California pedestrian crossing sign?

[nthfinity]

http://www.mycrazyvideos.com/video_yellow_sign_244.html

normally, i really dont care for this guy, but this is farily well done piece i think.

is this sign for real? can a So. Cal. member post a picture?

[corpse_grinder0]

that was pretty funny. and YES the signs really are there. Ive always noticed them and thought they were funny, though ive never seen a bunch of illeagals trying to make a break across the fwy. Id take a picture but its a good 3-4 hour drive in order to get south enough where they start posting those signs.

[redracer]

LOL the way he pretends to put the camera off

[antonioledesma]

10 years ago when I had the opprotunity to travel to Cali.... YES, I saw it a lot when I traveled from San Diego to Tijuana and viceversa.
It was... confusing at the beggining because you don't see it clearly and then you catch it after a while. I never saw a single person crossing or being near the freeways. Now imagine a man with his wife and little girl

and what a dickhead that guy was... he really believed the camera was off . Why not give a straight answer???

[ARMAN]

Did he say "white bags"?

[corpse_grinder0]

Originally Posted by ARMAN Did he say "white bags"?

wetbacks

[ARMAN]

Whats wetbacks?

[Overmind]

http://www.google.com/search?q=wetback

WETBACK Etymology The word "wetback" is a relatively new disparaging term for "an illegal Mexican immigrant or worker who crosses the Rio Grande into the United States, sometimes swimming to get across" (Hendrickson, 1997). There is some debate as to when the word was first recorded. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the word was in 1929 when Foreign Affairs used it to refer to a peon that walks or swims across and is welcomed by countrymen as a ‘wetback’. However, according to the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, the first recorded use was in 1948 when the number of illegal Mexicans swarming the United States increased by a significantly large percentage. Semantics The word "wetback" became widely used when the United States became involved in a military operation known as Operation Wetback. Post World War II, millions of Mexicans swarmed to the United States as the demand for cheap agricultural laborers increased. Between 1944 and 1954, known as "the decade of the wetback," "the number of illegal Mexican alien workers swimming across the Rio Grande to the United States increased by 6,000 percent" (Operation Wetback, 1997). As a result, in 1954 Operation Wetback got under way as a national reaction against illegal immigration. Commissioner of INS, Joseph Swing oversaw the Border patrol, and organized state and local officials along with the police. The purpose of border enforcement was "illegal aliens," but Operation Wetback became strictly focused on Mexicans in general. Officials swarmed Mexican American neighborhoods in southeastern states. Some Mexicans, "fearful of the potential violence of this militarization, fled back south across the border" (Operation Wetback, 1997). In 1954, the agents discovered over one million illegal immigrants. Many of the illegal immigrants were deported to Mexico by trucks, buses, trains, and even ships. In some cases, "illegal immigrants were deported along with their American-born children, who were by law U.S. citizens" (Operation Wetback, 1997). The agents used a broad criterion for determining who were potential aliens. They began racial profiling of Mexicans on the street. This practice incited and angered many U.S. citizens who were of Mexican American descent. "Opponents in both the United States and Mexico complained of "police-state" methods, and Operation Wetback was abandoned" (Operation Wetback, 1997). Cultural Adoption After Operation Wetback, the term became very popular among American culture as a way of defining Mexicans. Eventually, the term began to be used to refer to all Hispanics in general. To a Hispanic, the word "wetback" is just as derogatory as the word "nigger" to an African American. In fact, in 1997, Mary Ann Vigil took her employer to court after she claimed that while "working as a department clerk typist at the Las Cruces International Airport, her supervisor "frequently" referred to Hispanics as "wetbacks," and, in response to complaints that Hispanic customers were overcharged, stated, "I didn't know that Mexicans had rights."" (Mary Ann Vigil v. City of Las Cruces, 1997). Judges ruled against Vigil in this case because they felt that a couple of isolated comments did not truly constitute racial discrimination or bigotry. However, the case is worthy of mention because it shows the anger that a term like "wetback" arises among the Hispanic community. In certain parts of the United States, the word appears to be more prominent than in other places. For instance, according to Dan Marlowe, a Sante Fe attorney from Oakland, "he didn’t know what racism was until he came to New Mexico and noticed how often New Mexicans referred to Mexicans as "mojados," or wetbacks" (Not Much of a Joke, 1999, pg. 3). Similarly, during an Assembly Ways and Means Committee hearing in Nevada, politician John Marvel "averred as to how ‘wetback’ laborers might be hired to do repair work because they were good at working with adobe" (Not Much of a Joke, 1999). The assemblyman tried to explain that he was just trying to "make a joke." However, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, as an educated man and politician, John Marvel surely knew that "referring to immigrants as "wetbacks" is offensive to Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike" (Not Much of a Joke, 1999). Unfortunately, many Hispanics grow up in communities where they are constantly haunted by the use of the term "wetback". For instance, Rafael Espinoza is Salvadoran, born in El Salvador. He came to the United States on his own at the age of 15. He is now a 30-year-old union leader, the father of the three children, and married to a Caucasian woman. He explained in an interview that the first word he learned when arriving in this country was "wetback." (Steinberg, 1998). Similar to Rafael, many Hispanics, even Hispanic-Americans, are exposed to this term daily. Regardless of nationality, if a person does not look Caucasian and speaks perfect Spanish, chances are they will be called a "wetback" at some point. Discrimination among Hispanics is very prominent in the United States. For this reason, many Hispanics have band together to bring awareness to the problem. For instance, one Latin music band, Los Nortenos de Ojinaga, wrote a song called "La Discriminacion" which translates to "The Discrimination". The lyrics say: "We will always be the same, even if you become a citizen, even if some carry permits and others are already arranged, in the gringo’s eyes, we will always be wetbacks" (Lyrics Reflect Social Issues in Mexico, 2002, pg. 8). As a result, the term "wetback" is a racial slur that is very offensive to the Hispanic community. It is almost as offensive as calling a Hispanic a "spic". Although the word has gained popularity in the United States, it is a word that has a negative connotation for many Hispanics.

I almost died laughing while that official guy was explaining what that sign means .

[antonioledesma]

Originally Posted by ARMAN Whats wetbacks?

a shorter version, so you don't read overmind's loooong post

mexican that illegaly crossed the USA-Mexico border. Wet back because he/she crossed by the Bravo River (It's BRAVO, not Grande you gringos )

[Overmind]

Originally Posted by antonioledesma Originally Posted by ARMAN Whats wetbacks? a shorter version, so you don't read overmind's loooong post

I just had this unresistable urge to go into the detail here .

[antonioledesma]

Originally Posted by Overmind Originally Posted by antonioledesma Originally Posted by ARMAN Whats wetbacks? a shorter version, so you don't read overmind's loooong post I just had this unresistable urge to go into the detail here .

and I give thanks... that's info I only heard in gossip

[ARMAN]

Thanx both of you Tony and Overmind

[gucom]

man what an ass...putting all kind of lame excuses, then thinking the camera's off, then saying its about immigrants...funny vid though, and they made some funny signs themselves too

[ferrarif1fan89]

AAAAAAAAAHAHAHAH!!!!!! what did he say, run mohamo, rnu? but omg, i nearly soiled myself laughing when he told the truth!

[ZfrkS62]

Carlos Mencia is fuckin hilarious