The Great American Melting Pot, Pt.79 (Somali Spice)

THE USA SEEMS TO BE A LAND constantly struggling with her own stated precepts and ideals. The so-called “Great Melting Pot” that my teachers told me about in grade school does not brew an easy mix, but one that is constantly bubbling and boiling and in turns hissing and spilling onto the heat. People like to say “every wave of immigrants has to fight to be accepted,” likening the struggle that (por ejemplo) Mexican migrants face with that of the Irish or Scottish or German migrants, por ejemplo. And yet, Mexicans have been “here” (depending on where your “here” is exactly) long before the Germans and the Scots and the Irish, etc. This is one reason this line bothers me. After all, they—we—are not done fighting for that right. So why so long that the indigenous of this land are persecuted for not bowing to an invisible line drawn in bloodmoney?

Which is why I always bring up the fact that being “allowed” to be here, or being “assimilated” or accepted is not equal across the board, nor is the time before your people are given the rights and respect they deserve based on nothing more than being called “immigrant” at one time.

Nowadays we don’t hear so much selling of the Great American Melting Pot, eh? Which is why I made the graphic above a year or two ago. Because I was literally raised hearing this from my teachers. It was a prevalent meme in society at the time (1979, 1980). And then you grow up and have your hands full battling far too many Mainstream Shriekers and other whisperers telling us that “multiculturalism” is a rot upon our nation. Interesting how that happens, eh? Just give the Census count a few years of absorbing non-white immigrants, and people begin freaking about the soup!

The latest meltiness in our beloved cauldron comes from Somali immigrants filling in for many of the Latino migrant workers after ICE raids have hacked away at the population of Mexican, Guatemalan, etc workers, and are throwing a wrench in the whole “arrogant Mexican” meme for one thing…

Founded in the mid-19th century by German immigrants, Grand Island gradually became more diverse in the mid- and late-20th century with the arrival of Latino workers, mainly Mexicans.

The Latinos came at first to work in the agricultural fields; later arrivals found employment in the meatpacking plant. Refugees from Laos and, in the past few years, Sudan followed, and many of them also found work in the plant, which is now the city’s largest employer, with about 2,700 workers.

In December 2006, in an event that would deeply affect the city and alter its uneasy balance of ethnicities, immigration authorities raided the plant and took away more than 200 illegal Latino workers. Another 200 or so workers quit soon afterward.

The raid was one of six sweeps by federal agents at plants owned by Swift, gutting the company of about 1,200 workers in one day and forcing the plants to slow their operations.

Many of the Somalis who eventually arrived to fill those jobs were practicing Muslims and their faith obliges them to pray at five fixed times every day. In Grand Island, the workers would grab prayer time whenever they could, during scheduled rest periods or on restroom breaks. But during the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims fast in daylight hours and break their fast in a ritualistic ceremony at sundown. A more formal accommodation of their needs was necessary, the Somali workers said. [...]

In dozens of interviews here, white, Latino and other residents seemed mostly bewildered, if not downright suspicious, of the Somalis, very few of whom speak English.

“I kind of admire all the effort they make to follow that religion, but sometimes you have to adapt to the workplace,” said Fidencio Sandoval, a plant worker born in Mexico who has become an American citizen. “A new culture comes in with their demands and says, ‘This is what we want.’ This is kind of new for me.”

—A Somali Influx Unsettles Latino Meatpackers

“The Latino is very humble,” said Mr. Garcia, 73, who has worked at the plant, owned by JBS U.S.A. Inc., since 1994. “But they are arrogant,” he said of the Somali workers. “They act like the United States owes them.”

Mr. Garcia was among more than 1,000 Latino and other workers who protested a decision last month by the plant’s management to cut their work day — and their pay — by 15 minutes to give scores of Somali workers time for evening prayers.

After several days of strikes and disruptions, the plant’s management abandoned the plan. [...]

Since then, Ramadan has ended and work has returned to normal at the plant, but most everyone — management, the union and the employees — says the root causes of the disturbances have not been fully addressed. A sizeable Somali contingent remains employed at the factory — Somali leaders say the number is about 100; the union puts the figure at more than 300, making similar disruptions possible next year.

“Right now, this is a real kindling box,” said Daniel O. Hoppes, president of the local chapter of the union, the United Food and Commercial Workers.

—A Somali Influx Unsettles Latino Meatpackers