the real cultural imperialism

america is often accused of cultural imperialism, with phrases like "McWorld" thrown out there. yes, mcdonald's was formed in america. but from my experience and from what i've heard, mcdonald's changes its menu depending on what country its in, and hires from the local labor force. so other than originating in america, i wouldn't consider it's overseas franchises to be overtly "american."

that was kind of random... bear with me.

the real cultural imperialism, in my opinion, is not flowing outward from america, but into it, in the form of mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal.

cultural imperialism is texas students declaring that the mexican flag should fly "at least above the texas flag" on a flagpole outside of a houston school. at least? as in, maybe it should be above the american flag too? i think not. and these arrogant bastards (strong language, but i think appropriate) in california taking down the american flag and rehanging it upside down under the mexican flag.

cultural imperialism is dallas county requiring it's teachers to learn spanish or lose their jobs. not offering incentives like a salary bonus for learning a FOREIGN language, or doing more to teach the mexican immigrants english, but forcing employees to learn another language or get fired.

cultural imperialism is me--well over 1,000 miles from mexico--having to speak spanish so that i can communicate with part of the customer base at my bank. because it's obviously too much trouble for them to take the time to learn the language of the country they're living in. i don't expect them to be fluent (because i wouldn't expect myself to be fluent in their situation), but i expect them to be able to communicate in the local language. the younger generation of mexican immigrants (often second-generation) is picking up english in school and is well on it's way to becoming bilingual, which i think is a good thing. but the older generation seems to be much more interested in american money than american culture.

cultural imperialism is the mexican state of yucatan publishing a guide on how to sneak across the border into the US. (unfortunately, it looks like the link to the actual guide is down, so you'll just have to work with this article)

cultural imperialism--or more appropriately in this case, sheer mexican arrogance--is illegal aliens protesting for relaxed immigration control. if you want the rights and privelages that come along with being an american citizen, you need to be an american citizen.

and none of this is helped by the fact that our politicians seem to have no balls (or whatever the female equivelant of that expression would be) when it comes to immigration and border security. mexican immigrants are far from being a majority in america, but they are still a fairly decent sized chunk of the voting population. our elected representatives seem to be more interested in getting re-elected than in border security and immigration reform. they are, in effect, selling their votes on matters regarding illegal immigrants so that they can buy the votes of the immigrants who came here legally.

i think i'm going to leave off here, because i'm getting more and more pissed as i write and this is turning into a rant. i think this gets my point across, and gives you a starting point if you're interested in reading more.