Today in downtown San Diego, I watched a blue collar Mexican man get harassed for being Mexican. It was a blatant act of discrimination. And the man actually began crying. As he left the office building, he took off his jacket. His t-shirt underneath read, "I love the USA!" MMT

Comments

That really does make me sadder than any of the others here for some reason. It makes me ashamed to live in such a country.

This made me sad. I can't believe people would do such a thing. This is a country made from immigrant's and their contributions. That man did and had nothing against this country and I really hope he will meet people who will remind him why he loves the USA.

You should have went up to him and given him a hug.

This post really makes me depressed. Unbelievably so.

This story actually made me cry a little... I hope that one day, that man gets all the respect he deserves, simply for being human, without any judgment about his skin color or ethnicity.

This is horrible. Just horrible. I don't think I would've been able to even handle seeing something like this--I probably would've just broken down. I wish I could talk to that man and apologize on behalf of America; tell him that not all Americans are racists, and that this is his country too, if he wants it to be. Just picturing him there, frowning, in an "I Love the USA" shirt. *shakes head* ... *shakes head*

I think its true. Some people are just like that I guess :[ That's why its up to the nice people to keep everyone happy :]

This one made my stomach drop. It's not right to crush dreams in a country built to provide equal opportunities. Often immigrants are more patriotic than native Americans who take what they have for granted.

I immigrated to the US 13 years ago when i was 13. Adjusting to this country was the most terrible period of my life. People would yell at me telling me to go back where I came from regularly. They would call me a faggot for having long hair and tight euro-jeans... I have the last life though, I live in a nice apartment in Manhattan with my beautiful wife while most of them are mowing lawns back in NJ.

I'm a natural-born American and love my country, but things like this make me feel ashamed to call myself an American. There are way more people in America that would rather die than do something like this, but the few sick people who do horrible things like this have given our country a disgusting stereotype.

@7 lol.. take a good look at the world and be less ignorant.

This one made me cry.

This makes my heart hurt...the world can be such a cruel place. A story like this makes me hope and pray karma is real.

As I read this I was upset too, the thinking is all backwards. So many people said they were ashamed to be Americans. The jerk in the story does not represent America! Never has and never will. It's about time good common folks started believing in themselves, this country, and whats right --- and started speaking out --- instead of wringing our hands and apologizing and feeling guilty over the actions of a uneducated bigoted minority of people. Racism is wrong --- be it White, Black, Asian, or Hispanic racist. And there are racist in all color groups just as there are good decent folks in all color groups. We will stop Racism in this country when good common folks of all colors band together and say enough is enough! It will never stop if a bunch of whimpy people stand around and wring their hands and feel ashamed of this country.

I'd like to find this man and give him a reason to keep wearing that T-Shirt.. :( This MMT nearly made me cry... Don't the people of this country know we're ALL immigrants? Our ancestors CAME to this country! We didn't originate from here! Do these people PAY attention in history class? Talk about hypocrisy! If the guy who this MMT is about every reads this.. please let me know!

I'm a proud Mexican girl and i find that horrible. I can't believe that people still care about where someone comes from. what color they are. Or the type of clothes they are wearing. I really just don't see why people waste their time. All i have to say is that i love being a Mexican raised in America. and i love America with all my heartâ

this story made me very sad as well, but some of the comments did also, don't be ashamed of being American, be ashamed of the racist jerks who did this to the man. I'm an immigrant as well, from Canada :) I'm a First Nations person and know all too well the ugliness of racism. I love America, and know that most Americans aren't racists, we need to stand up when we see things like this happen, if nothing other then to let the fellow know that we aren't all the same as those taunting him. It would make a world of difference to him.

This one made me cry.

That's absolutely heartbreaking. I'm crying as I type this. :(

What made me think is that the OP did nothing to intervene. Too many people defending their own "rights", too few defending the defenseless.

That is just awful. I want to cry now :(

Things like this is a yet another sad fact of life that there are ignorant people. Everyone in America isnt like that either. Its really easy to point fingers and address the cause of where prejudiceness comes from. Its totally different living by it.

This is sad, but what is worse is that you didn't help the guy!

this made me cry. my dad is mexican, and he was once called a wetback at work by his boss in front of several co-workers.

