byJOHN BOYLE
Sometimes you manage to overhear something so painfully stupid and tone deaf that you’re not really sure a live human being would utter such drivel.
But I’m quite sure the woman who left me a little stunned in the burrito line a few weeks back probably makes such comments all the time, and probably feels even more emboldened since Joe Biden’s debate debacle in late June.
So here’s what happened. I’m in a burrito chain with my wife, just wanting a somewhat healthy chicken bowl with all the accouterments, which in my world typically include lettuce, pico, cheese, cooked onions and peppers and maybe a dab of sour cream.
Before I could order, I overheard a conversation that I think highlights the divide in our country, as well as ridiculous assumptions about immigrants.
A grandmother-aged woman, apparently with her two young grandkids fresh from a soccer game, ordered just the meat — literally just beef and chicken — to go. The cashiers were trying to figure out how to bill her, and they consulted a co-worker who appeared to maybe be a Hispanic guy to figure out how to charge it.
Honestly, I couldn’t tell where the guy was from, just by looking at him or listening to him talk. And double-honestly, who cares? I just wanted him to get the line moving again.
He, like the other employees, clarified with the woman again that she just wanted the meat and nothing else.
To which she replied, “Yes. That’s how we do it here in America! Welcome to America!”
What the hell?
I mean, this is decidedly not how we do it in America. We get beans and rice and cheese and guac and pico and sour cream and about 10 other toppings on the meat, and usually put it in a nice fattening tortilla to run up the calories even more. That’s why we all weigh 300 pounds.
Secondly, why would she assume this guy just arrived in America?
Hell, he could’ve been born here for all she or me or anyone else knew. It was judgmental, of course, but also just condescending and more than a little mean-spirited, in my view, although I suspect she would not see it this way at all.
Maybe she says this to everyone, but I kind of doubt it.
As she paid, the checkout guy said something to her, and she replied with a laugh, “Let’s just hope we get Biden out of there in November.”
To me, this speaks troubling volumes about how low we’ve sunk as a country, not just because of the rudeness but also the hubris in feeling so comfortable saying such things publicly.
For a week or two, I second-guessed myself that maybe I was being too sensitive – a snowflake, if you will. So finally I reached out to Chris Cooper, a Western Carolina University political scientist and, in my view, a very even-keeled guy, to get his opinion on whether I was blowing this incident out of proportion.
He allayed that fear.
“There’s nothing less political than your [burrito] order, but she finds a way to mention Joe Biden,” Cooper said. “I think that that shows, one, how politicized everything is at this point, including what your damn [burrito] order is.”
The other issue, Cooper said, is you really don’t know who’s an immigrant and who’s not from such a short interaction. You may have a hunch, but you don’t really know what someone’s status is without asking for details such as a green card, or whether they’ve become a naturalized citizen — or maybe they were born here.
And even if an immigrant, that person might just be more patriotic than a native citizen. You read that right.
“The evidence is actually pretty clear that people who immigrate to this country actually hold stronger to traditional American values than people who were born here, or at least as strong,” Cooper said, noting researchers have studied this. “You survey immigrants to the country, and you ask how much they believe in freedom and individualism and capitalism and all these lists of American values, and immigrants always score at least as high, if not higher, than native born Americans on these metrics.”
So yes, the comments struck Cooper, like me, as potentially racist, possibly false, and definitely irrelevant.
“Because, so what if he’s an immigrant?” Cooper said. “And if he is, he might actually be a better American than she is.”
None of this is new of course. Immigrants – whether it was Irish or Scandinavians or Italians or Latinos coming here for a better life – have been America’s boogeymen and women for centuries.
“So I don’t think this is a Trump 2024 invention,” Cooper said. “Unfortunately, this is a thread that’s existed since the beginning of the United States.”
Immigration a topic in the debate
Clearly, we’re in a supercharged political environment right now, and immigration has been one of the hot-button topics.
Unsurprisingly, immigration came to the fore in the recent debate between Trump and Biden. Biden’s largely incoherent performance didn’t help him stake out his position or actions, and Trump continued to pump out lies about immigration and Biden’s actions.
Allow me to pause here to note that I hope Biden steps away from this election and hands the reins to someone else. His debate performance raises serious questions about his mental acuity.
I’ll vote for Biden if he stays in the race. I’d rather have a diminished Joe Biden in office, with Kamala Harris waiting to take over, than allow Trump to run roughshod over the Constitution, democracy, and general decency.
