The other day I received and email from a friend that contained a video of a story that Fox News broadcast a couple of years ago. The tag line said that I needed to watch it to understand a terrible injustice brought about by liberals, illegal immigration, and political correctness — not necessarily in that order. It was one of those emails that I receive once or twice per week. Take a look at the video for yourself (it’s only a 36 second clip):
If your first response is to tilt your head to the side and scratch the back of your skull while having a dazed and confused look on your face, then you know exactly how it affected me. The thought that went along with said reaction, however, was the same one that I had when I was a kid and someone offered me the opportunity to see a “bearded lady” at the local carnival that passed through my home town each summer — “this simply sounds too crazy to be true.”
Being the skeptic that I am, I decided to conduct an investigation to see if I could get to the bottom of it and find out what really happened. I started by reading some of the comments that were being made on YouTube. They were pretty scathing: “Round ‘em up and send ‘em home,” said one patriot. Another brain surgeon in the making chimed in, “This is what happens when we elect a black man as president.” (The politically correct violation that is referenced in the video occurred a couple of years ago, by the way, long before Obama entered our national spotlight.) Clearly, these blockheads were not searching for the real story and so I would not find it there.
So I plugged some combination of words such as “Oregon Mexican firefighter fired” and quickly found what I wanted: a statement from the State of Oregon’s Department of Forestry that explained the matter in considerable detail. It took me all of about 45 seconds to read, but what it revealed was very depressing (given the number of people who watched and believed the original story).
It makes sense that so many people hate liberals and Mexicans and political correctness. With stories like this floating around on the WWW, who wouldn’t be clamoring for the microphone to add to the shouting chorus of red-blooded Americans who want to preserve the United States for the “real Americans” (not to be confused with Native Americans, of course).
So how many times have you been duped by such an email or a rumor? How often do you find yourself saying, “No way. Can’t possibly be true. I’ve got to look that up before I let it lodge into my RAM?” As opposed to, let’s imagine, “This sounds fishy and so I’d better explore it before I pass it on.”
This stuff cuts both ways, mind you, because misinformation enters the public discourse from both the right and the left wings of the political spectrum. (This story originally aired on Fox News, but left-wing blogs and web sites picked it up and carried it as though it was true, by the way.) My gut inclination tells me that the right is slightly better at putting out misinformation than the left, and that the right has less scruples about lying–but only by about a 51/49 margin. Perhaps that’s just because more of their political operatives have written tell all books about their strategies and misdeeds. (If you haven’t read any of these and you fancy yourself a conservative, then perhaps you ought to take a look.)
An addendum: One respondent who is a firefighter noted the utmost importance of communication while fighting fires and pointed out that non English speaking firefighters would be problematic on English speaking crews. I absolutely agree and would maintain that Mexicans who do not speak English should NOT be on crews with U.S. firefighters who only speak English. The point of this blog entry is to highlight anti-Mexican hysteria.
When I watched the video, my first response was oddly similar to Sam’s response to the bearded lady. Or at least it is what I think my response would be, being that I’ve never been extended an invitation to go see a bearded lady. I was astounded that this was actually happening. So yes, I originally believed it, but why shouldn’t I have, it was on FOX? What are these Mexicans doing coming into our country and taking American citizens’ jobs? The firefighters should be required to speak English, considering it is the primary language of this country. Right as I was getting all stirred up I reached the next part of the blog, with the link to Oregon’s Department of Forestry. After reading that website is right about when I smacked myself in the forehead and thought of what I tell myself all the time, “don’t believe everything you hear.” I feel like this rule is true more often than most people even realize. It is falsified stories like this that give Mexicans a bad name and also liberals. One person sees this, believes it, tells ten other people, then those ten tell their friends. It is shocking how fast things can spread. In another post I read, someone was comparing this to the telephone game exercise. One person is read the actual story, then must pass it on, and that person does the same, and so on. I thought this was a good connection to make, and it got me thinking. Was this a simple case of a misunderstood plot in a story, or was this a deliberate American media attack on immigrants? I would like to say that this story was way too exaggerated to be simply a game of telephone, but then again my man Isaac in class pretty much butchered the original story. That is an example of how twisted a story can get. The story was originally about students fighting over a classroom, and somewhere along the line (Isaac) the story changed into a fight at a party. This just goes to show that this is a fucked up world with fucked up people and you really should not believe everything you hear. It seems so elementary and cliché, but it is actually one of the best pieces of advice someone can receive.
