Thread: Woman's question about Dallas doesn't have a simple answer

Woman's question about Dallas doesn't have a simple answer

08:56 PM CDT on Monday, October 22, 2007
jfloyd@dallasnews.com

http://www.dallasnews.com

Somewhere in Chicago, a woman is trying to decide whether to move to Dallas.Her husband, a Ph.D., has an excellent job offer here. She's working on her own doctorate and plans to look for an academic post. They've driven around a little, and they like the looks of Lakewood, Lower Greenville and the M Streets.

There's one small, nagging worry in the back of her mind. Here and there, she has heard things about Dallas and its surrounding cities. She has read a few news stories.

So, earlier this month, concealed behind an anonymous user name, she posted her question to the "Dallas" forum on the popular Web site City-Data.com.

She asks – very politely – whether Dallas is racist.

"I've read that there is a significant anti-Mexican sentiment in the Dallas area and that people are not terribly shy about expressing it.

"Considering that I am Mexican, and I have a Mexican last name, you might understand why I'd be worried. ... What I really want to know is if there is a possibility that people will behave badly toward me? I'm up for the challenge. I just need to know what I'm getting myself into or if there's really nothing to be overly concerned about."

The replies she got – nearly 100 in all – don't add up to one single answer.

But they do paint a striking portrait-in-miniature of the tornadic debate taking place in our region. And they show, as plainly as any analysis I have seen, why this topic invariably spins from policy discussion to intractable emotional firestorm.

"You really aren't going to have a problem in Dallas," one reassuring poster replies. "There are racists everywhere," says another. "You really shouldn't have a problem."

Other respondents, however, aren't so sure.

"You may hear some things that you perceive as hostile," one writer candidly warns. "I see it as anti-illegal sentiment, since a lot of people equate Mexicans with illegal immigrants."

The introduction of the I-word – "immigrant" – electrifies the discussion. Suddenly, the responses become longer, more heated, more personal.

You'll probably be OK, one respondent tells her bluntly, since you're educated and speak excellent English, but "just be prepared to encounter hateful views directed towards Hispanics in general most places in Dallas."

That post provokes an angry chorus that the hostility is toward illegal (the word is frequently written in all caps) immigrants. Legal residents, they say, have nothing to be worried about.

And so the intractable teams square off: It's about racism, one side says, and all Hispanics are targets, regardless of their residency status.

It's about crime and economics, says the other. Legal residents of Hispanic descent, they argue, should be on the anti-illegal, "American" side of the debate.

It's the same gridlocked argument we hear in Farmers Branch, in Irving, in every community where people who used to be disinterested, if not close-knit, neighbors have begun drawing lines in the dirt.

"If you are moving to the area, find a neighborhood with enlightened people," wrote one poster, who describes himself as the son of European immigrants. "But don't think for one second that as you go about your day around town you won't be judged and looked at a certain way because of the way you look/sound/and your name."

"I will not apologize for the growing anger toward illegal Mexicans that cross the border," says another. "If they want to be Americans so badly, why is it that at all the rallies they carry the Mexican flag?"

Some of the posts are hard to read: They're ugly, cartoonish gibes that invoke broad stereotypes about lying Texas bigots or greedy freeloading aliens.

Is the debate meaner here than in other parts of the country? Are Texans with Hispanic surnames automatically collateral victims of anti-illegal-immigrant fury?

Judging from all those heated posts – some of which seemed to forget the original question in their rush to take up arms in the immigration-policy battle – opinions are all over the map.

The woman who apparently posed the original question, maybe bemused by the debate she unleashed, answers politely:

"It's very interesting to read all the posts here. They've been informative. I appreciate the honesty, but it's fairly obvious from some posts that the anti-Mexican attitude is couched in terms of immigration and culture.

"I'm not an immigrant. My family has been in this country since the 1920s. ... I guess I will most likely always be considered an illegal immigrant until proven otherwise."


I don't know whether this woman decided to move to Dallas. But if this discussion proves nothing else, it shows that many of us see this city with dramatically different eyes.
What would you tell her?

This whole scenario just doesn't feel right. I'd like for the author of the letter to come forward and authenticate it. There is a possibility it is offered just to fan the flames of racism.

I would have told her to stay where she is Dallas has enough problems and doest need a new want to be Latino Phd rocking the boat before they even move ...
America and its towns arent rasist
people are !!!

I guess I will most likely always be considered an illegal immigrant until proven otherwise."

Not!

Dallas is a terrible place to live. The politics and policies will give you a headache just thinking about it.

Dixie

"I'm not an immigrant. My family has been in this country since the 1920s. ... I guess I will most likely always be considered an illegal immigrant until proven otherwise."

Nouveauxpoor is right !!!

If you would like to read the answers the women received, please click me.

As a person who has lived in Texas nearly 40 years I actually see more racism coming from Mexicans then angelo's...or has been the case in my area especially the past 12 years. The reverse was true in the 50's and 60's, it's a strange world.