Still, despite his misrepresentations and lies about immigration, Trump has a point, and it’s a topic that resonates with Americans. I don’t know anyone who supports an open border — and Biden doesn’t, either — but we have to have meaningful controls in place to stem the tide of illegal immigration.
NPR had a good fact check on what Biden and Trump claimed about immigration during the debate, noting, “Trump accused Biden of allowing millions of unauthorized migrants to enter the country. He also said many falsehoods about the current state of immigration.”
NPR said Biden “attempted to explain what he would do to continue lowering the number of migrants crossing illegally, despite that number hitting an all-time high during his tenure.”
Biden “attempted” a lot of explanations, not many of which landed. But NPR goes on to state that Trump’s claim that the Southern border is open is not accurate:
“It is true that under Biden, unauthorized crossings hit a record high, oftentimes overwhelming certain border communities and straining its resources. But the border is not ‘open.’ In fact, it is arguably more reinforced than ever. The federal government has added more sections of the U.S. Southern border walls, and there have been more military operations at the border.”
Biden’s administration has also increased expedited removals, and the president put an executive order in place to restrict asylum seeker numbers. Biden says unauthorized crossings have dropped 40 percent, but NPR notes, “these types of dips are not surprising,” as these policies deter migrants temporarily but then numbers surge again.
A lot of Republicans also play on Americans’ fears of immigrant crime, invoking several recent high profile cases, including the murder of a 12-year-old girl. While those cases are horrific, NPR points out the data show “a vast majority of immigrants do not commit crimes.
“In fact, a study by Northwestern University examining a 150-year period found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the U.S.,” the article states.
Still, unauthorized immigration is a huge problem, and it’s gotten worse under Biden, who didn’t take it seriously enough until this year.
“Illegal border crossings have averaged 2 million per year since 2021, the highest level ever,” a Washington Post article from February states. The article provides 12 charts on immigration, and it’s well worth your time.
It’s clear that illegal border crossings under Biden have been astronomically higher than under Trump — reaching an “all-time high of 2.2 million in 2022,” according to the Post article. While you can disagree with Trump’s policies, which at times were heartless and involved separating families, the numbers are clear, and they don’t look good for Biden.
Still, it’s not like the president has done nothing. “The number of people taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol has reached the highest levels in the agency’s 100-year history under Biden, averaging 2 million per year,” the Post article states. Of course, that’s largely driven by much more illegal immigration.
People are also coming here now from a much wider array of countries, the Post notes. Under Trump in 2019, the busiest year during his tenure for border crossings, “about 80 percent of migrants taken into U.S. custody were from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. Last year those three countries accounted for fewer than half of all border crossings,” the Post wrote.
We need immigrants for our workforce
For decades, politicians from both parties have failed to take meaningful action on immigration, including greatly increasing legal immigration.
We need the workers badly. We had 8.1 million job openings in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and that situation is probably not going to get better.
Despite claims to the contrary, immigrants are not “taking our jobs,” and most Americans don’t believe that. As the Pew Research Center reported in 2020, “Americans generally agree that immigrants – whether undocumented or living legally in the country – mostly do not work in jobs that U.S. citizens want, with a majority saying so across racial and ethnic groups and among both political parties. This is particularly true when it comes to undocumented immigrants.”
When we got a new roof on the house a few years ago, the entire crew was Hispanic, and installing a new roof is brutal, hot work. Same thing this year when AT&T installed new fiber optic cable in my neighborhood, which involved a lot of hand digging. A few weeks ago when I got my hair cut, all three stylists in the shop were Hispanic.
As I mentioned in a column in April, we have 17,000 job openings in our region, with about 7,000 people who are not working and actually seeking employment, according to the Mountain Area Workforce Development Board, which covers Buncombe, Henderson, Madison, and Transylvania counties.
So that’s 10,000 job openings that are likely to go unfilled.
Maybe we ought to just be grateful someone at the burrito shop is actually working and trying to figure out how to bill an unorthodox order and keep the line moving.
I kind of doubt the “Welcome to America” grandma would do it eight hours a day, especially while dealing in a professional manner with people like her.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. John Boyle has been covering Asheville and surrounding communities since the 20th century. You can reach him at (828) 337-0941, or via email at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go toavlwatchdog.org/donate.
