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Racist Billboards Evoke Strong Protests In New York

A P Kamath in New York

Craig Nelson says his protest is not about skin color but about numbers and that he is not against immigrants. But those who are angered by the two billboards he has put up in Queens are convinced he is targeting Asian and Latino immigrants.

Several top politicians in New York, led by Queens Borough president Claire Shulman protested against Nelson's message this week. Shulman said Queens, which has the most diverse ethnic population in America, has been revitalized by immigrants, "who have enriched our culture." Shulman, who is white, was joined by a rainbow of community leaders at her press conference. There were several clergymen also.

While Shulman agreed with Nelson that he has every right to put up the billboards, she accused him of being divisive.

"We don't need this kind of message," Shulman whose grandparents migrated from Eastern Europe, declared. "It just incites people to do and say things that are inappropriate in a city like ours."

"Queens is proof that people of every race, nationality and ethnicity can live and work together for the improvement of all of our communities." Queens has over 150,000 people from the Indian subcontinent, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago. Jackson Heights, a home for more than 100 subcontinent businesses, is in the heart of Queens.

Businessman Nelson's billboard reads: 'Over 80 pc of Americans support very little or no more immigration. Is anyone listening to us?' Then there is the address of a Website promoted by him and his friends: www.ProjectUSA.org.

Nelson has spent about $3,000 of his own money to put up and maintain the billboards. The second billboard asks: 'Tired of sitting in traffic? Every day, another 6,000 immigrants arrive. Every day!'

Nelson, in his early 30s, started worrying about immigration while teaching English in Beijing about two years ago. He does not want New York to be another China or India, he says.

Nelson says his main concern is to provoke a calm debate about crowded streets, subways, schools -- which he says are triggered by a surge in immigration

"What people like Nelson do not understand is that there has always been anti-immigrant sentiments in America," notes Alan Kravitz, whose grandparents migrated from Russia. Kravitz, who lives in Queens in a heavily ethnic neighborhood, believes there cannot be uncontrolled immigration but he also feels that people like Nelson exaggerate the negative aspects of immigration

"At some point or the other, every immigrant group here was resented," he says. "The Irish had for a long time problem getting good jobs in the last century, so many of them joined the police or became politicians. The Italians were resented by many groups."

Nelson says he is not worried by the adverse reaction to his movement.

"We need to be talking about public policy that is changing the very nature of America," he says. "We have to stop being afraid of such discussion. We really need to get people discuss the issue calmly. I just want a chance to discuss this issue in the mainstream."

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