Harmless Pedro’s Racist Detractors
By Shaun Kenney | Monday, September 12th, 2011 | Culture, Policy
Racist, much?
Yet this sort of talk goes around unchallenged within GOP circles, and for what? Because we need the nativist branch of the Republican Party?
Screw that. Go back to the Dems where you belong and pick up a history textbook on your way out.
Let’s review: Harmless Pedro used to be Harmless Mick back in the 19th century, supposedly idle and worthless.
Before that… Harmless Pedro was Harmless Giuseppe bringing his family and mafioso to the diverse streets of New York.
Before that… Harmless Pedro was Harmless Hermann and his German hordes settling and conquering the Midwest.
Before that… Harmless Pedro was Harmless Jimbo from the emancipated South, gobbling up jobs meant for white people.
Before that… Harmless Pedro was Harmless Cherokee Native, sitting on good land that true Americans wanted.
Before that… well, I guess it was Powhatan’s counselors arguing over Harmless John Smith and a patch of swampland at Jamestown.
This wasn’t so long ago, folks.
Here’s the 20 million illegal immigrant question: If it was wrong then, why isn’t a depiction of “Harmless Pedro” wrong today?
Better still… why are those who peddle this filth allowed to even exist with the Republican Party (much less the body politic) today? Why on earth should the GOP that ended slavery, introduced truly progressive legislation at the turn of the 20th century, started the civil rights movement, and ended the threat of Soviet communism make common cause with those who simply do not share conservative values — or worse would hijack them to make the state a tool for their racism?
Go back to the Democratic Party where you belong, I say. There’s a party that traditionally embraces your backwards beliefs. Take your racism back to the Party of Jim Crow.
As for me and the rest of the Republican Party, leave us to free markets, free minds, and free society. That’s a better vision for the future, and it has been the one that has guided America, and will do so to the end.
Harmless Pedro was your great-great-grandfather and grandmother 140 years ago. Harmless Pedro is a man, with a soul, created in the image of God. Harmless Pedro comes here because the United States of America is the greatest, freest, and last enduring hope of Western Civilization. Any true patriot would risk life and limb to come work, live, and die here.
Let’s find ways to bring Harmless Pedro to the United States legally. Let’s not lash out with a 21st century form of “No Irish Need Apply” laws or a new form of racially-based Massive Resistance. Republicans and conservatives traditionally have been better than this, and we deserve leadership that upholds our legacy.
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About the author
Shaun Kenney is the Chairman of the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors, former Communications Director for the Republican Party of Virginia, and an active blogger since 2002. Shaun lives in Thomas Jefferson's backyard with his wife, six children, and a modest attempt at a farm in Kents Store, Virginia.
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36 Responses to "Harmless Pedro’s Racist Detractors"
Wow, Shaun, this is a very powerful piece. I couldn’t agree with you more.
Shaun,
I wish to say that I am personally torn on the immigrant issue. However I believe that the issue is a little more complicated then you portray it.
While most of us (other then Native Americans) are descendants of immigrants of one type or another, most of them were legal immigrants. I myself am no more then about fourth generation from a Deutsch (German) descendant (only tracing back my family surname) I believe that man from whom I descended was subject to immigration quotas, he was subjected to at least a basic health examination upon reaching our shores before being turned loose (to make sure we were not importing communicable diseases) etc.
As I said, I personally am torn on the issue. I think most Hispanic descendants make a truly positive contribution to the great American melting pot. However I am not in favor of open borders with unlimited immigration. I know that most illegals I have encountered truly are just motivated by desperation and seeking a better life. However I also must admit that many of them truly are displacing American citizens in the job market.
I do not consider myself a racist for being torn by the issue. While some might be motivated by racism, I feel there are many, many citizens who are like who come at the issue from a more nuanced perspective. In fact, I believe the cartoon makes some very valid points and the only one of them which I find completely objectionable is the one about all four of Pedro’s male offspring automatically must be involved in gang activity. The rest of the points might be being made rather crudely, but they are valid none-the-less.