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I understand the importance of communication in the firefighting course of work, and I understand that this is one major point that this news report was trying to say. However, when the new caster said that commanders were being fired for not being able to speak English, it caught me off guard. That did not make sense to me, and if it were to be true, I would consider it unfair. Guaranteed firefighting is a dangerous job, and if Hispanics are willing to do it so be it. But I think they should have to learn English considering most of the men on the crew would speak English and again communication is very important in this business. Other men should not be fired for another person disadvantage. I also understand how this can make American citizens mad if they did not know the truth. It was like the media wanted to give another example of how illegal immigration affects and harms American citizens just to make the public angry. False articles like these are sometimes what cause racism and hate acts. However, men being fired for not being able to speak English turned out to not be the case. It is sad how the news and media can twist and turn things to make it say what they want, and obviously this news station was against illegal immigration so they wanted to do anything they could to get people to stand behind their belief. The news does this for all kinds of events. They twist things that can be far from the truth just to make America look good or to justify some of our actions, personally it is not right. We do not know who to believe any more, and I think it is fair to say that the population should at least be able to believe the news. The media does this will images too. They use vibrant and extreme images to catch ones attention but then the actual report itself can be something far from what the image represents. When it comes to hearing things on the news, it is best for people to find out the truth before rumors are spread that are not true in the slightest. I know for me, I am not the type of person to just believe something that someone tells me. I need proof or backup. I was always the kid in high school asking “Why?” or “How do you know?” Anyway, I think the main point in this article is to find out the truth for yourself because the news and the media, even people, twist things to make them what they want to believe or say what they want to say. It does not mean they are telling you the truth.
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Well, obviously Fox News did not do their research correctly before putting its story on live television, which is just pretty sad. Their job is to get the correct story and send the message to inform the rest of us around the country. It is very clear that while FOX News was reporting on miscommunication, they were involved in some miscommunication themselves. My first reaction after reading the story saying that the news report was true made me wonder how much of what I hear on the news is or isn’t true. I have to admit…I am addicted to shows like Access Hollywood and Extra and I like to read about celebrity gossip. All those shows always have a section about what headlines are telling the truth or just plain rumors. When I hear something extremely juicy, I have to go online to Google what I heard because some things are just plain ridiculous. Anything that is said on TV, the internet, or even by a friend is only the true story a small percentage of the time. You can never believe what you hear. I think it’s completely bogus if a man gets fired from his job because his workers only speak Spanish. There has to be someone in Oregon that speaks Spanish with an all English speaking crew that could trade positions with him. Or even have the head of the crew take a few Spanish lessons and learn key words and phrases that would be important or vice versa with the Spanish speaking firefighters.
However, I feel really bad for those Spanish workers who don’t speak English and the English speakers who speak no Spanish. It must be extremely hard to be put in a situation where you do not speak a word of the language needed. I grew up in a very Hispanic town, where the majority of the population was from Columbia, Ecuador, and Mexico. In school there was a big divide between the English speakers and the Spanish speakers. we made them learn English so they could fit in with us, but not many of us took the time to learn English to fit into their culture.
This article just goes to show that as well as there being a problem of miscommunication between cultures, it also shows that a lot of what we see and hear is either extremely biased or just plain false. I remember during the election, one of my teachers told us to be careful as to what programs we watch about what was going on. He said FOX News was supporting McCain and CNN was in favor of Obama and we should know that before we make our judgments off of what we see on TV. If we can’t trust the news, which is supposed to be a reliable source, how do we get the correct information?
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As a media student this type of thing does NOT surprise me at all. This is just another example of how media can really affect the views and opinions of ignorant people who refuse to further investigate the truth behind the story. I believe that because it was aired on FOXNEWS such a popular news channel it was made easier to believe right away without research rather than going to GOOGLE and putting it in the search engine. People are most likely to believe something first hand from a newsworthy channel like FOXNEWS rather than a place that is not as credible with information. This is where the media can be damaging to a person and to our country as a whole. If people just believe everything they see on their TV as true then we could be in for some greater issues. By just watching the clip from FOXNEWS I was not able to get the full story. However because I was told to read the article put out by the Oregon state government itself I was able to fully understand what was going on. But most people would not look further into the story and take what FOXNEWS or any news channel put out at face value.
The article informed me that just because a person on the fire crew did not know the Spanish language did NOT mean they were being fired or demoted. The rule was made that if there were a majority of only Spanish-speaking crewmembers then the leader of the crew would have to know both English and Spanish to keep the crew safe and able to do their job correctly. I believe this is a good thing because being a fire fighter is already a very dangerous job and if someone was to get a command wrong because of the language barrier the job becomes even more risky. People die every day in high risk jobs like this and it would be a shame to lose someone because they couldn’t understand what the members or the leader of their crew was saying. I do not believe this is racial, but I think that FOXNEWS should have researched everything before putting media out for people to believe as true right away.