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These bigots were always there but Trump 45 gave them the okay to voice their narrow views in public. Here is a non PC statement – hope she enjoys doing her own landscape etc when #47 ( lets hope not ) deports everyone who is not Arayan. Then she can make her own burrito.
Yes, stupid old MAGA people should have to mow their own lawns and cook their own meat!! She probably just came from church!
Remember that there are not-so-old MAGA people as well. I feel so sorry for this Grandma’s grandchildren witnessing this and thinking that it’s the right way to be because Grandma’s doing it. Shame shame shame on her.
your right… nothing like a evangelical church to set you on the “right” in more ways than one. she should be considered for child abuse .. for exposing children to such negativity.. and the meat
eating.. no vegetables.
Good morning, John. Well, that should really bring ’em out of the woodwork. 😉
Two weeks ago, my partner became a naturalized citizen. This, after 15 years in this country, advanced degrees, steady employment as a teacher, community engagement, jumping through hoops, meeting with immigration, hiring an attorney out of her own pocket, studying 100 questions about our country that dumbasses like that old ‘meat only’ lady and convicted felon Trump probably couldn’t answer, and taking a solemn oath before the flag. It was a moving ceremony, and this city and country are lucky to have her. Many of our best Americans were not born here, and I wish we could ship the tone deaf idiots out of here. If people want to live in this country, they should learn to order off the menu and not be such a pain in the ass.
Totally AGREE!! Nobody appreciates this country more than a naturalized citizen. They go through so much both financially and emotionally to become a citizen.
Americans are very spoiled especially if they have never traveled abroad and seen how the rest of the world lives in many instances.I read this piece right after I read accounts of MTG’s Declaration of Independence “gaffe” about the signers — she claimed “certain Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence when they did not,” loudly and publicly on social media, only to be corrected several million times. I bet that’s an error Robert’s partner wouldn’t make.
I don’t even know what to say.
I am hopeful SOMEONE knows who this woman might be and shames her in whatever way possible. Ignorance knows no bounds and I think it is awesome you printed this.
Thank you John. I worry about the ignorant and angry Trump people like this grandma who vote. Maybe they have buzzing between their ears? Not much evidence of anything else.
On top of everything else, she’s a classic “Karen.” I hope this column runs in the paper.
Thank you for calling out her nonsense. I wish someone would have said to her face, in front of her grandchildren. It makes me disgusted how the older Republican crowd seem more emboldened than ever to spew these types of racist remarks. I have family members who have said worse and when I call them out on it, they defend their comments to no end. But when I turn the tables and ask them if they would say the same thing about a group of white people, they have no response. It’s a scary time we are in when racism seems to be growing instead of declining.
I agree- it would have been so nice to witness if someone would have called her out on her actions right then and there. At the same time, it probably wouldn’t have worked. This lady more than likely would have lashed out at yet another person without knowing anything about them, either.
What started off as a “whacky Grannie” interaction, quickly became a forum for you to launch your political opinions on us. I, too, hate Trump. But I don’t let a Grandmother ordering “only meat” (even more strange than her immigration references) as permission to spill my political thoughts. We have 320 million people in this country – about 23% are clearly out of their minds. Move on.
America has not had an decent immigration policy, a path to citizenship for about 50 years. Why dump it all on Biden? The ‘path’ is slow disorganized, unstaffed, unprofessional, and all the departments have no connection to each other. I know this because I followed this ‘path’ 40 years ago. And nothing has changed, in fact is has gotten worse. Come up with a policy, someone, and then fund the agencies. We need good workers.
Kudos, Mr. Boyle. I constantly struggle to answer the incredible ignorance and shallowness of individuals like this that I encounter in the community and in my family. After we get over our shock, maybe the best thing is to say, “You’re wrong” to her and validate the hardworking folks they’re denigrating!
This is where we are. So sad. Let me share an amazing story about how much “immigrants” want to be here.
I have a friend who started out as a housekeeper who is from Mexico. Met her through a local maid service and she barely spoke English. The local maid service was taking advantage of their undocumented workers. She broke away and went on her own. She went to night school to learn English and started the painfully long and very expensive journey to get her green card. To make this short over the years she got her green card continued to become a citizen all working the entire time. Bought a house went back to night school for nursing and brought up a smart child as a single mom. Her contribution to this country and economy is incredible. I am so proud of her and grateful to be her friend. All while going through this she has kept her sense of humor.A woman standing in a burrito joint whining “That’s how we do it here in America!” is pretty rich. Apparently Trump has killed self awareness and irony in MAGAland.
