Well count me in for the fuckin idiocy because as a black hispanic here in america i kno its nothign but the truth that mexicans are doing jobs that black people "won't" do. they are shlepping garbage, scrubbing public toilets, and all the "dirty jobs" out in the back of restaurants and stuff like that that alot of unemployed black people wouldnt be caught dead doing. go to any restaurant row, and whether its a french, chinese, japanese, whatever resatuant, when you peek back into the kitchen, at least 75% of the staff is mexican. as harsh and stereotypical and probably annoying it was, the man had a point that can be proven on too many levels to be dismissed as idiotic.

we're fighitng for what seem as limited resources. However, statistically we're all in the same boat falling victims to the us vs. them mentality. So fine those girls didn't get jobs, can it be countered with the fact that Latinos have higher drop out rates than Blacks? What was really the point of running this story, to prove Fox was wrong, who thought he was right? He's a total rightwing nut that was not in touch with the Mexican people. No more us vs them stories please there is already enough hate out there.

If "they" read business owners want us to be bilingual then they should be willing to contribute the resources, mainly money to help Americans learn a second language.

Shay, I hate to get into the us versus them talk but there are plenty of Americans who will do those jobs. Who do you think did them before the large number of Hispanics/latinos entered the country. The only jobs that I know of black Americans turning down are nanny and wet nurse. One year in undergrad I tried to get a second job as a diswasher, I was turned away.

I place part of the blame on the shoulders of African-Americans in that we should have more of our own bussiness up and running. We have been free since 1865 so why do we own so few bussiness today?

If you live in socal you should speak spanish. that's always been a reality whether we like it or not. learn it and your career opps open up greatly. shit, if my mom can learn it…then so can others. i mean, either you want a job or not and if that's what is called for then just do it.

sorry…in a rather piss poor mood today.

"before the large number of Hispanics/latinos entered the country"

When was that? Anyone in the west or southwest has no idea what you are talking about. lol.

the positions themselves dont matter if you live in any major urban city you would see what i mean. its not even a matter of them vs us its the reality of the situation. like i said take a random sample, it would prove Fox right.

Well according to our last census Latinos now make up 15%(>AA) of our country. There are parts of the country that have had a large influx of Latinos in the last 5 years.

BMD do schools in the socal area teach Spanish for more than 2 years? do the inner city/ poor schools offer extensive langauage class for non native speakers?

Chic Noir - thanks for saying it! They do not teach more than remedial Spanish, yet massive resources are devoted to ESL.

In Los Angeles, I can tell you about multiple fast-food joints, mainstream McDonalds, Subway on Sunset Blvd and Caghuenga, where the majority of the workers do not even speak English. If you have a question beyond the basic "I'll have (menu item)", one more than one occasion, I have had to wait for a fellow worker to come and interpret the question/issue.

I think we are skirting around a major issue here and that’s the fact that we have people, whatever nationality, working at minimum wage jobs attempting to support families. Working at a fast-food joint, in my opinion is a getting-to job. A place to work to put change in your pocket, learn some responsibility, nothing more.

Another major issue that I see in Los Angeles, for non-degree required jobs beyond minimum wage and/or restaurant work, is that we simply have more workers and not enough jobs. And, when you have multiple people who have a similar skill set all vying for the same job – how do you make the decision? Some people hire their friends, friends of a friend, people who they think they can get along with the best, people who have similar extracurricular interests. So again, we are at the point of that age –old saying “It’s not what you know, but whom you know.”

Their parents should have considered the discrimination they'd run into with those names. Yes, I said it and you all know their resume goes in the "no" pile after they read the first line.

Both my friends from SoCal speak Spanish fluently but they also went to private school. Shoulda signed up for A Better Chance boo.

Thanks Qui

Well how else do they expect the students to learn Spanish? Learning a second language is not easy. Usually it takes someone a few years of intense study AND immersing ones self in a country where the language is spoken. One should also limit their contact with speakers of their native language so the can begin to “think” in the second language.

Daria, some people are not as fortunate as your friends are. Should the children be punished because their parents are not rich or lazy?

Furthermore, even if they had names like Kate Jones or William Wilson, when their black butts showed up for the interview, the interviewer could of make up his mind that he was not going to hire them because they are black.

I wonder how many "no" piles Condoleezza Rice's resume went into.

People keep forgetting that after the resume comes the interview. They will SEE that you are BLACK.

Oh one more thing, I have read that some people look at the addresses of applicants and try to figure out a perspective employee’s race. Therefore, Kate Wilson from Harlem need not apply.

Isn’t this the type of argument people make about black professionals having natural hair? :afro:

Like I said, more of us need our own businesses and then we would not need to run to others to hire us.

Chic Noir,

Yes! We need to own more businesses to hire our own and lend ourselves $. There have been successful black businesses or areas that were destroyed in the past by jealous whites and many black landowners sold their land and a huge discount during the migration to the north b/c of southern pressure.

While agree that there are some jobs the latinos will that americans won't do, I still have to agree that they are taking up the jobs that would usually be done by high school and college students. Whn I was in elementary school, my neighbor (in High School) used to mow lawns in the summer with his friends. Can't do that anymore. All these landscaping companies (who basically hire illegals) have made contracts with the subdivisions. Want to paint houses in the summer or help out with constructions??? Good luck with that too. All the fast food joints around my area are run by hispanics. And they only hire their fellow hispanics. I have no problem with them speaking their language here, but it's like they expect everyone else to learn it too. It's literally a "latin invasion." Every other immigrant group that comes to America attempts to learn and speak english, except for latinos.