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Okay so my first response to this naturally was, “what the hell” are these People serious? Sounds like bull shit to be quit frank. I mean it’s like the media will put anything on the air to get people’s heads spinning, and it can be extremely bias. I can’t speak for all people, but I do believe that a lot of folks take what they hear and see on the television for face value. It’s almost as though they say to themselves, “Well it was on the news, and therefore it must be true.” It’s like it’s a big joke to them (media/news) because it is know that there are ignorant and uniformed people in this society that will eat off of the platter that is given to them. People are just too lazy and possibly just stupid to go out and back up what’s been told to them. To top it off if you’re one of those individuals who already had these pre-conceived notions about Mexicans in the USA then media to you is like fuel to light “your” fire.
It’s almost as though it’s like a completion for everything now a day’s. Who can air the story first? Who can get the information out to the public specter before anyone else can, whether it is factual or strait bias bullshit? And people have just become accustom to taking things for face value. When I think of Fox News it just puts a bad taste in my mouth. It’s a prime example of conservative propaganda used to spread “disease” amongst the uniformed and week followers. I’m a Media studies major and Fox News is always the center of attention for discussion in my class. Ranging from politics, to the coverage of the last election, or light show in Iraq (past war.) Don’t get me wrong Fox News cannot single handedly be given all the credit for being bias in its airings of news. PR can be just as equally guilty and other news stations. They all have a message they want to put out and they are willing two twist words and stories to play in their favor.
Back on the topic of the firefighters it is a key essential for firefighters to have good communication skills in order to do a proficient job. These brave men and women risk their lives for others and I can only respect that. I can understand why it would be a problem to have a group of firefighters that spoke to different languages, mass chaos as though they weren’t already faced with it. What Foxes problem was they turned strait to job loss to trying to portray these Mexican firefighters as the reason for job losses.
No matter what you watch or hear on t.v one should always question it, don’t take anything for face value
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Okay so my first response to this naturally was, “what the hell” are these People serious? Sounds like bull shit to be quit frank. I mean it’s like the media will put anything on the air to get people’s heads spinning, and it can be extremely bias. I can’t speak for all people, but I do believe that a lot of folks take what they hear and see on the television for face value. It’s almost as though they say to themselves, “Well it was on the news, and therefore it must be true.” It’s like it’s a big joke to them (media/news) because it is know that there are ignorant and uniformed people in this society that will eat off of the platter that is given to them. People are just too lazy and possibly just stupid to go out and back up what’s been told to them. To top it off if you’re one of those individuals who already had these pre-conceived notions about Mexicans in the USA then media to you is like fuel to light “your” fire.
It’s almost as though it’s like a completion for everything now a day’s. Who can air the story first? Who can get the information out to the public specter before anyone else can, whether it is factual or strait bias bullshit? And people have just become accustom to taking things for face value. When I think of Fox News it just puts a bad taste in my mouth. It’s a prime example of conservative propaganda used to spread “disease” amongst the uniformed and week followers. I’m a Media studies major and Fox News is always the center of attention for discussion in my class. Ranging from politics, to the coverage of the last election, or light show in Iraq (past war.) Don’t get me wrong Fox News cannot single handedly be given all the credit for being bias in its airings of news. PR can be just as equally guilty and other news stations. They all have a message they want to put out and they are willing two twist words and stories to play in their favor.
Back on the topic of the firefighters it is a key essential for firefighters to have good communication skills in order to do a proficient job. These brave men and women risk their lives for others and I can only respect that. I can understand why it would be a problem to have a group of firefighters that spoke to different languages, mass chaos as though they weren’t already faced with it. What Foxes problem was they turned strait to job loss to trying to portray these Mexican firefighters as the reason for job losses.
No matter what you watch or hear on t.v one should always question it, don’t take anything for face value
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When I first watched that video clip I was thinking are you serious; this is ridiculous. I was actually mad at first. When I think of the news I think of the truth because usually they find the facts and report them. As I watched that clip I was thinking that’s not right, this news castor has to be wrong. In the back of my head though, I was thinking how could that have happen. Why would this happen? How could those men be fired for not knowing Spanish in America? I mean I completely understand Spanish is part of there culture but why not learn English. I was relived when I read the article which cleared up the actually event. I’m glad it wasn’t true but just the through that people think it is, is just sad. It is kind of scary to think how much people rely on the new stations on TV. I usually do. I understand that all stories may not have every fact but most of the real story is there for people to learn about. This misunderstanding probably had a lot of people upset and angry, just another thing feeding racism, wrong information. I guess some news reports have become like a weather report, not always reliable.
Another scary thing I bet a lot of people who watch that report believed it. I’m sure some people were saying that can’t be right but what about those other people. In our society of different race groups people are judge. If you look Mexican you speak Spanish and you probably work outside or don’t have the best job. Well this is how Mexican our seen where I live. So if a Mexican become firefighter he must only Spanish because Mexican. This is the same for Asians. Asians all are from China or Japan they weren’t born here or at least people assume they weren’t at first. People’s different interpretations of stereotypes effect how they react to a situation. So when this news story was aired on TV, people said, hey those guys are Mexicans of course the only speak Spanish. That is the stereotype in their mind. These stereotypes are what keep rooted where they are.