Good grief!!! I know plenty of people that support Trump who wouldn’t behave that way. How did the actions of one fool become MAGA related?
You folks never miss an opportunity to make accusations that this kind of behavior is the domain of conservatives. Look at yourselves… SMH
I’m thinking of the horridly ill-mannered lady but even more, with sadness, of her grandchildren. Recently I watched the vintage musical “South Pacific” and heard once again the stunning song “You Have to be Carefully Taught”, about teaching your children to hate others.
I just watched it last week, and that song really hit me a relevant today. I feel for those kids, and hope they have other adult roll models in their lives.
One of your best articles yet. Of course, we see these people everyday in growing numbers. It is a sad day for America. We visited a blueberry farm in Alabama yesterday and they had trees loaded with blueberries however no one to pick them. The only person they could find quit that day!
What a timely opinion piece!
Unfortunately, hatred of immigrants has been rampant throughout our history. Often. It is used by politicians who have no real goals, but know how to use hot botton issues to get attention.
This Sunday’s NY Times had an article about the 1924 Presidential election which was contentious to say the least.
Hatred of immigrants was a huge issue.
The KKK openly demonstrated with white sheeted parades; so remember – it could always be worse. Now they hide behind MAGA hats.The average IQ in America is 99.7. Half of America is below that. Which means limited skills in problem solving, rational analysis, and advanced mathematical skills. Arrogance and confidence are clearly not beyond them however. They are happy to put their lack of education and experience up against your PhD. any day. And now have Dolt45 and Faux News. Until this unity, they were simply “the folks over there under the trees” by themselves at the family reunions ranting about something, anything, who knew? Now, while shrilly demanding their liberties and rights to live free from any govt interference, they give up any pretense to freedom of thought and defer to the nearest demagogue without hesitation, restraint, or conscience.
Not only this – but NC has been defunding public education for decades now. Increasing the number of charter schools allowed in the state, plus cutting funding, plus now giving tax payer dollars for private school vouchers to just about anyone in the state is plan to dismantle our public schools and lower critical thinking skills so more people will be easily brainwashed. Everyone better get out and vote – and vote for Joe Biden if stays in the race. We need to be all in to save democracy. We need to be sure that our children have the freedoms we had. We need to be sure that women don’t lose even more rights.
Yes! I am very concerned about the attack on our public schools. We Americans aspired to a noble ideal: teaching EVERYONE, free of charge, regardless of their disabilities, regardless of their income, language, immigration status–you name it. We must support education in this country and make sure we embrace everyone!
In my 3 trips to Asheville over the last 7 months to look at real estate in Buncombe County, I have visited a lot of new home construction job sites. I have never heard any English spoken, only Spanish. The construction crews are all Latino. In my 6 trips through the Asheville Airport over the last 7 months, I have heard as much Spanish spoken as English. Asheville’s “ART” (Asheville Rides Transit) bus map is printed in both English and Spanish.
I also see signs in Russian around Asheville. There’s a large Russian community in Asheville, with Russian grocery stores, etc. My favorite Asheville real estate YouTube channel is run by a Russian lady, Elena Kovrigin.
I live in a part of the country where white people are the minority and 2/3 of the population speak Spanish as their first language.
This is America, and we are all Americans, black, brown, and white, speaking a multitude of languages.
The New Colossus
BY EMMA LAZARUS
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”Nice, Big. Thanks for the reminder.
The only people who are not immigrants are indigenous people we mistakenly call “Indians!” Everyone else is an immigrant!
Hate is not going to move our country forward.
The woman was too political. John Boyle is too political. Too much unnecessary interjection of politics all around. This kind of a column only makes the political divide wider.
Actually, not. That woman was simply rude and wrong. Such people (of any age or color) should be called out at every instance…and certainly denied service.
Nope.
Good folks like you, John, need to be vocal to folks like grandma when you witness denigrating behavior like this.
Maybe I missed it, but I saw no reference to the immigration bill that was in Congress a few months ago, a bill that was negotiated in part with hard-right GOP Senator Lankford. It was seen by both sides as a strong bipartisan border agreement that would help considerably with illegal immigration – until Trump decided that it would look like a win for Biden in an election year. Trump ordered the GOP to kill the bill, a bill they had negotiated and agreed to until Trump weighted in.
