I guess this school doesn’t have a debate class

Nov12

by Duane on November 12th, 2007 at 2:24 am

Immigration debate broken up by students

By Will Bigham, Staff Writer

pasadenastarnews.com

CLAREMONT – An illegal immigration debate at Pomona College ended prematurely Thursday night when a group of students critical of the event began chanting protest slogans, drowning out the two speakers and fueling shouting matches among audience members.

Anti-illegal immigration activist Marvin Stewart debated Jacob Hornberger, an open-borders advocate, for about an hour, often eliciting strong responses from the audience of nearly 600.

The decision to invite Stewart to the campus generated a great deal of controversy at the Claremont Colleges, with more than a dozen professors signing a letter to Pomona College President David Oxtoby in protest of the event. The debate was hosted by the Pomona Student Union.

Hornberger, founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation, argued that an open border, with free movement of people and goods, would promote economic growth in the United States and Mexico, and eliminate many of the problems associated with illegal immigration.

[SNIP]

Stewart, a black minister, also focused his comments on the economic harm he believes illegal immigration is causing the black community in the United States.

At the start of the event, a group of about 50 students in the crowd stood and turned their backs to the speakers, removing outer layers of clothing to reveal signs taped to T-shirts with slogans such as “Don’t Fuel Hate” and “Hate is not Debate.”

The students stood silently for the duration of the debate, and began chanting during the question-and-answer segment that followed.

Their protest effectively ended the organized debate, prompting arguments between activists on opposing sides of the issue that lasted long after the formal debate ended.

“I think the debaters could have used this opportunity to express their ideas instead of using the platform as a soap box,” said Kelly Natoli, a Pomona College . “I don’t think learning should be threatening.” (more…)

Threatening? Hold up!

Latino gang tried to force blacks out, indictment says

LATimes.com

[...]

In some cases, African Americans with no gang ties were caught up in the violence, prosecutors said. “In their attempt to intimidate African Americans in the community, they targeted innocent citizens,” said U.S. Atty. Thomas P. O’Brien.

In one instance, an African American couple were robbed at gunpoint by gang members who were trying to send a message, prosecutors say. In another, a man waiting at a Florence Avenue bus stop before work was critically injured in a drive-by shooting by Florencia members who apparently mistook him for a rival gang member, according to the indictments.

The gang would “target African American individuals for assault” and leaders made sure “that all the F13 cliques were participating in the assaults of African American rival gang members,” the indictments say. (source)

Those who were either in attendance at this debate and those professors who protested against this forum should put their peace-loving selves to the test by standing in the crossfire of bullets targeting innocent Black folks by these gangs (who are made up of mostly illegals).

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Francisco Covarrubias

I am a Latino, from an immigrant family, from South Central Los Angeles, and I have stood on Florence waiting for the bus stop, and I have walked and stood in the crossfire of bullets targeting all types of innocent people. Lets be real, crimes are carried out by every race, and only because the LA Times published an article about Latina/o violence against Blacks, does not mean that other racial violence occurs. Instead of pointing fingers at each other, we should be fighting the system that allows violence to occur. Where is the police patrolling the street? Why are guns so accessible to the poor? Why don’t I feel safe walking through a street in the United States of America?

We are all living in the same place, have similar struggles, and are underrepresented in political and educational institutions. We should strengthen ourselves by uniting, rather then dividing and losing force in the ongoing civil rights struggle.
http://www.blackinformant.com Duane

Instead of pointing fingers at each other, we should be fighting the system that allows violence to occur.

Are you suggesting that Blacks/Hispanics lack the ability to patrol themselves? If so, the target of such a movement you are suggesting here should target folks like you first.

Both leaders and many laypeople within the Hispanic community have consistently demonstrated their reluctance to pressure governments from your countries of origin to stop oppressing your people and develop ways for the economies of such countries to become self sufficient. Many governments in South America have failed to develop a plan to help the poor that does not include help from the nanny of the north. Instead, you turn the other way and give the thumbs up to millions to come into America ILLEGALLY and overload a system that was designed to take care of poor AMERICANS–all while you give America the finger. Have you ever raised any hell over how Mexico treats its own illegals? Plus, how many within the Latino community have PUBLICLY condemned these attacks instead of dismissing this as propaganda from the White man while looking for cover under Black civil rights? Last I checked, not as many as there were marching throughout LA demanding for amnesty. Like it or not, you have raised your expectancy of of fairness and equality coming higher from Whites than your own community and country of origin.

You are right, Blacks gangs in the LA area are also guilty of targeting other gang members. But I have yet to hear any action to forcefully push out non-gang Hispanic folks from their own communities. Neither have I heard or seen any action from the Hispanic community to stop such action. Bottom line, deal with that reality in your own community before talking about Black/Brown unity.

We are all living in the same place, have similar struggles, and are underrepresented in political and educational institutions.

Then either you do not live in LA or have not been in this country long. Start with the ethnicity of the mayor and work your way down to school teachers in the city.

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