Assimilation & Crime

Nativists whining about immigrants who don't "assimilate" might want to read Column One in today's L. A. Times, where we see that Spanish-surnamed council members in Southern California cities & towns that are almost entirely Hispanic, Latino or Spanish-surnamed, whatever you want to call it, are fitting in to America's horrid mainstream culture just fine, thank you. And it doesn't hurt assimilation if America's mainstream chain entities reach out a little bit. Naturally people aren't going to assimilate if they don't think they're welcome at such "nice places."

"We want what Middle America has as well," said the second-generation Mexican American, recounting the meeting. "We like to go to nice places like Claim Jumpers, Chili's and Applebee's. . . . We don't want the fly-by-night business, the 'amigo store,' which they use to attract Latinos like myself." [...] Anthony Bejarano, a Baldwin Park councilman and graduate of Georgetown University law school, is a fourth-generation Mexican American who says he speaks "very little Spanish." He said that the proliferation of what the mayor calls "amigo stores" forces him to go to other cities to shop. "I love to go to traditional Mexican restaurants. I shop at Vallarta [supermarket], but I can't get everything I need," he said. "At the end of the day, it's all Mexican restaurants here. When we want Italian, when we want sushi, where do we go? If I want a pair of Kenneth Coles, I have to go to Arcadia."

Yeah, everything Pat Buchanan says is absolutely true: The Meskins all want to live in enclaves eating tortillas until they suddenly emerge to take America back from the Anglos who stole it from them right after they stole it from the First Americans. And we certainly sympathize w/ those poor souls who have to go all the way to Arcadia to get some Kenneth Coles. Corporate America is following the money, of course, which is how everyone gets assimilated.

The response by many retailers was often "This is not our customer," said Luis Valenzuela, executive vice president for NAI Capital, a commercial real estate brokerage firm. "The difference now is that corporate America has realized there's tremendous buying power in these communities." [...] And after the Starbucks opened in South Gate, it became one of the chain's leading seller of Frappuccinos, Valenzuela said. "You had some mainstream stores who really took a risk, for the first time really going into a predominantly Spanish-speaking area," Valenzuela said. "After that, you really saw Ross, Marshall, Applebee's, Chili's and a lot of those businesses in Latino areas," he said.

By the way, if any of our readers have ever set foot in a Claim Jumper, Chili's, Applebee's, Olive Garden or the like, let alone eaten in one, you are cordially invited to fuck off & die, & never to darken our web log again. Moving on to crime, the racist crowd, if they weren't pathetic losers looking to blame their misfortunes on someone else, might be informed by the Times story indicating that it isn't genetics but lead poisoning that makes inner city/urban people a little more criminal than white suburbanites. Especially when combined w/ whatever social pathologies exist in those inner cities.

About 38 million U.S. homes, 40% of the nation's housing, still contain lead-based paint, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The problem is particularly acute in urban areas, which typically have older housing that has not been renovated.

Remember the Roman Empire, whose decline & fall has been attributed to the use of lead pipes in plumbing.

Researchers have long known that lead exposure reduces IQ by damaging brain cells in children during their early years.It is also known that lead increases children's distractibility, impulsiveness and restlessness and shortens their attention span, all factors considered precursors of aggressive or violent behavior. [...] "The most important message is that lead affects brain volume, independent of demographic and social factors that are often used to explain away poor outcomes" in life, Cecil said. "This is independent biological evidence showing that the brain is affected by lead."

Two strikes & you're out. But let's keep thinking that colored folks are sub-human animals by nature, who can't ever be allowed into "decent" society. We anxiously await a Congressional initiative to strip & re-paint houses w/ lead paint. And as usual, we aren't holding our breath.