I.Q genes”. Sounds like Brigitte is running a racist hate
organization.
Simple_lan...@gmail.com (a Neo-Nazi or similar)
Simple_language: “Hispanics/Latinos/Amerindians need high I.Q genes””
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.immigration/msg/1f4916e8fa98cc0e
Simple_language uses neo-Nazi or similar, Richard Lynn,"Eugenics”
who is anti-Non White
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.immigration/msg/7307189f928d3039
Simple_language’s answer to being anti-Hispanic/Latino (Lets
See what excuse the neo-Nazi has for being anti Spanish/Portuguese)
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/febc439cf580698f
sirwh...@gmail.com, Says, “You must be confusing Wetbacks with
arslifters”
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/8b8356bd88901086
repo
> "repo" <kcajye...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
The subject line is a Lie about "US Latinos"; those that
work at the plant do not represent "US Latinos". Brigitt Gabriel
and Company continue to try and smear Latinos.
Here is how Gabriel and Company are
On Oct 16, 4:38 am, simple.language.ya...@gmail.com wrote:
These posters and company they represent are anti-Latino/Hispanic/
Amerindian/Spanish/Portueguese, they are trying to smear
Latinos.
Their "subject" line says All Latinos "dislike
for other immigrants". Who are the posters?
Brigitte Gabriel/Simple_Language: Trying to explain away why they
believe Blacks and others have certain I.Qs.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/cf1d8eb3482bfdc5
Brigitte Gabriel is founder of organizations supposedly “fights’
Islam,
Brigitte Gabriel and members of her organizations, also
are anti-Latinos/Amerindians; Gabriel and with the help of her ilk
are on their way to become one of the “Hate” organizations,
which not many normal folks want to join.
Brigitte is surrounded by those who use words like “Wetbacks,
Hispanics/Latinos need
a higher I.Q genes”. Sounds like Brigitte is running a racist hate
organization.
Simple_language.ya...@gmail.com (a Neo-Nazi or similar)
Simple_language: “Hispanics/Latinos/Amerindians need high I.Q genes””
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.immigration/msg/1f4916e8f...
Simple_language uses neo-Nazi or similar, Richard Lynn,"Eugenics”
who is anti-Non White
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.immigration/msg/7307189f9...
Simple_language’s answer to being anti-Hispanic/Latino (Lets
See what excuse the neo-Nazi has for being anti Spanish/Portuguese)
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/febc439cf580698f
sirwhow...@gmail.com, Says, “You must be confusing Wetbacks with
arslifters”
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/8b8356bd88901086
These posters and company they represent are anti-Latino/Hispanic/
Amerindian/Spanish/Portueguese, they are trying to smear
Latinos.
Their "subject" line says All Latinos "dislike
for other immigrants". Who are the posters?
Brigitte Gabriel/Simple_Language: Trying to explain away why they
believe Blacks and others have certain I.Qs.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/cf1d8eb3482bfdc5
Brigitte Gabriel is founder of organizations supposedly “fights’
Islam,
Brigitte Gabriel and members of her organizations, also
are anti-Latinos/Amerindians; Gabriel and with the help of her ilk
are on their way to become one of the “Hate” organizations,
which not many normal folks want to join.
Brigitte is surrounded by those who use words like “Wetbacks,
Hispanics/Latinos need
a higher I.Q genes”. Sounds like Brigitte is running a racist hate
organization.
Simple_language.ya...@gmail.com (a Neo-Nazi or similar)
Simple_language: “Hispanics/Latinos/Amerindians need high I.Q genes””
repo
>
The subject line is a Lie about "US Latinos"; those that
work at the plant do not represent "US Latinos". Brigitt Gabriel
and Company continue to try and smear Latinos.
Here is how Gabriel and Company are
On Oct 16, 4:38 am, simple.language.ya...@gmail.com wrote:
These posters and company they represent are anti-Latino/Hispanic/
Amerindian/Spanish/Portueguese, they are trying to smear
Latinos.