To be clear, I am not in favor of “open borders” in the slightest.
I am clear on what I oppose. And the demonization and outright racism projected by a handful (in Virginia and elsewhere) deserves the outright hostility of every true conservative. Because those values simply aren’t our values.
So I agree on being “torn” on this — there’s no easy answer on how to tackle the 8 to 20 million illegal immigrants (Hispanic or otherwise) in the United States today. But the depictions of this being about “Harmless Pedro” are less than contemptible, in my strongly held opinion.
My US$0.02 FWIW.
You are confused….all these people you are trying to equate Pedro to were in entirely different situations. These others were in the country legally and were interested in assimilating to society, the Pedro in the cartoon is not in either case. On top of that, the complaints in the cartoon clearly aren’t with all Hispanics, as you imply, they are with illegal immigrants that are more interested in doing better solely for themselves (like those you try to equate to) and at at the cost of American society, rather than trying to become part of American society and making it better.
Nice to see that those defending racism won’t put their name to their thoughts.
Easier to be a racist behind a white sheet, is it?
Shaun, how about the brave conservative “legal” immigrants and minorities who are now running for office in Virginia? Some of them have been endorsed by the Tea Party and would you say that the Virginia Republican establishment and their PACs could be exhibiting a form of “back-door” racism in addition to establishment bias by not providing them financial support, especially when they are facing Democrat opponents?
Shaun- I agree with your anti-racism sentiments, and if those sentiments are in circulation in the GOP, I agree with your calling them out. But your article addresses only the cartoon and not how it is linked to anyone in the GOP. Please advise.
How about you actually discuss my points on their merits, rather than throwing out racism claims? Sounds like you belong in the democratic party. Typical knee-jerk reaction….”racists!”
It has nothing to do with race, it’s about legal status and desire to assimilate into our culture, which at this point in history has most to do with Hispanics, but is not unique to Hispanics. If lots of French Canadians from Quebec were sneaking into the US, most of the complaints in the cartoon would still hold true and would be just as NOT RACIST as they are currently.
Granted, there are far more effective ways to address the concerns expressed in the cartoon, but it addresses real issues and is not racist….take it as you want.
If Shaun Kennedy decides to become a Blue Dog Democrat, I will welcome him with open arms. We need more Democrats like his type in my party! He might have said just enough that some might claim he is a RINO (Republican In Name Only) which evidently is a label one must run from. Here on the Democratic side we have a label for guys like him, it is called Blue Dog. No need to run in shame, I wear the label proudly.
@RAH –
So I take it you disagree with this nasty, despicable comic and the argument it makes?
A simple yes or no will suffice.
No LD.. The Jim Crow dems masquerading should leave the GOP.
Turbo,
Those types of Democrats long ago deserted the party and started to vote Republican. Perhaps you are going to try and claim that those types of citizens’ vote is split fifty-fifty today?
How about some honesty? Jim Crow Democrats are no longer in the party. The party long ago deserted them. Which party are they voting for today?
Ahhh, good one! But you seem to be the one cornered as you continue to ignore the issues and just make the same calls of racism. The cartoon isn’t racist, nor despicable.
Would you still be claiming racism if massive amounts of French Canadians were sneaking into the country, working off the books yet taking government benefits, etc.?
@LD nothing to be torn about. illegals are here illegally. better manage the guest worker programs that control the flow of LEGAL immigration. punish business owners that employ illegals. immigrants that want to be here and assimilate will wait their turn, solving the issues with those than come here to merely make money and leach off the system, while allowing for good, hard working immigrants to make a better life for themselves.
Well Shaun I guess I need to get out of your Republican party. I think that the presence of the 12-15 million illegals goes a long way in the economic problems we are having now. Try operating a construction business and doing it legally, hiring American workers, and placing bids against folks that hire your Pedro. See how many bids you win. If you can’t see the difference between folks that sneak across the border now, and folks that came here through Ellis Island in the decades you talk about..well YOU MIGHT BE FROM FLUVANA.
