London Telegraph, August 20, 2009
When Barack Obama arrives on Martha’s Vineyard for his first family holiday as president, he will enjoy the sparkling sea, salty air and fresh fish and clams.
And like others he will probably be unaware of the thousands of illegal immigrants the island relies on during its summer season.
But in the recession, a small army of dishwashers, gardeners and labourers, mostly from Brazil, has created a simmering tension with some locals and amid the excitement over the impending trip of the Obamas, some islanders hope their visit will bring attention to problems with immigration.
In an editorial on growing interest in the build-up to the presidential holiday, the Martha’s Vineyard Times commented wryly: “With few vacation details left to uncover, the press has adopted a storyline of an Island inhabited by happy, clam-raking yeomen simmering in racial, multicultural harmony. This is a ‘special’ place and there is no shortage of folks willing to let others know how special their special connection is.”
Yet last year, racial relations became stretched near breaking point when a local, white girl named Brandy Gibson was killed in a car accident with an unlicensed Brazilian in the country illegally.
Comments on local newspaper websites turned nasty. “Illegal Brazilians, I think you can see . . . it is time for you to go. What will it be next time? A car full of tourist kids? Then we’d all be scr*w*d,” wrote one islander in an anonymous posting.
Residents who were prepared their name included Jon Parkinson, who wrote: “Why is it that young people interested in learning the trades find that many of the entry level positions are filled by Brazilian laborers? Certain segments of the core industries that drive Island life (landscaping, painting, etc.) have all but been taken over by labor provided by illegal immigrants. These are people who drive cars, delivery vans and often large trucks in every town, day and night.”
Reaction to the incident subsided when it was revealed that Miss Gibson, 20, was travelling at 82 miles per hour and the sandwich delivery van driven by Francellyo Dias at nine miles per hour.
Plenty of locals spoke up against the reaction, including the editors of the Vineyard Gazette. “There is no question that Mr Dias should not have been driving that evening,” it said in an editorial. “But the hateful backlash against the Brazilians that has poured out in the last two weeks has no place in the discussion.”
When Mr Obama has finished his one-week stay, he will return to Washington to face a busy autumn agenda of health and energy reform.
Aides have made it clear that legislation to sort out the problem of 12 million illegal immigrants will have to wait until next year.
Original article
(Posted on August 20, 2009)
Comments
The Vineyard Gazette: “There is no question that Mr Dias should not have been driving that evening,” it said in an editorial. “But the hateful backlash against the Brazilians that has poured out in the last two weeks has no place in the discussion.”
This was the moment the leftist paper was waiting for. They say a small chance that the White girl was MAYBE responsible and they jumped all over it, even defending the illegal alien. They can’t control their anti-White bigotry, it is just in them.
If the media mention one problem with Brazilian-white relations on Martha’s Vineyard, then this means there are probably dozens they are covering up, which are far more the fault of the Brazilians than this car accident.
A few months ago, I read an article about how Hyannisport, Mass. is becoming more and more ganged up, mainly because the Caribbean Hispanics who serve as cheap labor for the Kennedy types.
We have always wanted the plutocrats to live with the consequences of their own politics, and now we’re getting our wish.
“And like others he will probably be unaware of the thousands of illegal immigrants the island relies on during its summer season.”
The summer jobs that used to be done by local American teens; jobs that American teens want but are no longer getting.
And what happens to these Brazilians after the summer season? Do they go home? If not, where do they live during the off season? How do they support themselves during the off season?
When the Vineyard becomes “Little Brazil” and loses it’s White-Anglo core, I wonder where the islanders will find to summer. When the Brazilians reach ‘critical mass’, I wonder what that will do to housing values?
Yet another self-imposed tragedy in the making and all for the sake of the oh-so-misnamed ‘cheap labor’.
even the phrase “martha’s vineyard” has always rubbed me the wrong way. both because it sounds so pretentious and because, as we now see, its filled with people who are so out of touch with reality they are willing to destroy their nation in the name of vague pseudo-virtues like diversity and tolerance.
At least 750,000 illegal aliens arrive in the U.S. each year, yet…
Why does the media persist in using the “12 million illegals” number that they first used about 10 years ago? It’s at least 20 million by now. Illegal immigrants are taking jobs Americans are perfectly willing to do, but they might have to be paid a bit more. The liberals can’t let that happen. They are fully on board with their pro cheap labor corporate masters.
I bet the vast majority of the wealthy whites of MV live well separated from the poor brown Brazilians. This is racism, and must not stand. The wealthy whites of MV must be forced to live nose to nose with the poor browns; the good of mankind is at stake.
The old joke about WASPs was you could tell how rich one was if he had a white butler.
Hey! Not only do I live here on Martha’s Vineyard year-round, but that’s my post in the MV Times about a ‘car full of tourist kids’.
Crime used to be UNHEARD OF here. Now, a young Mexican/American(?) & his unnamed juv companion robbed a taxi driver with a knife, and the charming up-island general store has been broken into.
Read the Court Report in the MV Times after ‘Brazilian Day’.
Now, a 26 y.o. Brazilian has died from swine flu.
‘They say…’ that the illegals are leaving the island due to the economic climate, but I see plenty. Maybe with lower prospects & more desperate to hang on.
There’s more conflict between Whites over recognizing this problem than there is direct friction with the Brazilians.