If you are going to talk about how many illegal crossing there have been during Biden’s term, you should also mention that Biden has been trying to work on border issues but the GOP refuses to cooperate. The GOP prefers to keep it as an issue rather than allowing real solutions to be enacted.
And how many of the MAGA thralls do you think understand or even know Trump killed the legislation so he can continue to sell fear and ignorance to them. If you can’t spot the mark at the table you’re it.
But note that Biden changed all of Trump’s executive orders on immigration as soon as he was elected and now he puts in new executive orders on immigration. Why now? He had the power to keep Trump’s orders in or to put in new executive orders 2-3 years ago. If he has had this power, why is he “fixing” things now?
Anything that happens politically is not coincidence. FDR
Apparently the idea that a nation policy on immigration should come from the congress is alien to the Republican Party as twice now it has scuttled comprehensive legislation.
Exactly – thanks for bringing that up. I wanted to but didn’t have the words.
My reply was to melting pot American. Just to be clear.
Well done, John, as usual! There is no limit to the ignorance of the MAGA followers, and as stated by many, Trump has given them permission to show their mindless prejudices at all times. We are all descendants of immigrants – how do they think this country was founded? Oh, they don’t think!
When Trump was first elected, I was in the grocery store checkout line when two young men were ahead of me with a cart full of beer. These two told the lady in front of them that they would “own her” before too long because “things were going to change”. She was scared. I told them (I am an old lady and I didn’t think they would hit me) that I doubted they were raised that way and I hoped it was the beer talking. Of course, one of them cursed me, and a manager pulled them into another line. But both of us ladies stood at the front of the store and cried together. Nearly 8 years later, it still makes me cry. What have we come to?
And how dramatically did your life change during Trump’s presidency.? Were you “owned” by those hooligans or other hooligans?
This makes me want to cry and it breaks my heart for the children with this woman to hear such coming from their grandmother. I’m a grandmother myself and I hope if I ever hear someone in line in front of me talking like that I will speak up. It might be the only time the children hear someone say that kind of talk is not OK!
I believe in shaming this type of person to their face… make them so uncomfortable that they just might think before speaking in such a way again. Let them know how it shows up their ignorance. Everyone is indeed entitled to their opinion, but I don’t have to agree or tolerate bigotry in my presence.
Did anyone speak up during the burrito incident? If no is the answer, that in itself is part of the problem.
Thank you!
It’s time we all start speaking against those like this woman. Speak calmly, know your facts. My husband and I believe MAGA voters have become so vocal because we (Democrats) have allowed it.
Honestly, I purposely try to find Hispanic workers to do work around my home.
I have lived in a new construction neighborhood for about 8 months with mostly Hispanics doing the construction. They show up on time and stay their entire 8hr shift. Rarely call off. The builder allows breaks and lunches because I see them eating.
They are pleasant and always wave with a smile. I feel totally safe having them in our neighborhood.
Thank you for the article John.John, thank you for bringing this up. Great column. Sadly, based on the comments left on your site, the folks you are referring to, like this grandma, do not read your column. I’m glad I do. And I agree with most of these comments.
Great article!
Helpful research topics: Smith-Mundt Modernization act passed by Obama in 2013. Read the whole thing.
Also UN Agendas describing the ‘Core’ and the ‘Gap’. Devil in the details.I love the strength of these comments to your best ever editorial.
Yesterday I was chased down by a Walmart employee whom I had asked where I could find a product and he haltingly said, “I no speak English so well”. I mimed the wall hook I needed for the item in my cart. He began to scroll through his search devise. I got bored and said “Thanks, anyhow” pleasantly as I could. (I was tired). I rounded into the next aisle and he came up to lead me to where the product was. Now there’s a guy who WANTS to do a good job. (He was busy stocking when I approached him) He will have enough English down in 6 mos. But he’s an intelligent, hard-working, polite man. My best nurse when I supervised was a
E.European who had 2 MasterScience. Isn’t this what we need?
There ARE hard issues in the world today. JOE didn’t MAKE climate change or a world full of more people fleeing
untenable situations. Which is why we need a functional Congress to pass legislation addressing these issues. Not one which Trump rallied to defeat a bipartisan border bill twice, in Feb & May.
