[lg policy] Florida: Senator tries to turn prejudice into policy

[Harold Schiffman]

Senator tries to turn prejudice into policy

By Fabiola Santiago
fsantiago at MiamiHerald.com

Ignorance and prejudice are first cousins.

And here they dwell in perfect union on the lips of one of our state’s
elected officials, Republican Sen. Alan Hays from the Central Florida
town of Umatilla: “We all know there are many Hispanic-speaking people
in Florida that are not legal.”

Oh, senator, the language you’re referencing is Spanish, the one in
which your home state was named way back in the 1500s.

Hispanic is an ethnic designation, an umbrella term created by the
U.S. government to refer to people who come from Spanish-speaking
countries, or people born in the United States who claim that
heritage.

And while we’re at the point of basic lessons, let me just fix that
sentence for you. The correct use of the English language to deliver
your poison would be: “We all know there are many Spanish-speaking
people in Florida who are not documented.” The term “legal” refers to
actions or objects, like drugs and guns, not people. Cocaine is
illegal. José, the landscaper, is undocumented.

But let’s move on to history and demographics.

The senator was speaking to the Senate committee reviewing
congressional redistricting plans in Florida, where the population
grew by 18 percent during the last 10 years, according to the 2010
Census. Legislative and congressional districts are being redrawn in
Tallahassee to account for the growth. Redistricting is supposed to
ensure that states have a fair number of representatives in
Washington, D.C., and two new congressional districts are up for
grabs.

Alluding to two central Florida districts where the population growth
is largely due to a greater Hispanic presence, Hays added another gem
of a statement: “And I just don’t think it’s right that we try to draw
a district that encompasses people that really have no business voting
anyhow.”

I’m not going to fix your grammar again, senator, but more
importantly, know this: Those people who in your view have no business
voting are U.S. citizens.

Puerto Ricans, who make up the majority of Hispanics in Central
Florida, are Americans, not naturalized Americans, simply Americans by
birth, just like you, senator (I think. I haven’t checked your lineage
or your papers). They have the same paperwork as any American, a birth
certificate that says they were born in a U.S. territory.

Some have cast the senator’s words and the ensuing outrage by members
of the Legislature’s Hispanic caucus as a rekindling of the debate
over illegal immigration. But that’s hardly the case here.

Redistricting in Florida should not become a referendum on immigration
and the hearings shouldn’t be focused on immigration policy. But when
goodies like political or economic power are on the table, people will
resort to whatever tactic gets the job done to their benefit, and what
would be viewed as racism if it were applied to any other group
becomes a matter of immigration policy for legislators who suffer from
Hispanic panic. Not a good disease to develop in La Florida, by the
way.

And don’t think South Florida is immune.

If you were part of the redistricting hearing held in Miami in August,
you heard the man who used up all his time before the visiting
committee to complain about people around him speaking Spanish when he
had learned Portuguese when he moved to Brazil and lived there for
four years. And blah, blah, blah…. As is now the case with Hays, this
was an attempt to confuse, divide and turn an information-gathering
meeting into a hate party by tapping into those first cousins,
ignorance and prejudice.

That’s why people like Alan Hays are dangerous.

They add fuel to the worst feelings in people.

They give policy stature to prejudice.

They don’t care if their misinformed rhetoric divides us as Americans
as long as they retain supremacy in areas they really care about: real
estate, power, and politics.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/21/2465773/senator-tries-to-turn-prejudice.html#ixzz1bWPeGg00


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