NYT: The Latino South: In Georgia, Immigrants Unsettle Old Sense of Place

[DeepModem Mom]

The Latino South
In Georgia, Immigrants Unsettle Old Sense of Place
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
Published: August 4, 2006

....Today, hundreds of Mexican immigrants, both illegal and legal, work in factories, fields and stores; study in public schools; and live in neighborhoods that were once mostly white or black. This year, as many longtime residents anguished over the metamorphosis of their town, Serafico Jaimes opened a Spanish-language video store right off Main Street and proudly hung a Mexican flag alongside his American flag in the storefront window.

“This is our town now, too,” Mr. Jaimes said.

His town sits in Atkinson County, Ga., population 8,030 and a cauldron of demographic change. Over the past decade, hundreds of thousands of immigrants, mostly from Mexico, have poured into the South, bypassing traditional settlement states like New York, California and Florida in favor of far-flung towns with thriving industries.

The surge of newcomers has helped drive the fierce debate in Congress over immigration as well as the budding activism that burst into view this spring when millions of people took to the streets to demand rights for immigrants.

The simmering tensions between Americans and new arrivals have played out here, too, far from the national spotlight. A visit to Atkinson County offers an intimate glimpse at how immigration is rapidly transforming day-to-day life in some small Southern towns....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/us/04georgia.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all

[Blaze Diem]

1. Interesting article..A necessary read for this morning...

But a word of warning..yesterday I had posts deleted..why?..Well I'm not sure..Expressed my disgust at a racial related hate crime reported by another poster.
Someone didn't like my expression of disgust toward the reported criminal actions, said it was "flaming" apparently. Oddly, all my quotes were taken directly from the original post (which was taken directly from an editorial).

When I read about the crime committed and how it occurred, and read the racial slurs spoken before committing the murders, it sickened me to think we have gone backward so far. I wondered if Martin Luther King, & Robert Kennedy and those who put their lives on the line for some understanding of ethnic acceptance, and that in this America of ours we are NOT now nor have we ever been of only one race. That's the point of acceptance necessary to begin a somewhat peaceful coexistence.

Anyway..My posts were soon deleted, and the post locked, so there could be no further discussion nor enlightenment as to this touchy but REAL subject.
I don't get the reasoning, and I don't appreciate the poster who interrupted our discussion to bait and overreact to a conversation about a subject that shouldn't be hidden, because of its violent nature.

I'm not sure why the thing was shut down, perhaps a complaint by this narrow minded poster? I don't know. I requested an answer from the mods, but have not heard from them yet.
The problems with racial issues in America exist, and unfortunately don't always shed a warm and cozy light on certain people and behaviors. Regardless of what race they may be..
I would like to think, here on DU, we can question without fear of being bullied into "saying only favorable things" about an unfavorable topic.

Sucks!

Anyway I do appreciate this article..Will be interesting to watch this Nation evolve.
Thanks