Just to keep fear and hatred alive about increased
border crossings.
To the grandma: I always wonder. Is SHE missing respect or love?
What makes people hate, instead of feel open, confident in themselves, willing to listen?
BTW, I just made a donation to AVLWatchdog. I will also support Biden, Kamala or whoever runs against a candidate who wants to destroy a system of checks and balances or who wants to stir up hatred among Americans.When I was younger and worked in the service industry and someone talked to me with disrespect, they always got a little hidden surprise in their takeout order…just saying…
how disgusting.
There is a simple answer to all of our ills today HATE. Get it out of your life and our problems will solve themselves.
Why didn’t you say something to her? That is one of the problems. These people are vocal, and the left won’t stand up. I am at fault too. We are weak.
At what point in the woman’s disgusting comments did she mention Trump? Look on the bright side —- she gave you the opportunity to publish another one of your anti-Trump-rants. People who are anti-Biden aren’t necessarily pro-Trump.
Think this is bad?
A few weeks ago my wife and I visited a mid-Florida restaurant that used to have a sister establishment in our home town of Orlando. The one local to us was great, served up a nice mix of various meats, and had a nice ambiance to it with all the old 70s and 80s standards that came out over the speaker system. For some reason or other it didn’t do as well as expected and closed down, much to our disappointment, so when we were in the area of the ‘home’ restaurant recently we decided to revisit old times and have a meal there – what a mistake!
While the food was fine the place itself was the most rednecky place I’ve ever been to, and the people at the table behind us were from another universe! The guy just wouldn’t shut up and spoke long and loud in the most disgusting manner, to his female companion, the female server, anyone and everyone. Most of the discourse was about women – to describe the language as sexist doesn’t do it justice, yet he thought the dialogue witty and charming. Our server, little more than twenty, took the brunt of it, yet didn’t seem nonplussed by it all as he grilled her on the most personal and inappropriate aspects to her life – when he discovered her age, he piped up with ‘Oh, so you’re the same age as my daughter. She recently told me she’s a lesbian, which is great as it gives us both something in common – we both like puss*!’ That pretty well nails the kind of crap we were listening to. My wife was deeply offended by the entire loudmouthed performance, as any woman should be. I found it all cringeworthy as a male, given that the guy exemplified every worst aspect of my gender’s attitude to women – the guy was like a dinosaur to the distant past. Yet probably the most astonishing aspect was that the manager clearly regarded this oaf as a regular and smiled good naturally at the language any time he passed by, while the server ended up sitting down opposite the clod for ten minutes to chat! That on it’s own would have been considered very unprofessional conduct in a regular restaurant – that she was willing to indulge the guy’s language and attitude was off the charts bizarre.
Obviously this is more about gender issues than the main thrust of the article, yet my point is that disgusting behavior in public comes in all forms and seems to becoming more and more prevalent. Needless to say, we’ll never go anywhere near that restaurant again!
This is the kind of person who thinks it’s disrespectful for a person of color to kneel peacefully before the flag, but then has no problem when a white person uses the flag to pummel a fellow citizen.
Great Article! Just another ignorant MAGA person that has no idea what is really going on cause they can’t see beyond their nose. I had an incident where I was refilling my propane tank at Ace Hardware and the woman filling it was wearing flag socks. After she was done she said to me “Have a good holiday, thats if we will still have a country soon”. I just laughed.
And this is just ONE issue. How about the USA proxy war against Russia via Ukraine, all those innocent people being killed? How about the USA giving Israel arms to kill all those innocent Palestinians, incl 16,000+ children? How about the constant threats to rescind the ACA, close the VA, privatize all edu and health care, ban not only abortion but all contraception, ramp up the selective service program to include women—for what??—who are we going to invade now?? This is the sad tip of a huge iceberg.
While the news in Asheville over the last year has been about a city councilwoman’s car being vandalized at her home, 2 steering committee members cars vandalized, also at there homes, police cars lit on fire, and just last week, 3 people assaulted at a meeting at the library, this writer chooses to zero in on a single woman’s rant at a burrito store. The writer (and all those present) chose to not say anything to her directly, but stewed on it for a week or two before deciding to write about his outrage. While he and the commenters on this page are zealously attacking the Maga crowd, they never seem to acknowledge the violence and anger displayed right here in Asheville by the Anarchist crowd against those they disagree with. The writer also speaks about how can we vote for a man like Trump, yet freely admits he would vote for a man who the writer himself says is also unfit to serve and should drop out of the race. Jump down off the high horse folks, you all are prepared to return a man to office who is clearly unfit to serve, and will clearly not finish his second term. How exactly does that make America look stable and make Democracy stronger?
