Racist women told Burger King manager to 'go back to Mexico.' He gave them a lesson in civics instead.


Social media may be "ruining society" according to a lot of people's grandparents. But it's also a pretty helpful tool for spotting racists and publicly shaming them. Incidentally, a lot of those racists are also people's grandparents... kinda makes you think, hmmm?

Recently, two elderly white ladies were spotted in a Burger King in Central Florida being racist towards a man who they overheard speaking Spanish. That man turned out to be the manager.

Some nearby customers were filming the incident and posted the video online where it's gone viral. "Go back to Mexico," says one of the women. "If you want to keep speaking Spanish, go back to your Mexican country." She then continues: "this is America. Our main language is English. ... Speak your Mexican at home."

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Culture

AOC slams border patrol agents over leaked 'violent' posts about her in secret Facebook group.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has called out the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol for fostering a "violent culture" after a ProPublica report revealed border patrol agents were sharing violent, threatening posts about her in a popular secret Facebook group.

The posts about AOC came on the heels of her visit today to Trump's detention center/concentration camps, including one in Clint, Texas, where agents have been accused of keeping children in inhumane, neglectful conditions. The ProPublica article included screenshots of sexist, xenophobic and threatening posts and memes from the group, targeting AOC and other congresspeople as well as horrific memes and comments joking about dead migrants. The group, which is called "I'm 10-15"(10-15 is apparently code for "aliens in custody"), has about 9,500 members from across the U.S.) and, according to the intro, is a "funny" and "serious" place to discuss working with the U.S. Border Patrol.

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Democracy

The photo of a drowned asylum seeker and his 23-month-old-daughter says everything about our so-called 'immigration debate.'



When the Associated Press published Julia Le Duc's photograph of a drowned Salvadoran man, Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, and his 23-month old daughter Valeria, it sparked outrage on social media. According to Le Duc, Ramírez had attempted to cross the Rio Grande after realizing he couldn't present himself to U.S. authorities to request asylum.

But beyond raising awareness via Twitter and Facebook feeds, does an image like this one have the power to sway public opinion or spur politicians to take action?

As journalism and psychology scholars interested in the effects of imagery, we study the ability of jarring photos and videos to move people from complacency to action. While graphic imagery can have an immediate impact, the window of action – and caring – is smaller than you'd think.

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Canada resettled more refugees than the U.S. for the first time. That's shameful and unconscionable, America.

The U.S. has slashed its refugee resettlement numbers by more than 75%.

For the first time since 1980, the U.S. doesn't lead the world in refugee resettlement numbers.

The U.N. states, "A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so."

Refugees differ from asylum seekers in that refugees' claims have already been verified. Asylum seekers only gain refugee status after their asylum claims have been vetted and been determined to be legitimate. Refugees are the people we know can't go home.

The United States has a long history of refugee resettlement. Up until 2017, the U.S. resettled more refugees each year than the rest of the world combined.

Now, for the first time since the Refugee Act of 1980 was passed, we no longer lead the world in that category. In 2018, Canada settled more refugees than the U.S. by about 20%—28,000 resettlements to our 23,000. Canada, as a reminder, has one-tenth the population of the U.S. and its economy is about one-tenth the size of ours.

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Democracy