"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power"- 2 Timothy 1:7

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

An Illegal Immigrant Called My Daughter a Nigger

So yesterday I took my oldest daughter to the Dr.s office in order to get her immunizations up to date and while we were in the waiting area there were about 3 Hispanic families and 1 African American family in the waiting area with us. One of the Hispanic families had 3 kids, one of which was about 20 to 22 months of age. She was playing with my youngest daughter who is about 16 months of age. The two of them were having a good time playing together when the other girl's father called her to him. He said something in her ear and her eyes perked up. It was at that time that the office assistant behind the window called me to the front desk so i left my youngest daughter sitting between my oldest daughter and my youngest son in a chair. When I went to the window I heard my son yell "MOM THAT BABY JUST CAME OVER HERE AND HIT BUTTONS (that is what he calls the baby) AND YELLED 'POPI' LIKE HER IS CRAZY OR SOMETHING!" When I looked around I saw that he was talking about the very same baby that she was playing with. I thought kids will be kids and maybe she was just excited. My baby was not crying so I put it out of my mind. When I went to sit down I saw her father picking up his Mexican Matricula card off of the floor. For those of you that are not familiar with the Mexican Matricula card it is a type of ID that illegal Mexican immigrants can receive from the Mexican Consulate in Texas in order to be able to cash checks they receive from jobs, to enroll their children in school, to receive food stamps and Medicaid for their legally born children, etc. The fact that a person would be carrying one of those cards means that they are illegal because otherwise they would use their passport or their state ID instead. So anyways, I go back to sit down and then this child comes back to where we were sitting and points to Buttons and says " Myette" (I really don't know how to spell it). I already know that myette is spanish for nigger. I thought to myself that I must be trippin' this baby can hardly speak, there is no way that she said what I thought she said. She ran back over to her dad and then I see him talking to her in her ear again and pointing to my baby. She then comes back and says it again. "myette" and then she hits my baby again. The other Hispanic families heard what this baby had said but tried to look in the other direction like it didn't happen. The first thing that I did was tell the father " I know she didn't just say what I think she said to my baby!" he then goes on to tell me "No habla english" but all the while looking like he was pleased with his child did. I turned to the baby and said to her "No! Ella no es un myette." When he heard me address his child, he then tried to act like he was upset.Then I told him, loud enough for the other's to hear " I understand spanish and I know you understand me and what I want to know is how in the hell can an illegal who claims that he don't even speak English have the nerves to have his small child call another baby a nigger in spanish! My daughter has the right to go anywhere she pleases without being insulted by criminals." Then one of the other Hispanic families says "How do you know he is illegal. Just because he is hispanic don't mean he's illegal and it doesn't mean he is a criminal." I couldn't believe this crap. They sat there and looked away when this man is instructing his baby to hit my baby and call her a nigger but they decide to speak up because I called his illegal immigrant status criminal. I then said to her, " I know what a Matricula card looks like and I know who goes to get them, illegal immigrants, that's who. I never said that all hispanics are illegal but the fact that he has a matricula card says that he is illegal and the word illegal means aganist or outside a criminal law. If a person is aginst or outside a criminal law, that person is in fact a criminal. I should call the police on him for instructing his child to assault my baby."  Once I said this, the illegal decides to take his kids and leave. The fact that he left after I said that told me that he understood every word I said and knew he was wrong. I am also upset with the staff at the clinic because they all understand and speak spanish really well and also just sat there and watched what was going down without intervening. They could have and should have asked the man to leave out of common sense. I have been using that clinic and that particular doctor for 13 years now and I am seriously thinking about changing clinics. Once we leave the office, I'm thinking to myself, what do I tell my kids, especially my son, about what just happened? Did I handle the situation well? and What Could I have done better/differently?  Please leave a message and tell me your point of view.

3 comments:

  1. Thought provoking blog. I would only suggest that just because someone is an illegal immigrant doesn't necessarily make them a 'criminal'. In the eyes of the law, maybe but there's many stories and many false claims made and many who have no choice and until the story is clear. It's not for us to judge just because someone has a 'mark' left by someone who claims 'illegal'. Always see the whole story. Otherwise, It's seems impossible but I know isn't that someone feeds a child thoughts that can only damage. That's what was criminal but strangely isn't, that we can allow adults to instill false message onto their own children and feed insidious hatred when it's far from what the world needs. I would only have suggested that you focussed on what you knew to be wrong rather than what you thought might be. I do that myself, but it's an over emotional response to something you have to deal with. Bless.

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  2. @ Mr. Haslam: I am confused by your comment because here in Texas, the only ppl that are allowed to get a Matriculate card from the Mexico Consulate are illegal immigrants from Mexico, that is a fact. It is also a fact that the Mexico Consulate is the only country that provides this type of service to the illegal ppl from their country in Texas. I don't know what you meant by "someone has a 'mark' left by someone who claims 'illegal'" What do you mean by mark? I am a little bit confused.

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  3. As an amendment to the post above, a friend of my oldest son (who is from Mexico), told me that the word Myette does not exist in American Spanish so unless the clinic nurses spoke Mexican Spanish they would not know what it meant. I felt better about the situation then, regarding the nurses. I also learned something new because I didn't know that there was a difference in dialect between Mexican and Texas Spanish because we are literally next door. Some places you can actually stand with one foot in Mexico and one foot in Texas.

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