Their "subject" line says All Latinos "dislike
for other immigrants". Who are the posters?
Brigitte Gabriel/Simple_Language: Trying to explain away why they
believe Blacks and others have certain I.Qs.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/cf1d8eb3482bfdc5
Brigitte Gabriel is founder of organizations supposedly “fights’
Islam,
Brigitte Gabriel and members of her organizations, also
are anti-Latinos/Amerindians; Gabriel and with the help of her ilk
are on their way to become one of the “Hate” organizations,
which not many normal folks want to join.
Brigitte is surrounded by those who use words like “Wetbacks,
Hispanics/Latinos need
a higher I.Q genes”. Sounds like Brigitte is running a racist hate
organization.
Simple_language.ya...@gmail.com (a Neo-Nazi or similar)
Simple_language: “Hispanics/Latinos/Amerindians need high I.Q genes””
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.immigration/msg/1f4916e8f...
Simple_language uses neo-Nazi or similar, Richard Lynn,"Eugenics”
who is anti-Non White
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.immigration/msg/7307189f9...
Simple_language’s answer to being anti-Hispanic/Latino (Lets
See what excuse the neo-Nazi has for being anti Spanish/Portuguese)
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/febc439cf580698f
sirwhow...@gmail.com, Says, “You must be confusing Wetbacks with
arslifters”
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/8b8356bd88901086
These posters and company they represent are anti-Latino/Hispanic/
Amerindian/Spanish/Portueguese, they are trying to smear
Latinos.
Their "subject" line says All Latinos "dislike
for other immigrants". Who are the posters?
Brigitte Gabriel/Simple_Language: Trying to explain away why they
believe Blacks and others have certain I.Qs.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/cf1d8eb3482bfdc5
Brigitte Gabriel is founder of organizations supposedly “fights’
Islam,
Brigitte Gabriel and members of her organizations, also
are anti-Latinos/Amerindians; Gabriel and with the help of her ilk
are on their way to become one of the “Hate” organizations,
which not many normal folks want to join.
Brigitte is surrounded by those who use words like “Wetbacks,
Hispanics/Latinos need
a higher I.Q genes”. Sounds like Brigitte is running a racist hate
organization.
Simple_language.ya...@gmail.com (a Neo-Nazi or similar)
Simple_language: “Hispanics/Latinos/Amerindians need high I.Q genes””
jimj1...@yahoo.com
repo
>
The poster "simple.language.yahoo" is attempting to smear
"Hispanics/Latinos/Amerindians" and others.
Brigitte Gabriel/Simple_Language: Trying to explain away why they
believe Blacks and others have certain I.Qs.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/cf1d8eb3482bfdc5
Brigitte Gabriel is founder of organizations supposedly “fights’
Islam,
Brigitte Gabriel and members of her organizations, also
are anti-Latinos/Amerindians; Gabriel and with the help of her ilk
are on their way to become one of the “Hate” organizations,
which not many normal folks want to join.
Brigitte is surrounded by those who use words like “Wetbacks,
Hispanics/Latinos need
a higher I.Q genes”. Sounds like Brigitte is running a racist hate
organization.
Simple_lan...@gmail.com (a Neo-Nazi or similar)
Simple_language: “Hispanics/Latinos/Amerindians need high I.Q genes””
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.immigration/msg/1f4916e8fa98cc0e
Simple_language uses neo-Nazi or similar, Richard Lynn,"Eugenics”
who is anti-Non White
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.immigration/msg/7307189f928d3039
Simple_language’s answer to being anti-Hispanic/Latino (Lets
See what excuse the neo-Nazi has for being anti Spanish/Portuguese)
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/febc439cf580698f
sirwh...@gmail.com, Says, “You must be confusing Wetbacks with
arslifters”
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics.usa/msg/8b8356bd88901086
repo
>
Brigitte Gabriel crew continue to smear Latinos/Amerindians,
Mediterraneans..
repo
the one who hates and dislikes.
hey hate Mediterraneans,
Obama is not a citizen
want to kill every non muslim.