Oh, & they have 2 churches here, which I suspect are snake-head, illegal ‘underground railroad’ money-lending shylock outfits.
Something BAD could happen here.
We love our island & our way of life so much, and it’s just being taken away, and we’re not allowed to say anything, or we’re the ‘bad people’.
This sucks.
‘“There is no question that Mr Dias should not have been driving that evening,” it said in an editorial. “But the hateful backlash against the Brazilians that has poured out in the last two weeks has no place in the discussion.”’
In other words, SHUT UP!
Does anyone know what political views “REAL CLEAR POLITICS”, endorses. Are they liberal,conservative,etc.
I’ve been to the Vinyard several times. Lovely place. But the folks who own property there and own businesses that cater to tourism are very well to do. Indeed, most ‘tourists’ are well to do. The Vinyard is low key. No garish shops or amusements. Big Money from Boston and NY owns the large homes on the island.
This is a place where servants, not free labor is valued. Brazilian low wage workers have displaced the native blue collar New Englanders when it comes to repair and maintenance work.
It’s the Manhattan East Side condo mentality. The Kennedy Mentality. The rich have no use for immigration laws or for an environment that is white.
Indeed a few years ago there were no nonwhites on the island except for the curious enclave of Oak Bluffs, home to relatively wealthy blacks like Prof Gates and rabble rouser Spike Lee.
And WHO is importing and housing and employing these Brazilians who are working in ‘entry-level’ positions which used to be filled by young Islanders?
Posh rich white Americans, that’s who!
And my guess is that socially-prominent property-owners on the island are among their number.
And I’d bet even money that the same is happening on Nantucket, too.
Hi again from Martha’s Vineyard.
It is a poorly kept secret here that many of the illegals here work for large landscaping operations- OWNED BY MEMBERS OF TOWN GOVERNMENT, IN 2 TOWNS!
You should see the $30,000 SUVs getting loaded with free groceries at the Food Bank at a Vineyard Haven church. Also, one of our great island traditions is the Red Stocking Fund to assist needy families with donated toys at Christmastime. It’s being run into the ground by the illegals, begging for an outrageous number of toys, that wind up on Ebay.
We need more American kids to help out in the summer. Have a little adventure, get out of your town for the summer, and make a few bucks, a few friends, and a few memories. Check out the Chamber of Commerce website for job listings WWW.MVY.COM
Please suggest a Vineyard summer to your young people. The Vineyard is still very safe, and pretty cool.
In most of the Cape Cod hotels you’ll find summer help, usually young Irish kids who leave after the tourist season ends. They rarely cause problems and are hard workers. I would hate to see them replaced by crime-prone Brazilians or others who don’t go home and become a burden to Cape Codders. Locals have the right to keep riff-raff out!
Martha’s Vineyard might have a few problems with their cheap, NW slave labor - but anyone who thinks places like Martha’s Vineyard, Aspen CO, Manhattan, Georgetown will ever be turned over to the NW criminals is living in a dream world.
Barring some type of total collapse and mass revolution, civil war - the super rich lib/Min elite will carve out special places for themselves and their kind, the best we can do is to try our best to….
Share the pain.
Sponsor boat trips of the worst Black fraternities to party on Martha’s Vineyard - you’ll have to charter boats and the Lib/Min elites monitor the monopoly boat connections from the island to the mainland now.
I know an orthopedic surgeon from Connecticut whose son would go the the island to do landscape work during the summer. He was a college student and he and his Dad did not have a problem with him doing manual labor. It greatly adds to the character of a young man, especially one who comes from an upper-class background. His father is a great guy. But, that said,.. WHO IS HIRING THESE ILLEGALS INSTEAD OF THEIR OWN KIND. I am another one who relishes in the idea that it has come back to bite them in their posterior.
Why is the Secret Service allowing BHO to stay at a dangerious place like this? They are not doing their job.
I vacationed in Cape Cod and the offshore islands from about 1988 to 1995. I can’t recall seeing hardly any non-Whites there at all. Young Americans did all the seasonal tourist related work. There were a few young Irish students working there on some kind of exchange program but that was about it. On the Vineyard I saw very few non-Whites, although there is an Indian tribe that has a corner of the island for themselves and Spike Lee has a home there. I always thought that was odd that Lee would have a vacation property on such an overwhelmingly White place. In any case the whole area was very beautiful. This whole thing is really very, very sad. I guess all the business’s want now is cheap labor.
Grand Teton Lodge hires immigrant labour for the season but it is legal, white immigrants from Russia and Ukraine. The first two years my husband was here, in The States, he worked as a bellhop (do they still call them this now? lol) and most of the help from the service and housekeeping staff to kitchen and landscaping staff were immigrants or students from exchange programs from Russia and Ukraine.
To the 12 million illegals here,PLEASE self-deport back to your own country, ours has gone down the tubes.
If you go to the Oak Bluffs town website, look to the left. You will see a link called affordable housing. I thought that was odd, given that the island is a place for the wealthy. The link goes on to explain the need for affordable housing for the low income, for some title something or other blah blah. Then, look at the sites own stats on income on the island.There are almost no poor there, so why the need for low income housing, hmm?
Also, do a search on realtors on the island. In one listing for a property description it said “house your staff here…” This was for a 1950’s ranch home in what looked like the ‘burbs.
Yes, I do indeed see the demise of MV. This is how other places in the USA went down.
