Imigration

[Thorne]

It's a catch-22; fix one side or the other.

Silly me! I thought that's what the LAW was for!

Might they be living in fear of being deported?

Only if they are here ILLEGALLY!

You're causing your own problem here. If they were allowed to stay, they'd have no reason to hide, no reason to lie.

If they were LEGAL immigrants, they would be allowed to stay.

If I was a business person, why on earth would I do this? Why would I prevent people with dollars from spending their money in my store?

Why do you assume he was preventing anyone from shopping at his store? The only thing that sign says is that no on there speaks Spanish.

You say that like it's a bad thing, as if there's something wrong with Hispanic people. Or rather that they're fine, so long as they're not in his neighborhood.

Again, you're assuming a bias that is not evident. The neighborhood was becoming increasingly Hispanic, but no one in the store spoke any Spanish. He was simply informing his customers of that problem, not denying them goods or services.

They should have let him keep it up- the loss of business he received would have spoken for itself. Apparently dollars from people who speak Spanish are not good enough for him.

Still assuming his aim was to keep the Spanish speakers out. But even if it were so, if it is a privately owned business, shouldn't that be his choice?

Oh no, the Spanish is going to get me! Help! Something different from me, ack, get it off, get it off!

These reflexive assumptions of fear and hatred are becoming annoying. Stop putting words into my mouth, please. While it is possible that there was some intolerance going on in the man's mind, there's no proof of it. Why you insist on assuming it is beyond me.

The law says that a business cannot refuse service or goods to people because of the race, creed or color. It's a good law, one I support whole-heartedly. Informing people of a largely-Spanish speaking neighborhood that he doesn't speak Spanish does not violate that law. The same would apply if the neighborhood were largely Hungarian, or Swedish, or any other group. Placing signs in your store in the language of the neighborhood is obviously good business. But as far as I know it is not illegal NOT to place such signs. Nor should it be. As you said, if the locals don't feel welcome, it's the business owner who will suffer. That's his problem, not the government's.

Well that was obvious. It might do you better to think of them as "Hispanic people", though, not "Hispanics." Just a suggestion.

I don't care WHAT you want to call them. Hispanics is simply a convenient term I'm using for clarity. It has no discriminatory connotations that I know of.

And what if Spanish was the only language you knew? What if learning English was hard for you? And some kind soul thought to put up signs in your language, so you could know where the bathroom was? How is this a bad situation?

I would be grateful, naturally. But I wouldn't consider it discrimination if he did NOT put up such signs. I would, however, make damned sure I learned enough English to be able find the bathrooms, regardless of how difficult it was.

Which is why we're trying to change the laws, for the better, not for worse, like this Arizona thing. That's why we're not standing for it; because it's wrong and can't be left to stand.

As far as I can determine, this law only gives officials the ability to enforce EXISTING Federal statutes, which the Federal government has NOT been doing. As for whether the laws are bad, I still think that's a matter of opinion.

Oh, and one more thing. Just because I assume the role of Devil's Advocate, don't make the assumption that I'm the Devil himself. I'm not nearly that hot!

[DuncanONeil]

In response to Jennifer.
So the fact that there was a sign is somehow proof that the person is opposed to Hispanics?
At least people that come into the store will not try to conduct business in Spanish! What does it say that my closest chain supermarket has made it impossible for me to conduct business with the person employed behind the meat counter. I was incapable of ordering a specific cut of meat cut to my specification since the person behind the counter could not understand; "I'd like two pounds of sirloin cut in 1/4" slices." It took nearly three minutes just to get any kind of communication across and although I did get my meat, since I was able to point, I do not believe I was well served. This is just wrong. Add to that I have not one clue before actual contact that there would be any difficulty!
Hey? Does that mean that this meat cutting job was an illegal job?