As an employee of the News Herald, ninety-nine percent of the stories I write are assignments given to me by my editor.

For these assignments I go where I am supposed to go, take pictures and interview key personnel to help give me the correct information to formulate a news story for our readers.

Every Saturday I am allowed to give my opinion on any subject I desire. Personal columns are what writers live for. Anyone in the journalism field knows these brief allotments of individual ideology and opinions are worth their weight in gold. What follows is not a news story, but rather my opinion on a subject that is touchy to the black community:

As the country wrestles with the immigration movement of Mexican citizens in the United State illegally, there have been many media references liking the current situation to the history of blacks in this nation.

In my opinion that is as irresponsible as it is insulting to blacks.

I really don’t have the space to note all the layers of disrespect that such assertions insinuate, but I will make a few key points.

Firstly, blacks neither immigrated to this country nor did they sneak in under the cover of night. This stark contrast as to how the two groups of people arrived on the continent eliminates any further discussion that classifies blacks as immigrants.

An immigrant is a person who willingly travels to a nation other than that of his or her origin for the purpose of establishing residence. I think we all know that immigration is not the appropriate term to use concerning the migration of blacks to this continent.

I’m just warming up.

Another habit that many media outlets have adopted is to describe the plight of Mexicans using the term &uot;Latino&uot;, which is another grievous error.

The term Latinos would refer to persons of Latin American descent. Mexicans do not count as Latin Americans; they are North Americans who live on the southern tip of the continent.

If you don’t believe me ask a Puerto Rican, Panamanian or a Dominican, and I’m sure they will be happy to discuss the nuances of the Spanish speaking population here in America.

Do you remember when Haitians were clamoring to get into the United States a few years back and the government was doing everything possible to send them back to Haiti never to return?

Well those Haitians were trying to escape a splintered governmental regime that had threatened the lives of men women and children, and many of them were in jeopardy of being brutally murdered had they remained in Haiti.

The stance of the United States government was &uot;sorry your problems are not ours&uot;.

I’ve already given my two cents about the group of people whose ancestry actually originates on this continent. Nobody ever asks them what they think about all of this, but what’s new about that?

There are two groups of Mexicans in the United States, those that are here legally and those that are not.

The concept that any blanket amnesty should be given to illegal immigrants is a slap in the face to the tens of thousands of people worldwide who wish they could live in the US.

Most of them are probably from Iraq.

The debate over immigration in this country is inherently racist.

The underlying debate that seems to stay out of the press is the relationship between the exacerbation of illegal workers doing jobs that under-skilled blacks use to do and the proliferation of blacks engaged in illegal drug trafficking.

Here’s a dynamic that the majority of white America does not want to hear about.

Illegal Mexicans are the primary vehicles for the majority of the drugs brought into the United States, while black males are the largest segment of U.S. citizens incarcerated for drug violations.

Whoa.

Many of the Mexicans that are used as &uot;mules&uot; for illegal drug transport come from poor families in their home country who are looking to get into the U.S. illegally and find a job doing something that blacks use to do, but they will do it for less money.

Some of the same households and companies that employ illegal Mexicans will not consider hiring a black man fearing that he might introduce drug culture or violence into their environment.

This region has proven to have a sub standard educational model as evident by the recent legal rulings that have come out of Raleigh.

So imagine a black male living in an area where his teachers and his school may be so inadequate so that he can barely function as a productive citizen when he is finally of age. Add to the fact that any aspirations of landing an agricultural, construction or service industry job have just been dashed because some employer just hired an illegal Mexican to do the same job for two dollars an hour less.

Now when that black male is looking in the face of his wife and kids and trying to figure out what to do to feed his family, what do you think is going to be the one occupation that will be ready and willing to accept him as a new applicant?

If you don’t know, then go ask an illegal Mexican.

If you can’t find an illegal Mexican who speaks English, then go to the new $90 million prison they just built in Bertie County, I’m sure the majority of it’s residents (who by the way are not Mexican) can tell you this exact same story.