Hi Bob, Keith Campbell here. I’m the managing editor of Asheville Watchdog. John wrote about the vandalism recently. You can read his piece here.
How does voting for an insurrectionist criminal convicted of sexual assault and civil and criminal fraud make America stable? How does it make democracy stronger to vote for Trump – who knew he lost the election, but protected violent rioters on Jan. 6 (who were beating police with flag poles killed one, defecating in the Capitol offices, and calling to hang to vice president) in the hopes they’d help him overthrow the election through a massive conspiracy? Trump and MAGAs direct harassment campaigns and dog-whistle violence against public servants, election officials, jury volunteers — and Trump promises to pardon his followers for any violence they commit. Let’s not pretend MAGAs or Republicans hold sincere concern about stability or democracy. They embrace and excuse violence to undermine stability and democracy.
Wish your story included a part about the other customers calling this disgusting and rude woman out. We need to stop being bystanders and confront rude behavior like this. Trump’s fear mongering and hate filled rhetoric has given the green light to this type of foul behavior. STAY STRONG AMERICA!
Consider yourself ‘lucky’ that’s all you heard. I’ve heard worse. Also what worries me in comments like that is the lack of consideration and good manners that seemingly have disappeared from our society. Think whatever you like but keep ill-mannered and ill-considered words in the empty head.
The discourse has only gotten worse since Trump normalized it. I was appalled to hear GOP gubernatorial candidate, Mark Robinson, recently telling a group, at a church no less, that “some people need killing.” God forbid we have come to the point where we kill people who disagree with us.
They’re dog whistling. Jan. 6 insurrection was a dress rehearsal.
Well said Bob h.
Insurrections involve weapons. Insurrection my butt.
These folks on Jan 6 were a thousand times better behaved that the antifa lefties.
Sadly, the Democratic circular firing squad is in full force creating a distraction from the dire issues that should be currently in front of the viewing public.
The takeaway for me is: Racists vote as a community. They hate together. They reach out to each other in public and remind one another to turn that hate into policy by voting.
Compassionate and sane people can also vote together. We can remind each other that we need to vote too, if we want to stop hearing corrosive bigotry normalized. We need to vote in every election and every race from president to local school board – and do more than that. We need to talk to each other, encourage each other, help each other through the complication and inconvenience of political organization.
Conservatives do a great job dragging their families and bigoted church groups to the polls.
We need to start bringing our communities too.
And we need to get to the position where we can turn to other people in line and say, “What a disgustingly racist comment. We need to vote in November or we’re going to hear more of that kind of racism in public officials, which makes people like that think bigotry is okay.”
Unless she speaks one of the 167 languages indigenous Americans speak (English is NOT one of them), she ain’t from here.
This is what Trump has done: he’s ripped the scab off of the hate-filled, racist, xenophobic, misogynistic boil that’s been festering in American for way too long. We’re all supposed to twist ourselves into knots to accommodate their ways. I hope the 2024 election will send them the message that we’re completely done with that; that they–for once–need to grow up and realize that they’re NOT superior, and they do NOT have the right to assert their racism anywhere and everywhere they want.You were way nicer to her than I would have been.
I don’t always agree with you on everything you write but you hit the nail on the head this time. I am 60 years old and it really scares me what the future holds for my 34 year old son and my 18 year old niece who happens to be bi-racial and is one of the smartest motivated kids out there. The world is going to heck in a handbasket and it scares the daylights out of me.
I was in the Hendersonville McDonald’s one morning when a foursome of older white folks were breakfasting and two young families of Hispanic appearance came in. The Muzak began to play a Mexican melody. Suddenly, one of the white women called over the kid sweeping the floor and said, “You go tell the manager to stop that music right away. It’s totally in American!” To the kid’s credit, he explained it was on a loop and couldn’t be changed. To my discredit, I said nothing. The only way to protect victims of bigotry is to gently call it out publicly. Silence is always assent. Victims do not alter their treatment; those who observe, can and must.
“”Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”
—Albert Einstein”And wasn’t he an immigrant?
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