https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/da ... fb827185baAn Arizona state lawmaker faces backlash after claiming immigration represents an “existential threat” to the United States, in part because “there aren’t enough white kids.”
Rep. David Stringer, a Republican from Prescott, railed against the changing demographics in his state on Monday at a Yavapai County Republican Men’s Forum event.
“Sixty percent of public school children in the state of Arizona today are minorities,” Stringer told the crowd. “That complicates racial integration because there aren’t enough white kids to go around.”
Calling immigration “politically destabilizing,” Stringer lamented that minority students will grow up to “change the demographic voting base of this state.”
“Immigration today represents an existential threat to the United States,” he said. “If we don’t do something about immigration very, very soon, the demographics of our country will be irrevocably changed and we will be a very different country. It will not be the country you were born into.”
Stringer’s comments began making headlines on Wednesday after David Schapira, a Democratic candidate for Arizona’s superintendent of public instruction, posted a video of them online.
Carlos Galindo-Elvira, regional director of Anti-Defamation League Arizona, called Stringer’s remarks “shockingly inappropriate.”
“We are deeply disturbed after viewing the video and hearing comments made by Rep. David Stringer regarding minorities and immigrants,” Galindo-Elvira said in a statement on Wednesday.
“There’s no place in our state government for this type of hateful messaging especially when we are a nation of immigrants; it is shockingly inappropriate,” he said. “Rep. Stringer totally disregards the numerous contributions made by immigrants for our country.”
Stringer, who is running for re-election this year, did not immediately return HuffPost’s request for comment.
In a statement to The Arizona Republic, Arizona House Minority Leader Rebecca Rios (D) called Stringer’s comments “another source of national embarrassment for our state.”
“Just as disturbing, there did not appear to be single murmur of disagreement from the audience,” Rio said. “We work side by side with Rep. Stringer and our Republican colleagues and want to think the best of them. But when will they stand up to divisive rhetoric like this that echoes fervent racists and white nationalists like David Duke?”
It is not the same country I was born into and thank goodness for that. I was born under the declining laws of Jim Crow. I remember segregation. I also remember meeting people from all over the world that came here for a better life. They started businesses and made a success of themselves. We have heard his idiocy voiced ever since we were a country starting with the No Nothing Party during the Great Awakening or as I like to think of it as the Great Shutdown after the age of Enlightenment. It went on against the Irish during the Potato Famine, The same sentiment continued against other immigrants the Germans, the Italians, the Eastern Europeans, the Jews, the Muslims, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Hispanics, and on and on. These heirs of the No Nothings even voiced these ravings against the Blacks, whose ancestors didn't have a choice about coming here. They even voice this crap against the Native Americans, who were here first. Also here first in the southwest, the Hispanics were here long before the "Americans" came and took the land.
Unfortunately we have a growing group of people that see themselves as the "True Americans" and are willing to voice their hateful displeasure at those they don't feel should belong here. These ignorant people have no idea what they owe to those immigrants. Example, they will complain about Hispanics while sitting at a Tex Mex restaurant eating Enchiladas and Tacos.
A big part of the problem is lack of real education. The education when I was in public schools almost 50 years ago glossed over most of the contributions of the immigrants and how the white Americans were an uplifting force helping all these immigrants. It has become worse over the years. Even to the point Hispanic studies were banned in Arizona.Texas almost adopted a social studies book that said slaves were brought to the US as Guest Workers.
We desperately need more real education to combat these idiots spewing out their hatred. I learned more history in college than I ever did in public schools. But now even in colleges the degree pans are not requiring History or Government classes unless you have that is a major. The excuse is it is not needed in most fields of study. But that's another Rant.
Rant off