Then the whole idea how if you are a firefighter it is imperative you can communicate with your crew for your life and theirs. For people to see that the fire company was supposedly hiring people who can’t communicate, it is wrong. People believe the media and that is a scary thing. It is also sad how the media doesn’t tell the real story and people are lead to believe horrible things. All because they didn’t find the facts or they thought the wrong information will improve there ratings. Oh how our world has changed.
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I was very much shocked after seeing the news about Mexican firefighters has been on Fox news. I mean obviously, news lie to you. There is no doubt in my that happened. I am just shocked at the how wrong the news is and how long it look to find the right answer. I mean, it’s Fox news, don’t you think they would have someone who can take 45 sec to verify the news that they are playing are correct? All Sam did was type into google, and there is the correct answer. Don’t they ever check their source? All it takes is a min and a computer with internet connect. I am completely in shock at this news. This makes me feel like they are just making up stories! Like someone is sitting at the table and think well lets just say all firefighters need to speak Spanish. Pick somewhere random. Or like, well this is a rumor, and it’s good gossip, so we don’t care if it is right, let’s just put it on TV. What are they thinking?
Second point in the article is the anti-Mexican moment across the country. I mean I know it’s wrong to cross the border illegally, but are such hate needed? Being a 100% legal immigrant, I understand the pain of country, I mean my green card was delayed for almost SIX years, because the illegal immigrant problem is slowing down the department of homeland security and the immigration office. And the funny part is, a women my family knows (who is here illegally) got her green card two years before we did, and we applied around the same time. But you don’t see me being anti-Mexican or anti-illegal immigrants. And I love how people hate on thing that have NO direct influence on them. I am sorry, but when was the last time a illegal-Mexican work stole your job? This reminds me of one of Russell Peter’s joke,” I am sorry, but I didn’t know you want to open a dollar store.” I think it’s when people find something that doesn’t benefit on them, they all jump on it. Finally, someone they can take it out on without upsetting the general population. Because they are illegal immigrants, they have no right in voting and speaking rights. Yes, I think the illegal immigrants should have to compensate for their action, but what rights do Fox news to say that? Do they even know they are making a mistake or purposely did that just to cause an out burst so their rating would go up? If you think about it long enough… how absurd. A firefighter boss that is required to speak Spanish? What the heck are they thinking when they broad case this?
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This video is almost humorous. When I first began watching the YouTube video about Oregon firefighters being laid off because they do not speak Spanish, I immediately asked myself, “Are you serious?” If there is a need for so many firefighters, why would you simply lay off, fire, or demote the head firefighter? It makes absolutely no sense. If people used their brains along with common sense, questions would have arisen very quickly. But apparently when you see something on the news, it has to be true. The news would not have a news story on a lie! Come on! The news media lies every day, but people are irrational and believe the stupidity! It is no wonder people refer to us as the “Dumb Americans.” The news media becomes so biased on particular issues, it is absurd. Throughout the election, the news media clearly favored Barack Obama in the election. They never mentioned the negative issues of him. However, when it came to Sarah Palin and John McCain, they were doing everything possible to hurt their chances. Katie Couric interviews Sarah Palin, and when they showed the article to the public, Sarah Palin’s words were completely and utterly twisted.
To play devil’s advocate, what if the story got released and then Oregon tried to cover it up. For example, if a news story leaks, people automatically try to cover up the truth if it is a negative thing. Personally, I believe that the actual firefighters and the people close to them are the only people who will ever know the truth. People will continue to talk about this certain scenario and word will keep traveling because they do not know it is a myth. In Sam’s article, he said he had to search to find out if it actually was true. Most Americans could care less to continue to find out if the video is true.
A few months ago, when the Chimpanzee attacked its owner, I could not believe the story to be true. So I looked it up to learn about it, but most people just listen to the news media and do not continue to learn more about the topic. If everyone did learn the truth from the lies, the news media would not exist. They do news stories on topics the public will be “interested” in disregarding the truth from lie. When I was in ninth grade, my high school went on strike, and the local news media took hold of the topic. They misrepresented our school, and changed peoples words around. For instance, a person would be telling a story, and they would cut out part of the story so it better fit their story.
