And THIS Is The Guy Who's Probably Going To Be The Candidate

[filkertom]

Yesterday, Mittens was asked about immigration reform. Among the things he said:

"You don't have a way of telling, if someone comes and they speak with an accent do you say, well, are you here legally or illegally?"

Somehow, I bet he doesn't wonder if someone's here illegally if they have a Boston accent. Or a Brooklyn accent. Or an Italian accent. Or a Texas accent. Or a Georgian, German, Scandinavian, Carolinian, British, French, Russian, or possibly even Asian accent.

Certainly not a Michigan accent.

As entlord put it in the comments, "He is referring to those accents which have a great deal of melanin."

I really don't understand how anyone can think like this, or say things like this -- "Hmmm, an accent, I wonder if he's here illegally?" -- without being instantly called on it and dressed down. Let alone how a major party candidate for the Presidency of the United States can do it.

And, on one level, I hope I never do.

Comments

[niqaeli]

I am now wondering if he'd make assumptions about the legality of someone speaking with a Castellano Spanish accent or a Portuguese-by-way-of-Portugal accent. Because plenty of people from south of the US border have about as much melanin, actually, as the European settlers/invaders that brought their languages, the genetic after-effects of said settlement/invasion being what they are. (Especially considering that Portugal and Spain had some conquering done to them as well that left marks on their populations' melanin content.)

I can't honestly decide whether I think it likelier that he (and his ilk) would or would not assume illegality. But it's a depressing question to contemplate whatever answer you come up with, actually.

[filkertom]

To me, it's the same as the "intellectual" exercises where you're asked if you'd stop to help someone you knew to be of a different religion or political position than you -- that is, Who The Hell Thinks Of Stuff Like That At A Time Like This? If you see someone who needs help, you help. If you meet someone and they speak with an accent, what kind of headspace do you have to have to wonder right away if they're here illegally?

[niqaeli]

A deeply privileged, racist, lacking in all decency mindset. I might've been unclear because it's horrifying no matter what; the morbid question occurred to me whether European-mainlanders that speak 'suspicious' languages are getting the same treatment from these jackasses. To which the answer is, it's racist jackassery all around no matter what.

And how the hell a potential presidential candidate can speak like this in public is beyond me. I thought we were in the 21st century.

[eftychia]

Considering the high percentage of people with marked not-from-here accents I encounter whom I know to be here legally (student visa, H1B visa, or whom I just happen to know are naturalized or working on it) or have good reason to expect to be here legally (long established in high-status career requiring professional certification and licensing) ... "is this person here illegally?" is not a question that automatically springs to mind when I hear such an accent. Does Mittens not know any immigrant doctors, professors, etc., or is there an unspoken "and they're not obviously middle-class or higher" or "and they're not GOP voters" hidden under what he said? (And even there, a lot of the "don't think they're from around here" people I meet have professional licenses of some sort -- those could be obtained fraudulently, I suppose, but that's not the first thing I think when I meet them ... or the second, third, etc.)

I'm guessing the mindset in question, as niqaeli suggests, hinges on a certain level of privilege (of an interesting type -- never interacting with "those people" firsthand) combined with racism. It requires not just an inkling of how many people are here illegally, but a carefully maintained ignorance of how many immigrants, visitors, and here-for-a-few-years people are here legally.

The xenophobia, it boggles.