The Minutemen Want to Talk about Bigotry

July 27, 2009 by Jill Garvey · 4 Comments
Filed under: American Identity, Immigration 

The Chicago and Illinois minutemen showed up to protest the National Council of La Raza’s (NCLR) Annual Conference yesterday. When I spoke to the 10 or so minutemen members gathered outside the first thing one of them said to me was “La Raza is a racist organization, in my opinion.” When I pressed several members to explain why NCLR was racist, I received responses ranging from “they don’t support English” to “we have to protect our borders” to they promote “ethnicity over nationality”.

Just for the record I am including an excerpt of NCLR’s mission statement from its website: “The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) – the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States – works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans. To achieve its mission, NCLR conducts applied research, policy analysis, and advocacy, providing a Latino perspective in five key areas – assets/investments, civil rights/immigration, education, employment and economic status, and health. In addition, it provides capacity-building assistance to its Affiliates who work at the state and local level to advance opportunities for individuals and families.”

As I’ve covered the conference I’ve spoken to attendees of all ethnic backgrounds that support and applaud NCLR’s work. In fact, NCLR launched a campaign specifically to address and counter hate and violence in the immigration debate called We Can Stop the Hate. Read more

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