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This article is sadly not very surprising to me. As an American I have gotten to see some of this American pride that we have in good and bad lights. America is the home of the free and the land of choice. But then take a look at how we treat immigrants and foreigners. I am going to agree with everyone that has been saying that they HATE fox news. Everyone is controlled by the media; they can at the snap at a finger have someone believing whatever they want. I understand that every story has two sides and we rarely ever hear both, but this article still brought mixed feelings out of me. I understand that the message was to show anti Hispanic hysteria but I am just boggled by the fact that if this article was true that someone would really get fired because they couldn’t speak a language. I realize that knowing Spanish is going to soon be a really important quality to have in America, but shouldn’t people know English too. The problem with this topic is that there are so many factors to take into consideration when trying to form an opinion. In my discussion class a person brought up the point that many Americans go to OTHER countries and expect them to speak English. When he said that I complete understood how ridiculous America was being. Why is it that people have to come over to America and speak English but us Americans go to other countries and don’t speak anything but English? I believe in my heart that any person in this country should be able to do whatever job they want. I also believe that there are other solutions to the language boundaries then firing someone. I hardly ever dig for information after I read or hear it in the news. Most of the time I take the news as it is. Fortunately from taking SOC 1 and SOC 119 I am learning to do otherwise. My question is when are people going to start asking questions? It is so upsetting that a country with so many bright people cannot see the media as a threat. Media as one of those factors and forces that inhibit our actions that is outside of our control. But there is another sad truth; I do not know how to go about turning this problem with the media around. I have no idea what to do in the situation we are in. does everyone stop watching the News and start acting like hermits? Or do we just accept the news with a grain of salt and move on. Who knows what to do in this situation us Americans are in?
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This is very shocking to hear. It is even more shocking because this story was aired on Fox News. It is absolutely sad how people can make such assumptions and that they would not do their complete research before they display such a story on national television. This is just a single example of what happens all the time. Most people probably simply saw this story on television and believed all of it and probably did not even bother to do their independent research to verify the true facts. Then again, it is not the general public’s fault. It is the media and all who were involved in making this story and not doing the necessary research whom should be at fault. It is messed up either way, whether they intended to do this on purpose (which is probably not the case), or committed a major mistake without any realization. It is simply wrong if it was done on purpose and if a major mistake was committed then this is simply the height of carelessness. How can so many people overlook the truth or not even try to figure out and verify the facts, especially considering how controversial this story can be? This is absolutely ridiculous and it makes the United States of America look extremely bad. This is embarrassing not only for the general public, but the United States of America as a whole. This is even a bigger deal since the United States of America has come so far, and is so advanced and modern. The media of the United States of America cannot afford to make such a large and stupid mistake. It is common sense that one would research the facts thoroughly before making such assertions and blaming people who are not even the people who are to be blamed. It is then that the accused but innocent group of people are the one that get the fingers pointed on; however, the people who are guilty are the ones who are walking without any scars or fingers pointed at them. How is this in any way or terms fair? It is not. We cannot afford to repeat these mistakes anymore since it can not only ruin the name of these people and degrade them for something they did not do, but also make the United States of America look horrible. We need to take steps forward to make sure we make our country, the United States of America remains in a good light and especially make sure to not let its respect go down because of future false and unresearched news stories. These reporters or whoever all was involved in showing this story on national television need to learn their lesson and they need to understand the importance and consequences of their actions. This story is very disrespectful towards Mexican people, and I know for sure that if I were Mexican I would have been pissed off after seeing this incomplete and false report on national television.
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It’s a very irksome thing to see people make up stories about illegal immigrants. Mainly because there is enough wrong with them that there’s no need for things to be made up at all. They take away jobs from legal US citizens because they are willing to do the same jobs for a lot less money, they don’t have to pay taxes, and they can still get our healthcare when they’re injured with tax payer dollars before they get deported. I’ve heard these complaints countless times from countless people and it’s kind of getting old… so the last thing this country (and the media) need to be doing is making up more stories to get the hot headed people with these opinions even more fired up than they already are.
Unlike most people with drastic opinions on this subject, I have experience in dealing with illegal immigrants who are trying their damndest to become US citizens. I brought this up in our small group discussion, but I have a friend named Jozef so is a citizen of Slovakia. He came to the United States just before 9/11, and he has been here ever since. He works as a dishwasher/prep cook at the restaurant where I work when I’m at home. I’ve seen countless Americans go through that position half-assing their way through it to make their minimum wage. Jozef is the hardest working human being I have ever laid eyes on (and I come from a blue collar family). Since coming to the US not speaking a lick of English, he now speaks it fluently because he taught himself our language. He loves our country more than most US citizens that I know, and once he even told me that I’m LUCKY to pay taxes. He wishes he could pay them because he wants to give money to a system he so full heartedly believes in. He’s applied for a citizenship multiple times now and has been denied each time. If he gets caught, he will be deported without notice, and someone who my family has come to know as family won’t even get to say goodbye.
Granted, not all illegal immigrants have such a heart warming story as Jozef (who we now call JoJo), but as a whole, I feel like people are quick to judge when they hear stories about illegal immigrants. This country was built on people coming here wanting to better their lives. People who want to leave their small villages, escape poverty or religious prosecution. I feel as though US citizens have a sense of entitlement when it comes to what goes on in this country that keeps them from seeing the bigger picture. The newscast from Fox merely proves my point.