By the way, Hoover, Eisenhower and Truman ALL sent the south of the border immigrant workers back during their terms, to make work for the American worker. How racist that was. NO! HOW AMERICAN THAT WAS!
You are using racism the same way the Left does…if your against Obama’s policies, well your a dog-gone racist! SHAME ON YOU SHAUN!
Mr. Kenney -
The only thing worse than true racism is the false charge of racism – what you have done here. When illegal immigrants (so named by breaking the law) are criticized, the only retort their supporters have is “racism!”. And not all the “Pedros” in this country are Hispanic. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are still illegals. Why should millions who are waiting patiently to enter the US legally be denied because Pedro thinks it is his “right” to walk across the border. Until the Undocumented Democrats arrived, this country was able to legally assimilate millions of people without having to “Press 1 for English”. “Let’s find ways to bring Harmless Pedro the the United States legally” you say, but what about Pedro and his 20 million friends you admit are already here? Are they exempt from the law because you consider those who want to enforce the law racists? Google “illegal immigrant” + “hit and run” and there are 440,000 results. You are greatly confused about the two political parties – it is the Republicans who support obeying the law and the Constitution. If you believe otherwise as your post indicates, you will be welcomed by the Democrats.
Put whatever label you’d like on the cartoon. It’s despicable and entirely inappropriate.
@ Shaun,
And so is:
“Go back to the Democratic Party where you belong, I say. There’s a party that traditionally embraces your backwards beliefs. Take your racism back to the Party of Jim Crow.”
Racism shouldn’t be accepted in either party and it certainly isn’t accepted in the Democratic Party. To say so, or encourage such activity is disingenuous. While this clearly doesn’t exist in the Democratic party, according to you, “this sort of talk goes around unchallenged within GOP circles.”
Or, have you been talking to Michael Steele? I seem to remember him running a 2006 campaign add along the lines of your argument.
So not a single one of you has the moral fortitude to reject this demagoguery?
Wow… speechless, gentlemen. Truly.
@Wade –
You can’t seriously be conflating illegal immigration with race, can you? I mean — seriously?
@Tor –
Am I wrong? Democrats have a long history of supporting state injustices, even today…
There’s a party of intolerance, and one with a long pedigree in its currency. For those who peddle it today, I can only point to the door…
I don’t normally put my name, but I don’t want to be accused of hiding. The cartoon stereotypes. Political cartoons often do. I don’t particularly like the cartoon, but I don’t see it is as racist. Maybe a more detailed analysis of the cartoon would convince me.
Like Jerry, I am going to post with my name rather than my BD screen name. I have nothing to hide and the last time I took refuge behind white sheets was when my wife wanted me to get up early on Saturday morning to go to the mall with her.
I have to agree with other posters–the charge of racism is the easiest to make and the hardest to defend against. Stereotypes don’t occur without foundation. When a large group of people exhibit similar characteristics, then stereotypes are formed. You can call that a crass generalization or racism, but the two terms are worlds apart.
Like all of us who are not native Americans, my ancestors came here as immigrants. On my father’s side they were Scots-Irish-Russian immigrants who arrived to settle the Chesapeake Bay shores before there was an immigration policy or even a United States. On my mother side they were German and Irish immigrants who arrived late in the 19th Century and settled in the upper mid-west. However they came, they had a significant difference from the illegal immigrants flooding our country today across the southern border: they came here legally and they came here to become Americans. The prejudice and discrimination that they encountered initially forced them to create ethnic communities. But those divisions dissolved in a matter of two or three generations into mere cultural pride. Today we proudly celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but we don’t congregate in Irish-American ghettos.
