blog 15

While reading “Border Patrol state”, I found myself agreeing and disagreeing with a few things that Silko talked about.  I found myself becoming angry while reading her descriptions of how the Border Patrol was treating her and just assuming that she was participating in illegal actives or how they pulled over an elderly man who had just gotten confused and search him.  I completely agree with her that is a power trip among those who are searching for evil in order to protect the U.S.  People who gain a little bit of power completely abuse in ways that make them seem inhumane.  We need these people to help protect us and keep our country safe, but they should be properly trained and be held accountable for their behavior and not be allowed to do as they please. I began to disagree with Silko as she starts to talk about racism and says that “’Immigration,’ like ‘street crime’ and ‘welfare fraud,’ is a political euphemism that refers to people of color”. I understand that she is frustrated, but colored people are not the only people who experience racism for immigration. Many people who speak with an accent or different language, but are white, are discriminated against. Many times that my brothers and I have been given ugly looks by strangers who overheard us speaking Spanish with a little Hispanic lady, who was our family nanny.  She is from Mexico and speaks some English now, but still struggles with learning the language.  She started working for my family when my older brother was 10 months old and through her we learned to speak Spanish fluently.  When we go out to restaurants at home or out in public many people give us a look of disapproval or do not help us immediately because we are speaking a different language that they are familiar with and are different from their stereotypes.