Proposed Local Meat Plant Draws Racist Remarks from Both Sides [View all]
An article in my local paper, the Scottsbluff (Nebr.) Star-Herald offers some interesting insight into racism on its front page here. (I get the real paper, they don't post articles to their Website until the next day or so.)
A company called Future Food Energy LLC is proposing constructing a beef-packing plant in Scottsbluff. Nearly four-hundred people turned out to ask questions of its future general manager.
The proposal involves hiring approximately one hundred fifty people, and the venture is backed by South Korea. The South Korean investors see opportunity to help unemployed Korean-Americans in Denver, Colorado, so part (unspecified how big a part) of the recruiting drive for employees will be in Denver.
Racism was on full display at last night's meeting on both sides.
For the company, they note "Korean-American work harder [than you people? than other Americans? curious exactly where he was going with that], and they are not on unemployment [yeah we're just all deadbeat takers here]" thus not many local residents of Scott's Bluff and Morrill (my own) Counties would be hired. (Of note, Nebraska has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.) Yeah, good way to get support for your project, by slam-dunking the locals with racist and bigoted remarks. He then proceeded to lecture the folk on how they needed to curb their racism and adjust.
Residents of Scottsbluff and surrounding towns opposing the construction of the plant noted problems with a similar plant in Lexington, Kentucky (a valid argument to make), and asserted that Korean-Americans would be "takers, not makers" and suck money out of Scottsbluff, that the school district would have to expand its English as a Second Language programme (remember, these are Korean-Americans) at the expense of art, music, and sports programmes that do not generate much income (like girls track, heaven forbid someone here suggest cutting football).
On one side a conservative businessman who makes racist commentary against the local community, and the local conservative community making racist commentary against people who are Americans but do not live in Scottsbluff. Nice welcoming attitude we have here in the Panhandle.
A fascinating article on how both opposition and support for a program degenerates into racism on both sides.
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