Wow, Daria, it really does sound like you're blaming the kids for circumstances beyond their control. It seems a bit classist, but more importantly it doesn't really advance the discussion. Or, I should say that I was so distracted by the "Shoulda signed up for A Better Chance, boo," that I missed your otherwise interesting point that black kids need to learn Spanish. But that's really an issue, I'm sure, to take up with the school systems that devote little in the way of resources to ensure that they do. These days, it seems like if schools aren't invested in getting low-income kids into college, then they should at least consider Spanish as part of basic vocational training.

Learning a second language is a great thing, but often a luxury inner city kids can't afford. Secondly, there is no such thing as a job a black person won't do. My blood boils when I hear that, because the reality is that these jobs are only available to illegal aliens will work for next to nothing. The next time you peek into that resyurant kitchen and see a buncj of mexicans, realize they are probably being paid a few bucks an hour OFF the books. That's why they're there, and blacks aren't. Desperate illegal aliens who don't speak english are much easier to control.

As far as speaking spanish goes, why should I or any other american (black or white) be required to speak spanish in an ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY?? Every legal immigrant group in the history of this country has adapted to the mainstream culture and language within a generation, yet latinos seem to think we should adapt to their culture. I have lived in New York my entire life, and can go into areas/businesses where no one speaks english, yet they fucntion because of how easy we make it for them.

Vincente Fox, and the mexican government should be ashamed of itself, for not being able to adequately take care of it's people in the first place. Exporting poverty seems to be it's main market, but the downside for us is the inevitable clash between blacks and latinos.

The language we should all be learning is chinese.

Boo

"do schools in the socal area teach Spanish for more than 2 years"

I took Spanish for 4 years in high school and two in college. I also took 2 years of French (one in high school, one in college). In my high school german and latin and were all taught in addition to the normal languages…spanish, french, etc. I went to high school in Long Beach which is an urban city so I don't see how you can't learn it if it is something you want to do. I graduated high school in 1994 so it's not a new thing. My cousin took 4 years of french in high school then went on to minor in it in college. She went to Hamilton high school in West LA. My point in all this is that in LA (and that's all I can speak on) you can learn a second language in high school if you want to.

Here in SF high schools offer Chinese (obviously) and some offer italian. I've even heard that elementary schools offer Chinese.

solitair - you shouldn't be required to learn spanish. You should also not be required to take algebra, but we have to do that. I mean, I haven't used algebra, geometry or trig ever in my life, but you couldn't get out of high school w/o at least passing geometry. Between geometry and a second language which would serve most ppl better?

I wanted to add that I have several cousins still in high school and most of them don't want to work in places where most of the other employees are spanish speaking (read: Mexican) b/c of the racial/social issues btwn blacks and latinos in LA….it goes waaaaaaaaaaaay beyond speaking a second language.

"Every other immigrant group that comes to America attempts to learn and speak english, except for latinos."

Not fully true, Ike, in my experience the Chinese do not. Same with those from Vietnam, Laos, etc.

Adapt or die. Period. That goes for immigrants and it goes for us. I guess that's the bottom line for me.

I beg to differ blackmistressdiva. You mainly find that in places like Chinatown, Asian restaurants/food stores and Kim's Nail Salon (Lol).

But I do agree with your "adapt or die" statement. I'm just not going to contribute to the "advancement" of the spanish language. I'll get by with the "Spanglish" I already know. I'd rather learn Portuguese/Japanese/French.

I've never encountered an asian who didn't speak english in New York. If they don't, they either live exclusively in Chinatown, or are fresh off the boat. The young ones certainly don't waste time trying to adapt to the culture and learn the language.

I really can't believe some of the comments on this post. I realize this is a gossip site and not a progressive discussion site but damn. This is really fucking disappointing. How does this kind of discourse help to solve the problem of unemployment that black youth in California are facing? How do you expect anything to get better if you devote more of your energy toward divisiveness than actual problem solving? And the comment about these kids names was really off base. Why would you want to work for someone who's willing to discriminate against you for something as arbitrary as your name? Let alone adopt a "less threatening" anglo sounding name to present yourself as more "acceptable" in their eyes?

"Why would you want to work for someone who’s willing to discriminate against you for something as arbitrary as your name? Let alone adopt a “less threatening” anglo sounding name to present yourself as more “acceptable” in their eyes?"

I agree Ali!:)

Daria, I think you posted in another thread that you have a Nigerian name, were you or did you change it for a English name to get ahead? Futhermore, Maria Lopez is not an English name, should she change her name?

Us? We? Them?
This is a Spanish speaking continent, which is why people feel they can speak Spanish everywhere on it (by the way weren't many states and cities in the USA founded by Spanish speaking people?).

Language isn't race, Latinos/nas are of African, Asian, Indigeneous and European ancestry.

People in the US go ga-ga over French, yet, just like Spanish and English, it is only another colonizer's language.
Are we going to play a game of "my colonizer's language is better than yours"?

It's the way the cookie crumbles, you could all be speaking Dutch if the British hadn't come by your shores. Get over your English-selves.

Lastly, one doesn't need money to learn another language nor does one need to travel to another country.
I speak French and English as my first languages, Haitian Créole because my best friend and partner are Haitians, Spanish because well I could I not speak it on this continent?
I did not go to a private school and grew up working class, you don't need money to learn a language you just need friends.
I would like to speak the 4 major languages of the Americas.

msim- South America is a Spanish speaking continent.

North America is English and French speaking.

Believe in yourself,it is the only answer. stop thinking why it's not possible and become selfdependent