I'm Mexican, and stories like this are one of the reasons why I hate my nationality and have worked so hard to be anything unlike the Mexican stereotype just to blend in. (Even when I speak in English, foreigners never recognize my Spanish accent, woohoo!...) I've met and befriended so many wonderful people from the US, however--and I really don't want to offend--SO MANY AMERICANS are so horribly prejudiced, ignorant, and have this maddening aura of superiority over us just because of their nationality (which, mind you, nationality is purely circumstantial). I have seriously had people ask me over MSN, "oh my god! They have COMPUTERS in Mexico?!" and other questions like "so do you all really only eat tacos and burritos, wear big hats, and do drugs?" What ticked me off was that the person who asked this to me was not joking; it was totally serious. These are the least offensive examples I can think of, but in any case it is obvious what people think of Mexicans anyway. However this idea could also be flipped around. Many Mexicans are very ignorant and prejudiced towards Americans as well, hence the slightly offensive term "gringo". So I guess this isn't limited to just one country, unfortunately. :( Such a sad world... discrimination/prejudices/stereotypes suck. If I weren't a girl or knew martial arts, I would beat the **** out of whoever did that to that man--even if I weren't Mexican.

Of all the stories I have read so far on this website, I was affected by this one the most. Like many of you, I teared up and almost cried. Maybe it's because my parents are immigrants; maybe it's because it's just plain wrong to discriminate. I am disgusted by his coworkers. He deserves a reason to keep wearing that shirt and I just want to give him the biggest hug :( Despite the adversity, I hope he is still proud of where he came from and can find faith in this country somehow. It would be the greatest shame for some foul individuals to ruin that for him.

"To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it"- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Next time dont just put it on this website. Help stop it.

This is fabricated.

Since I was 4 years old in private school, I was always ashamed of being Mexican. I dreamed of how much easier life would be if I was white. Until 9 months ago, I hung my head in shame. I grew up in private schools, with proper English and etiquitte classes, in a small, white, secluded, racist town. For the majority of my life I viewed being Mexican as a problem that would one day be fixed. For these past 9 months, I have found myself, and begun to accept it. It was seeing things like this story that killed me at the time, that now motivate me. One day my voice will reach out to people such as this man, because I have seen the same scene, countless times.

I can see this happen in my head and it makes me feel ashamed that people have transformed into horrible things. Did you know all humans came from Africa? And most of all discrimination is about darkskinned people? This makes no sense to me. All people are created equal.

being an immigrant myself, i cried while reading this. if only people understood how much harm they cause us, how much pain we can inflict on someone. its not easy to leave your life behind and come to a foreign country, wishing nothing more than to put food on the table. i hate how people just discriminate, it makes me sick. i would punch my harasser before letting others humiliate me or my people in such way.

It MMT my senior year of HS for my senior paper we had to write whether we believed immigrants should be granted to stay in the USA if they were working and not feeding off of our welfare. what MMT was the fact that my paper was the only paper that got an A, I was also the only one who agreed that if they are striving hard working people they deserve to be here more then the rich citizen born kids who have no understanding of the value of the dollar. This is the land of opportunity after all. It was sad to think that even the Latino students in our class (I am 100% Irish decent and an American Born citizen) would rather have these hard working people get deported back to a country they don't want to be in. Thank you for this entry, hopefully more people will learn to discriminate less and work harder for the jobs they are so easily handed, and that there are other people less fortunate and better for the positions.

@ #25 Please don't hate who you are because of the hatred in other people.. They are ignorant and obviously have some of their own self image issues. I hope you find acceptance for who you are just like #29. You are beautiful just for your mind, skin color aside. I am in a biracial relationship, who i feel could some day be the one to start a family with. Its hard to think about what my future kids will have to endure even now. My boyfriend is from Brazil and is very dark.. like i said in my last post I am 100% Irish decent and am PALE WHITE (so pale I glow ;P), I get sick to my stomach when such a simple thing like holding my boyfriends hand becomes an issue in public. BUT IF YOU GIVE IN AND HATE YOURSELF BECAUSE OF WHAT THESE IGNORANT PEOPLE PUT IN YOUR HEAD, THEN PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO WANT TO BE HAPPY TOO LOSE AS WELL. WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER SO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AND LOVE YOURSELF!

This broke my heart. That man has a story and it's not fair that someone would just ignore that fact because of his skin. He could have brought those people a new deeper respect for other cultures as well as our own. I hope they realize the huge wrong they just caused many many people.

I have spent many years loving and learning German and then being bullied for being American when I finally went to visit, as a teenager, and became really ashamed of my country and the negative and untrue stereotypes. I could completely relate to this post, it really made me think.

I actually made an acount just to comment on this. It made me cry. That is honestly one of the saddest things I've ever heard.

In america there is a long history of discrimination against minoritys e.gMexicans native americans, black people, irish immigrants the list goes on what confuses me is why does this man loves america so much when it seems that america isnt loving him back

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