Democrats love to brand the arguments against illegal immigration as “racism.” Lowell Feld and his cohorts at Blue Virginia have taken this smear to a new level whereby it is presumed that all illegal immigrants are Hispanic (they’re not) and that any opposition to their presence in our country is based solely on a xenophobic fear and hatred of brown-skinned people. That is so sad. But what is even sadder are conservatives who jump on the guilt-trip bandwagon, least the liberal mud-slinging sticks. I normally admire your posts, Shaun, but this one was indecipherable to me. Illegal immigration is wrong, no matter who you are or where you come from. Stereotyping illegals is also wrong and distasteful, but it doesn’t rise to the level of racism.
Oh, Shaun, you do know how to stir up an argument, don’t you?
I welcome this broadside on those who truly are only interested in hate of a race, and not the actual families and individuals who are seeking to build a better life.
That being said, you can’t dismiss “illegal.”
If I am out of work and starving, and I decide that robbing someone is the best way to feed my family, the robbery is still not justified.
I know. It sucks.
But that’s kind of what is happening here. People have come to this country without authorization, and are now taking advantage of the blessing of liberty, which includes providing their labor to those willing to pay their wages, which could be construed as “stealing” from those who would be willing to provide their labor – albeit for the higher minimum wage.
I digress. The reality is that there are many examples where even the most family-oriented, socially-conscious, illegal immigrant is still, well, not here legally.
Where you are absolutely correct is those who are using that fact as a shield for their actual hatred of those that are different – and that has no place in the modern GOP.
Mr. Kenney,
“Harmless Pedro” isn’t as harmless as you might portray him to be at all-especially when he drives a car without a license, valid registration or insurance while intoxicated and then smashes into your car. Just ask the Virginia State Police about the problem of illegal immigrants doing exactly that, especially on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. After the crash, “Harmless Pedro” flees back to Mexico to avoid prosecution.
“Harmless Pedro” might be seeking a better life, but a number of “Harmless Pedros” have committed violent felonies against our citizens and might have otherwise been stopped at the border were it not for the fact he entered this country illegally.
Add to these complications that Pedro’s family will place a burden on the taxpayers unlike those of past generations that didn’t have to fund programs such as Medicaide & food stamps nor did the taxpayers or private hospital corporations have to provide services because of a government mandate.
If insisting that “Harmless Pedro” comply with the law in order to gain entry into our nation and insisting that “Harmless Pedro” or anyone in his family pull their own weight while complying with the law makes a person a “racist,” I would simply respond that anyone who thinks “Harmless Pedro” should get a pass is a simple fool.
The difference between “Harmless Pedro” and my Great-Grandfather (who immigrated here from Portugal many years ago) is, My Great Grandfather came here legally and assimilated to our society, learned the language and became part of the fabric of our country. “Harmless Pedro” on the other hand sneaks here in the middle of the night and is rewarded for breaking out laws with social services at taxpayer expense, refuses to assimilate to our society and indeed, demands that the citizens of the nation he has invaded comply with his cultural ideals. Heaven forbid we say ANYTHING to offend him and then he and his apologists insist we give him a pass when he breaks our laws.
We are a nation of LAWS Mr. Kenney and I don’t think it’s too much to ask that “Harmless Pedro” comply with them in order to become a part of his new, adoptive home. If he will not, then this is what these new state enforcement measures are enacted to address-making it so uncomfortable on those who refuse to comply with the law so uncomfortable that leaving looks like the better option.
I will be happy to point out to you a specific GOP primary race where this very racism reared its ugly head avaunt one of the candidates, to the point he and his supporters were accused of being illegals, hiring illegals, being unpatriotic, non-conservative AND un-American. Those are the only adjectives that I can use in this forum, the rest were expletives and curse words I will not publish online. I was subject to several of these attacks by the self-defined republican supporters of the winner. I’m sure all of you can guess what race I’m referring to. Truly a disgrace!
Marta,
I think that I see the problem now. My apologies to you and Shaun, but you didn’t give us all the facts. You two are obviously decrying actual circumstances that, at least in my case, are not widely known. I suspect that those of us who took issue with Shaun’s post were arguing against a hypothetical case, at least I was.