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This is RIDICULOUS. It actually made me laugh. This story is completely unbelievable. Not only that but vague and short…not sure why this was news actually since the report was only 30 seconds and did not give much information at all. The reporter said that there are a large number of Hispanic firefighters coming in as new recruits. I’m pretty sure you need to be a citizen to be a firefighter and on top of that how did people get Mexican? Can you say trivialization of identity? If you need to be a citizen to be a firefighter…because it would be a real government affiliated job then what’s the problem. These firefighters, Spanish speaking or not, are here to save lives. We should be treating them like the heroes that they are. And why would they hire Spanish speaking firefighters if they had no way of communicating with them? That doesn’t make much sense and I’m half way surprised the people who commented on youtube didn’t pick that up. I’m pretty sure they would have thought of that first, before they actually hired them, and if there was a language barrier, would opt to hire someone else. If the supervisor would hire people he could communicate with then maybe he/she doesn’t deserve his/her job. And what exactly was politically correct about the report? I guess they were referring to letting the firefighters who were non English speaking keep their job while letting the English supervisors go. Even if the fact that supervisor had to speak Spanish was true, like woe is me, take a fucking course. The requirements of jobs change all the time, what makes the supervisor more worthy of having a job than anyone else. I don’t watch the news but I’m sure the rate of inaccuracy is sky high. Just look at the Daily Collegian, I find huge mistakes more often than you would think and it’s only a campus paper. Because I don’t watch the news I am often out of the loop but I think its better than being misinformed and mislead by purposeful propaganda. I’m glad Sam did take the time to look this matter up because honestly, I would not have. If I even opened the email AND watched it, I probably would have shaken my head and the foolishness and went about my day doing nothing to correct it yet also not encouraging or spreading it. Not good at all. Stay still and doing nothing is not what brings about change, agency is what brings about change. This goes to show that although, I may be a conscious and active participate is some movements, I could do even more to end oppression by simply helping to stop rumors like this.
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This is RIDICULOUS. It actually made me laugh. This story is completely unbelievable. Not only that but vague and short…not sure why this was news actually since the report was only 30 seconds and did not give much information at all. The reporter said that there are a large number of Hispanic firefighters coming in as new recruits. I’m pretty sure you need to be a citizen to be a firefighter and on top of that how did people get Mexican? Can you say trivialization of identity? If you need to be a citizen to be a firefighter…because it would be a real government affiliated job then what’s the problem. These firefighters, Spanish speaking or not, are here to save lives. We should be treating them like the heroes that they are. And why would they hire Spanish speaking firefighters if they had no way of communicating with them? That doesn’t make much sense and I’m half way surprised the people who commented on youtube didn’t pick that up. I’m pretty sure they would have thought of that first, before they actually hired them, and if there was a language barrier, would opt to hire someone else. If the supervisor would hire people he could communicate with then maybe he/she doesn’t deserve his/her job. And what exactly was politically correct about the report? I guess they were referring to letting the firefighters who were non English speaking keep their job while letting the English supervisors go. Even if the fact that supervisor had to speak Spanish was true, like woe is me, take a fucking course. The requirements of jobs change all the time, what makes the supervisor more worthy of having a job than anyone else. I don’t watch the news but I’m sure the rate of inaccuracy is sky high. Just look at the Daily Collegian, I find huge mistakes more often than you would think and it’s only a campus paper. Because I don’t watch the news I am often out of the loop but I think its better than being misinformed and mislead by purposeful propaganda. I’m glad Sam did take the time to look this matter up because honestly, I would not have. If I even opened the email AND watched it, I probably would have shaken my head and the foolishness and went about my day doing nothing to correct it yet also not encouraging or spreading it. Not good at all. Stay still and doing nothing is not what brings about change, agency is what brings about change. This goes to show that although, I may be a conscious and active participate is some movements, I could do even more to end oppression by simply helping to stop rumors like this.
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It stands to reason that in this line of work, people that are in charge of other people’s safety should be required to speak the same language of everybody on their crew. That is, if they are in a position where coordinated effort, responsibility, and teamwork are of the essence, it just makes good sense that everybody be on the same “page”, language-wise. However, what doesn’t make sense to me, and what sickens me, is the anti-Mexican fever that seems to be significant, if not quite rampant, in the hearts of many Americans.
It seems that many people have a misguided sense that foreigners have no place or rights in the United States, or at the very least, have less rights than citizens currently here. Of course, the ironic thing here being who of us really “belongs” here in the United States? The only reason any of us are enjoying residency here in this country is because hundreds of thousands of Native Americans were slaughtered in order to pave the roads, so to speak, for us and our posterity.
