I saw an AP picture of this sign featured in the print edition of the LA Times story about an anti-immigrant law that was overturned in the shitty PA town known as Hazleton. “All legals served”, what a bunch of jerks. It’s not much of a leap to associate it with the white/colored signs of the Jim Crow south, and those stupid Blue Brothers statues just reinforce the awkwardness of the racial dynamics at play here. I wonder how they check for legal-ness, do they ask for passports at the door? Do they kick you out for ordering a cerveza or just attack you with piercing stares? If I lived closer I think I’d like to round up a few spanish-speaking compas to have a drink at this asshole bar, just to see how they enforce this act of provocation. At least this helps to put a dent in the well-meaning liberal lie of “we are all one race: the human race”, that worn out phrase also used by those that find it too difficult to include the concept of race in their class analysis.
If they were honest they would use a sign more like this one:
Chanfles RSS Feed
My grandmother cried telling me a story how once, sometime in the 1940s, she passed herself off as white in order to eat lunch with her co-workers at some posh restaurant in downtown LA. She said she felt very guilty and ashamed later on.
where is that last photo from?
I just did a google search for “whites only” and came up with this link: http://dearkitty.blogsome.com/2007/03/26/
Kind of like that San Marino park with its “residents only” signs on the weekends. “non-residents” have to pay a “nominal fee”… much more undercover, but the intent and result seem to be pretty similar to me…
Ummm, maybe they got busted for serving underage kids? I know that it isn’t the case, but I wish it were.
My Japanese American father grew up under segregation in VA, but went to the white schools. I don’t know if it was because his father was a veteran, or because they were “legal,” or something was worked out, but that’s how it went. Several years back, he told me that there were other Asians there, too, Japanese and Chinese, who were “illegal”, and they did their business with the African American community. Later, some of these “illegals” integrated and assimilated into that community, by marrying in. In contrast, my father wasn’t really allowed to join white society in that way, though he was a popular student and well liked. That’s something to think about. This was back in the 1920s and 1930s.
I love the “No Spanish or Mexicans” part of the sign. Pendejos! That still leaves Guatemalans, El Salvadorans, Costa Ricans, Nicaraguans, Colombians, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Peruvians, etc, etc, you name it.
Haven’t they ever heard the word “loophole”?
simon compa, i do wish we were around to shit in that place, take care, and keep the critical eye looking ourway
It still surprises me when I see stuff like this. I know this crap is till going on, racism, but still surprises me.
Saludos from Salinas California!
It’s sings and attitudes like these that make me want to start screaming Chente’s “Los mandados” at people.
Any bar owner that wants to keep out Mexicans is not a good businessman (or woman). But yeah, I think guys could go in and provoke something, but as a woman I’d just stay out of such a place or town.
we should send some illegal irish immigrants in there to see if they will serve them.
sad. so sad. did anyone see the last episode of flight of the conchords? racism against the new zealanders.
What’s interesting is that for legal and census purposes, Mexicans were considered caucasian until 1930. In fact, many Mexican lobbies fought hard to retain that status. It’s hard to imagine things like that, having been imprinted with the sort of Pan-Mexican pride that began in the 1950s and 1960s.
Mexicans as well as most Arab people are still technically considered “Caucasian”. My birth certificate says the race of my parents is “White” and I was born in the seventies. I assume “La Raza Cosmica” was not an available choice.
Hey, Hazleton isn’t *that* shitty. The illegals aren’t flocking there cause it’s a competely bad place to live, you know – although at the rate things are going it may well end up being close to completely shitty sometime soon, particularly if Ted Kennedy and George Bush get their way with their next attempt to foist immigration “reform” on the country.
maybe one day that area will be gentrified and that bar will be turned into a Starbucks or American Eagle clothing store.
Stupid fucking, dumb redneck asswipe bar! Didn’t these fucking wipes ever read a history book the couple of years they went to grade school???
Spain in is in Europe which is home to the Caucasian (white if you will) race. Cortez, Pizarro and all the other low-life “conquistadores” were white guys.
Dumb fucking red-necks.
hehehe thats a pretty cool sign, looks like they took their time to make it. It even has an outline to keep the letters straight. It is indead a classy piece…
Almost all of you do not have a clue about this bar and sign. It is indeed
having to do with underage drinkers and not with any racial undertones. It is amazing how people can start the ball rolling without knowing the truth and blow it into being a redneck bar. The things that you all say and do on this site is just as bad as real racists are. Get a brain and understand the situation before you go off with everything being racially motivated. Just for all of your information, the bar owner was interviewed on CNN about the sign and exlained it as being of legal age because they were having trouble with underage drinkers. CNN immediately packed up the cameras and left.
Years back and still, especially in New Mexico and Colorado, many people of Mexican heritage claim that they are Spanish. It’s called the “Big New Mexico Lie”, and even though it’s an absolute historical fact that the first people in NM were settlers from Mexico led by soldiers from Mexico City, and NM was part of Mexico, many people still claim, “my people came from Spain not Mexico”. Anyway my point being that years ago “Mexican” was almost a dirty word and so many people including the gavachos would refer to Mexicans as “Spanish”. A ridiculous yet actual fact because Mexican or Spanish they still got discriminated against all the time.
Funny related story, I had an old uncle (Tio Lulo) who lived in Denver and when I was there once in the early 70’s he took me fishing. We left Denver early and stopped at a little cafe near the Poudre River (close to the Wyoming border), to get some breakfast.
We got out of the pickup and I noticed all the right wing bumper stickers on the other pickups parked, we walked in and I almost knocked over the wire spinning book holder that I saw was filled with books by George Wallace, Barry Goldwater, Strom Thurmond and all kinds of right wing and Nazi crap. I’m thinking Uh OH! We walk to the counter and sit down and everyone there, 10 or 20 people had a cowboy hat on and all were staring at us (Tio Lulo was a skinny dark Mexican about 75 yrs old, Dios Mio! I mean Spanish!), We sat there for what seemed like a century without being served until Tio spoke up loudly and seemed oblivious to the bad vibe, unlike me who was by then looking at the dinner knives as possible weapons. Tio Lou says again very loudly “Hey we want to go fishing today sometime, take our order please!
The waitress, who was an ugly dishwater blond, and had a visible 5 o’clock shadow like a man, and surly like says, “What you boys want? (No kidding, it was “you boys”). We ordered bacon and eggs and coffee and the place was stone silent for about 10 minutes until we got our eggs.
I was trying to act cool like nothing’s going on and Tio Lulo doesn’t give a shit he’s just eating his food without a care in the world.
This silence goes on for a while until the redneck waitress shouts out from across the counter, “Where you boys from?” Tio Lulo answers slowly and laconically; I’m from Trinidad Colorado! The old bag looks at me and I reply in my nicest voice “I’m from Los Angeles California”
This really made an impression on everyone there as they exchanged glances knowingly and the waitress blurted out loudly “Oh yeah! Well I used to live in California, in Santa Maria, and it was a nice place until all those Spanish boys from Los Angeles started moving up there with all their knives and gangs!
Oh shit I thought, here it comes, grab the knife and head for the door swinging. But all was silent until Tio Lulo slowly looked up from his eggs and bacon and with his stoic look and his slow direct Mexican er Spanish, accented way of speaking said into the silence of the room “Is that right? Well I used to live in California too, and it was a nice place alright, that is until the white trash Okies started moving there and ruined the whole place”.
Nobody said another word and Tio Lulo slowly finished his eggs, we paid and went fishing.
True Story, and God Bless Tio Lulo wherever he is.
Pablo sounds like a redneck.
What about the bathroom sign?
sorry, there’s no bathroom sign jeje