I respectfully suggest that both of you stop writing in ambiguous code and name names. If someone introduced ethnic slurs in a Republican primary, then call them out on it publicly. Otherwise, the skeptics will think that you are making unfounded and unsupportable accusations.
@Jim –
Agreed — this doesn’t justify the “illegal” part of immigration at all. Not what’s at question here (as I indicated in the post).
What is in question — and I think some (but sadly, not all) have touched on this point — is that there are certain people who are using this issue as a crutch to justify an inherent nativist viewpoint, and at times, a racist one when it comes to depictions of “Harmless Pedro” and his four sons, his TB ridden wife, and his extended family…
If someone had written that about Harmless Tyrone, I suspect we’d find more backbone against racism here. But because it’s Harmless Pedro… well, expediencies are created.
Nor is anyone here suggesting that if you are concerned, as I am, about illegal immigration that you are a nativist or a racist. Far from it, we *all* want the laws enforced. We all want the border watched and enforced. We all want a solution to the 8-20 million illegal immigrants that are here within our borders,
But solutions by cattle car and “probable cause” laws? “Harmless Pedro” and modern day NINA sentiment? Masquerading as the rule of law? Bullocks.
I’m open to a solution. But those who are truly concerned about illegal immigration owe it to the rest of America to come up with a means that speaks to the best of our experiment — and not to the worst of it.
This leaflet? Speaks to the worst. Shame on those who defend it and the sentiments conveyed within.
Cheers!
I thought sending them to the back of the line to apply for legal status was not a bad idea.. But that is not what many of them want.
What happens if an American found to be illegally in Mexico?
I hate to say this, but I agree with Shaun. The cartoon is racist. I say that as someone very opposed to illegal immigration and having views differing from Shaun’s.
The cartoon is not talking about illegal immigration as a generic. It is talking about Pedro. A generic specifically for Mexicans. While some of the points might be correct in the harms of illegal immigration, the broad brush painting of Mexicans or Hispanics.
This cartoon gives those of us opposed to ILLEGAL immigration a bad name.
@ Shaun,
There is one party that this type of “cartoon” is accepted by and that’s the Republican Party (you said it, not me).
To say that racists should become Democrats is disingenuous. We have a big tent, but there’s no room for someone who would allow that cartoon to be passed around.
I think it to be small minded partisan silliness to suggest racism has a home in any of the mainstream parties. Are there racists in every party? Yes. Bad examples can be found everywhere.
………so can good examples. But how often does one acknowledge legitimate instances of something good with the opposition?
Astute observation Mr. Howard. Neither party calls pot calls its own kettle black.
Who published this cartoon? Why exacerbate the issue and allow people to be agitated without naming the responsible party?
@Shaun, I went to the website listed on the bottom of this piece of garbage and found NOTHING to link this to the GOP. I can’t even find this piece anywhere on their site. Why did you want to pin this on the GOP ? HAve you ever listened to union organizers talk ?
I know you believe we need to find a “path to citizenship” or way to keep the illegals that are in our country now here, but to slander the GOP with this piece is just too much. Illegals come from all over the world, many being students who come to our colleges and just not going home.
I recently went to Costa Rica and when I asked my taxi driver if he had ever been t the US he told me he had applied four times and was turned down. Should we put those at the front of the line who have openly violated our laws or give that man a chance who asked any years ago ? T
There are people in this world who wait years just for an appointment at a US Consulate or Embassy to ask about how to get in line. Shouldn’t we put them in their deserved place in line also or should they have to give it up to those who knowingly violated our laws also ?
Fair is fair. This piece has no connection to the GOP and to say it does is just not right. Neither is giving those who are here illegally a place at the front of the line to become citizens of our country. You need to take this attack down off the site.
According to the Dept of Homeland Security, Mexican citizens account for 61.9% of illegal immigrants in the United States. Next is El Salvador with only 4.9%.
I think that the cartoon is aimed at those who are fence sitters on this issue (people like me) as anyone else. Oh, I don’t know, maybe more at those who already have their mind made up.
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