Miguel A. Diaz Is Back. And He’s Writing About The Holocaust! And 9/11! And Mexicans! Eating Babies!
3 December 2007, 2:15 PM. By Alex Alvarez
Now that he’s made us aware of his dating exploits, Miguel A. Diaz is back to give us his take on how to discuss immigration. Well, how should those of us for whom immigration is a serious issue go about broaching the subject? Perhaps by making it inclusive to the experiences of others throughout history. By drawing parallels. By comparing it to… mass genocide?:
A Canadian Jew and a Mexican American talk in China. While on the subject of the negative reader feedback which the latter has been getting as a result of his writing on Mexicans in the United States, the Jew comments: “Sometimes it’s better to keep your opinions to yourself.”
Astounded to hear this from a Jew, the Mexican American asks: “What if people took on a policy of silence concerning the Holocaust?”
“That was a long time ago!” The Jew snaps back.
Oh. Awko taco…
Why then should humanitarians in general and Mexican Americans in particular keep their opinions about the human tragedy which has been unfolding for decades in Mexico, at the border, and in the United States to themselves?
Valid point.
My friend’s comment was all the more surprising considering his late mother was imprisoned at Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz. I know some will protest my use of the Holocaust in the context of other human tragedies. “It’s sacrosanct: don’t you dare compare it to anything else!”
I am not comparing it.
Good thing you’re not, because that would be like comparing apples to, say. The Holocaust. Well, we guess it could get worse, right? It’s not like he needlessly mentioned another headline-grabbing event that’s often brought up in reference to immigration for the purpose of gross sensationalization…
Others will argue one tragedy is worse than the next. Nobel laureate Doris Lessing, for example, was quoted saying that, “September 11 was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn’t that terrible.”
Nervous laughter.
Comparing Tragedies: A Letter from a Mexican American in China [New American Media]
Earlier: Predators Without Borders: Writer Miguel Diaz’s China Syndrome
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“I know some will protest my use of the Holocaust in the context of other human tragedies. “It’s sacrosanct: don’t you dare compare it to anything else!”
Why can’t we compare the Holocaust to anything else? Why is the Holocaust any more important or tragic than whats happened to millions of other people throughout history? What about whats happening now in Darfur? What about hundreds of years of enslavement of blacks whose families were torn apart and raped and tortured? But somehow these tragedies aren’t as important or as bad as the Holocaust… thats BULLSHIT! And yes, as is the case whenever someone speaks about the Holocaust in a way that is not completely overly reverential, no doubt I will be called an anti-semite…
P.S.- FRED is a robot
@ rebekah: I don’t think that’s why Diaz’s comments come across as more than a little absurd… He’s specifically comparing (even though he claims not to he did, in fact, bring up the Holocaust as an example and thus made himself open to be criticized or called out because of it) the fact that many Mexican immigrants coming into the U.S. illegally are suffering because of their economic situation in Mexico - not like the Jews (and others), who were demonized and made out to be subhuman by Nazis during the Holocaust. These groups were victimized based on their religion, race, sexuality, etc. and, you know. Were brutally tortured, mutilated and murdered. By the hundreds of thousands.
It really is a case of comparing apples to oranges and by bringing up the Holocaust and 9/11, Diaz is overshadowing the valid points he does make in his article. He drowns out his own argument by trying to call too much attention to it.
To Rebekah… Diaz brought up the Holocaust after he was asked by a Jew to keep his opinions to himself.
For your information, tens of thousands of people have been murdered and mutilated in Central America, especially during the Cold War. In Mexico, millions upon millions live desperate lives. Also, as Diaz mentioned, hundreds die in the desert each year.
You seem to think that 6 million Mexicans need to die before others take this as a serious matter. I would have to agree with the following quote:
“But engaging in such discourse avoids the real issues entirely. The bottom line is that a human tragedy is a human tragedy whether it’s the Holocaust—the genocide at Darfur—or the millions of economic refugees who have been pushed out of Mexico by hunger and political corruption.”