Musk launched career by working illegally

[pixy0stix]

Gift link - wapo.st/4e0PdyI

[sent]

Before I opened the link, I already knew the TL;DR would be "It was the 90s. They are white so people overlooked it until they fixed it." They being Musk and his older brother who seems to be more cognizant that they were both, in fact, illegally here. Elon glosses over the illegal part with euphemisms. I didn't know he had an older brother.

The link had this little anecdote - "After they [US federal agents at the airport] turned him away, he said, he enlisted a friend to drive him over the border, telling officers they were headed to see David Letterman’s show. Officers waved them through and Kimbal made it to the meeting."

Anecdote time - This brought back memories of my teen years. My parents and I used to drive between the US & Canada regularly in the 90s. We usually were driving to visit Niagara Falls or Toronto and buying ethnic snacks and food over in Canada for personal consumption back in the US. We needed zero documents besides my dad's driver's license though I think my parents used to keep our passports on hand just in case since we're not white. Most of the time, they just waved us through. My parents told me they were tracking our license plate to make sure we were telling the truth when we answered their questions but that didn't seem totally plausible to me. Driver's licenses were still good enough to cross the border at least through 2008 because we looked into this option to attend the wedding of a co-resident in Canada. One of our co-residents didn't have a US Passport but also wasn't white and was constantly pulled over by TSA post-9/11 when flying domestically. That resident decided not to risk it. My impression of all this was that our country cared who was here but didn't care that hard. I guess because we still had a white majority, all was ok in the USA.

[livinitup]

I feel like we are all about to talk about “working illegally” for white people vs brown people the same way different people talk about abortion & health care for women.

“I would never get an abortion. I had a d&c after my miscarriage.”

“My friend Jean-Francois from Montreal wasn’t really working illegally. He had a visa and just overstayed it and worked for the bar down the street for cash for a few years instead of going home.”

[erbear]

Oct 26, 2024 22:49:28 GMT -5 livinitup said:

I feel like we are all about to talk about “working illegally” for white people vs brown people the same way different people talk about abortion & health care for women.

“I would never get an abortion. I had a d&c after my miscarriage.”

“My friend Jean-Francois from Montreal wasn’t really working illegally. He had a visa and just overstayed it and worked for the bar down the street for cash for a few years instead of going home.”

Right. Elon Musk being white is the difference here.

[sakoro]

And now he denies it

[aurora]

Oct 27, 2024 15:57:46 GMT -5 erbear said:

Oct 26, 2024 22:49:28 GMT -5 livinitup said:

I feel like we are all about to talk about “working illegally” for white people vs brown people the same way different people talk about abortion & health care for women.

“I would never get an abortion. I had a d&c after my miscarriage.”

“My friend Jean-Francois from Montreal wasn’t really working illegally. He had a visa and just overstayed it and worked for the bar down the street for cash for a few years instead of going home.”

Right. Elon Musk being white is the difference here.

White and male and wealthy. Of course a million people will say it is OK for him.

We are a nation of hypocrites.

[cville]

Oct 27, 2024 15:59:41 GMT -5 sakoro said:

And now he denies it

Ah, yes. I am sure he is telling the truth. He's shown himself to be an honest person and capable of self reflection throughout his career.