And another interesting thing that struck me as incredibly ironic about this video and article is the indignity people feel when English –speaking people are supposedly violated. It is funny in a sickening kind of way that the same people that enjoy benefits that no other race often enjoy (more housing opportunities, job opportunities, etc.) would get all prickly when someone flips the script on them (even if only in their minds). When black people are denied occupancy, or turned down for a job because they got beat out by a white person, you don’t see white people marching down to the offending place and demanding the injustice be resolved. They seem content, for the most part, to let people fight their own battles. As soon as it affects them directly, however, and only if it affects them directly, will they choose to get involved and to begin caring all of a sudden.
I know this probably seems a little jaded and negative, and maybe it is. I’m sure not all white people are the cold, heartless bastards I’m painting the picture of in this blog entry. However, it just seems to me like people usually care mostly when it concerns and involves them directly. Because they benefit from their whiteness (even without their realizing it, in most cases), they won’t even think twice about the way other ethnicities are treated unfairly. It’s only when a news story that comes out about English-speaking people being turned down for jobs (completely incorrect, as it turns out), that their ears will prick, their hairs will raise, and they’ll find motivation to get involved somehow.
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I picked the blog “Those damn Mexicans are at it again” because we had a long discussion in our smaller group about illegal immigration after Sam’s lecture that included a video showing a road sign that supposedly depicted illegal Mexicans crossing the border. I think the discussion was difficult because it is hard to talk about things when not all the facts are known. I myself no little about immigration practices, laws, and maybe more importantly costs. I always would wonder why immigrants do not just go through immigration but it probably is just too costly at times.
Now I want to comment first before I continue reading the blog and the article and say that this video contains a very odd issue concerning language. I understand the importance that the supervisors need to be able to communicate with the firefighters but it is not their fault if the firefighters do not speak English. However, I do not think the Mexican firefighters should be held back from the job because of their language difference either. The video mentioned that the fire fighters were needed for urgent fires and not necessarily a full time position. Maybe they could each learn a few necessary words to be able to work together? Sam posted that he wanted to look for some more information on the subject and I think it is terrible that some people (a patriot) wanted the firefighters, who happened to be Mexican, to be sent home. Obviously it appears that not many Americans were stepping up to fight the fires so why do people care what race is helping with the disaster? I really do not understand why this would bother someone.
On a side note I just want to say that I believed Sam’s story about his painting days and how a fellow painter of color received less jobs because of his skin color. However, I am white and come from a primarily white neighborhood and my family had Mexican man paint in our house and then several of our neighbors also asked him if he was available for painting their house. In addition my dad works for a roofing business and the men that do the construction are all from Costa Rica, and some of their families are back home still. All I am trying to say is that I do not have an issue with other races and with foreigners taking jobs in America. We got our roof fixed recently and I met some of the Costa Rican workers and they did not speak a lot of English, however their foreman did and was able to help with translations. Maybe this is all the firefighters needed; one firefighter who could speak some English and communicate with the firefighters and the supervisor.
I then read the article that stated some facts about the Oregon fire department and found it funny how the facts differed from the rumors in the video and how things can get out of hand so easily.
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The FOX News story by Bret Baier that claims Oregon is firing fire crew bosses over their inability to speak Spanish first ran in 2007. The story is based on information contained in an erroneous news story that ran originally on a Portland, Oregon TV station back in 2006.
Here are the facts about the firefighting crews:
The Oregon Dept. of Forestry (ODF) and its partner federal and state agencies in Oregon and Washington contract with private companies to supply fire crews, including crew bosses, for frontline firefighting work. These crews work under the guidance of incident management teams provided by ODF and other state and federal land management agencies.
Because English is the language of firefighting in the U.S., we must have the ability to communicate with all crews. Accordingly, the interagency contract requires that the leaders of contract crews speak English. This requirement covers the crew boss and the three squad bosses on a typical 20-person crew.
ODF has no requirement that its employees speak Spanish, and does not demote or fire anyone because of their inability to speak Spanish. And to our knowledge, no crew boss on the private contract fire crews that we use has ever been fired on account of not being able to speak Spanish.
The crew companies are private businesses, so they may choose whom they hire for their crews. But if a company elects to hire employees who do not speak English, then our contract requires that the supervisors of that crew, in addition to being fluent in English, must also be able to speak the language of any crew members who do not speak English. This is a matter of good communication, safety and effectiveness for the agencies that hire crews under the contract.
If a crew consists entirely of firefighters that speak English, then the crew leaders need only speak English. Again, whom the companies hire is a choice that they as private businesses make.
Many people have written to ODF suggesting that we should require all contract crew members be able to speak English. But if we made that requirement, we would not have enough crews to fight fire. Over the past decade or so, the available labor pool has shifted heavily to Latinos, many of whom do not speak English.
Like other employers, the contract crew companies are bound by federal law to verify that their employees have the legal right to work in the U.S. Whenever we discover a discrepancy in their records, we work closely with the federal immigration authorities to investigate it.
