more equal rights stuff

[Haru to Ashura]

There are strong discrimination issues where I live....in my city (I live in Phoenix, Arizona.) You're essentially either legal or you're an immigrant.  Immigrant = hispanic.  And many people have problems with hispanics, because of the border control/immigration issues that our country is currently facing.  It's hard to argue for either side, since most of the issues actually stem from money, and not nessessarily race discrimination. 

Immigrants living here do not have to pay taxes, but get almost all of the benefits American citizens do. 

At the risk of sounding 'racist', I'll say that this is unfair and I disagree with it.  They're getting free benefits, the main offender being free healthcare.  They don't have to pay the IRS.  And we, American citizens, do.  That's completely unfair, regardless of race.

Now where the line gets very grey and muddy is when people claim that influx of immigrants hightens crime.  There is evidence to support this, but it isn't very conclusive.  Then there's the 'they're taking our jobs!' argument.  That argument is generally defeated by saying that these migrants just want to work - and they do, and I honor that ambition.  And generally they don't take many jobs from American citizens, because immigrants are generally not qualified to take any higher-income jobs.  However.  What people do not consider is that, while immigrants aren't really taking jobs from middle-aged middle-class Americans, they ARE taking jobs from young people.  College students who need to pay tuition, room/board, supplies, etc., in order to graduate, are finding it harder and harder to get a part-time job.  Most immigrants that I've met are very hard-working, forgiving people. They just want to come here and have a better life, and I don't think ther's anything wrong with that.  However, there are some that abuse the legal system to get money, such as sueing their employers for 'mistreating' them - but if you're not a legal citizen, you don't have the rights on an American employee, and you don't even have the right to go to court in the first place.  So why does the court let you get away with it?

So, honestly...I don't know which side of the argument I stand on.  I've had negative experiences with people in each group.

This is similar to what HS is calling 'positive discrimination,'  The actual term for this is 'reverse racism.'  Reverse racism is well-known for such gifts/curses like affirmitive action, laws made to help that may actually cause harm.

[Assault on Mind]

Yes illegal immigration... something needs to be done about it and if your illegal go back home turn around and come back in the proper way.

Ah anyways where is MY positive discrimination? I'm part cherokee! My family owned a large plot of land (My dad just told me this year) and thats gone now because some rich person got my family's land... turned it into a lake I think... boy to think of what I could've done there... But to answer your question, YES! That is unfair. NO! No one is going to do anything about it. Now back to ilegal immigration (it relates I promise) YES! We find illegal immigrants. NO! We don't send them back we put them in jail and release them back into the U.S. NO! We can't do anything about this because it is considered rascism and people (mainly the illegals) will protest.

If we can't change a an argument like that I have little faith that the government is going to be able to stop what is happening in your town too.


Also HS is english really hard to learn?

[Hyruleansoldier]

Also HS is english really hard to learn?

I'll gladly answer that, but what's this got to do with the topic at hand...?


Everyone says English is like SO easy to learn.  And partly this is true.  But having studied English at University level I can tell you, if you dig deeper into the language, English isn't exactly easy.

Sure the grammar ("form") is pretty transparent, but the mapping of all the meanings that need to get conveyed is quite complicated indeed.  English needs to rely on things like word order to make certain meanings clear, and there are many rules big and small do modify certain propositions.

If you take a language like German, you have all these things like Case and Flexion, so you'll have to learn a whole lotta paradigms.  The grammar/form is hard to learn.  But the mapping of all the different meanings is much more apparent.

So the learning curve may be much higher, but structurally German, as a language, is hardly a truly difficult language.

English is easily accessible, sure there are matters of spelling but you don't always need to write, and there are spell-checkers, too, though, like I've mentioned above, quite a few things will not be picked up, and there'll be a lot of mistakes.


... Sorry about my long reply.  I am a linguist, after all...

[Kayru]

What everything boils down to, essentially, is that a lot of people suck. HARD.