In case you’re interested, here is some background on the erroneous media report about the firefighting crews and how it got started. The reporter with the Portland TV station that aired the original story had interviewed a disgruntled private contract firefighter. In the course of the interview, the firefighter made a number of incorrect statements to the reporter, among them the claim that he had been demoted from his fire crew boss position because he couldn’t speak Spanish. A review of his training records by our fire managers revealed that he did not have the required qualifications for the position. That fact led to his demotion from fire crew boss. The action had nothing whatsoever to do with his inability to speak Spanish.
In preparing the story for broadcast, the reporter invited Oregon Department of Forestry to respond to the firefighter’s claims, and our fire managers set the record straight. But the story that eventually aired in spring 2006 did not accurately present the information they had provided.
After it aired, the erroneous news story was picked up by the Denver News Channel, FOX News, Paul Harvey News, and several other broadcast and print news outlets. FOX’s Neil Cavuto even did a lengthy on-air interview with the firefighter. Later when the Bret Baier piece aired in 2007, bloggers began circulating the video clip widely on the Internet. Interest gradually died down, but then someone began circulating the video clip again recently.
Rod Nichols
Oregon Dept. of Forestry
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What I think about this blog, there is always something on TV that it is not right. Almost everything that they say and show up is absolutely awful. I always wonder why they always talk about Mexicans. Yes, I do understand that a lot of Mexican people do not know how to speak English but that’s not mean we can not do anything. The new were supposed to keep everyone informed of what is going on not say ideas or what they think about other people. They always want to present everything by their way. The way they think is good for them and they know is going to present them for a good favor. I believe that in most jobs Mexicans or Latinos any race that come to America does need to at least know a little bit of English so it can make their lives easier. They can communicate better. However, I do not think that the firefighters need to speak English. They basically just help out safe others people lives. They know what they have to do and what the right thing is. Mexicans are just trying to help. They also care about our community is not like they just want to take our job. I truly understand that communication is a really essential for them. Which Fox do not explain anything about that. They just basically skip it. I really would like to know why Mexicans in particular have to speak English. As I understand they just here to get a better life and job. At this point most of the younger Mexicans people are getting a higher education. The Mexican parents brought their family to America so their children could have a better chance to be someone in life. They just here to work and at least do a job that some “other people” do not want to do. They do not complain like others do. It does not surprise me anymore. There are people that just do not going to understand why Mexicans are in America and they just trying to improved. They also try to help America because they live here and they care about their community. When I see that people treat Mexicans on a mean way I do not like it at all. I see that most of the time people only treat Mexicans like that. When Americans say things to Mexicans like oh look the fucking Mexican he can not even speak English makes me really angry and want to destroyed everyone and everything that we find. At the same time they should not care because it just a say. They really not do anything to them why should they care about it. I would not get the down by saying that. Just can not believe they make a lie like that. Fox should try and find something to help Mexicans if they really want everyone to speak English instead of talking bad about them. In conclusion, things should change everyone should help each other no matter what race they are. It is much easier if people work together and not talk about other on a bad way or anything like that.
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Why do white people always have to talk about Mexicans? What have they done to them, why are they hated so much by white people? Yes, we all know that they are not in their country but who is? No one is. Even when they are trying to help, americans still hating. Damn, what do they want then? Mexicans are helping to save AMERICAN lives and they still complain about it. Mexicans are not taking anybody’s job, they just take jobs that AMERICANS are not willing to do and yet they still call them LAZY….. Please, GROW THE HELL UP and see the freaking reality. Mexicans are not taking anybody’s job; they are just taking whatever jobs are left out there that Americans are NOT willing to do because of the pay rate, working conditions, etc. Why everything has to be blamed on Mexic ans, no matter what? If Americans are so angry about this issue then why the hell don’t they do something about it and STOP complaining.
Yes, there are a lot of people who do not speak English, but it is not their fault that they do not speak the language. It is not like they do not want to learn the language. Coming to a new country, learning a new language, adapting to a different culture it’s not something easy to do. It takes some real guts to do that and yet they still take advantage of whatever opportunity there is out there, knowing that it will not be easy at ALL.
All media does is just make people think different. Media influences many people’s thoughts. Even if it is something simple, media just makes the problem worst. It gets tiring hearing the same shit over and over again, always hating on other people. Damn, I just don’t get the reason why people don’t do shit about what ever issue they’re concerned of. If they are really concerned of an issue then they should step in and do something for their country. I have been hearing the same shit for a very long time now and all I see is people talking and talking but what I have NEVER seen is people taking action. They just talk but don’t act.
Why everything has to be blamed on Mexicans? If they don’t speak English it’s their fault, if they come to this country it’s their fault, if something goes wrong in this country it’s because of the Mexicans. People don’t realize many things, they just talk before thinking about it. They just say whatever is on their mind without analyzing what they are actually saying.
The media is an example, they just say whatever is convenient to them but they just don’t provide American citizens with full details of whatever is actually happening. They just take a story and make it their own.
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