Anti-Latino Hate Crimes Rise for Fourth Year in a Row

Written by Guest Blogger

Originally posted on SPLC’s blog, Hatewatch, by Mark Potok on October 29, 2008

Hate crimes targeting Latinos increased again in 2007, capping a 40% rise in the four years since 2003, according to FBI statistics released earlier this week.

As anti-immigrant propaganda has increased on both the margins and in the mainstream of society — where pundits and politicians have routinely vilified undocumented Latino immigrants with a series of defamatory falsehoods — hate violence has risen against perceived “illegal aliens.” Each year since 2003, the number of FBI-reported anti-Latino hate crime incidents has risen (see table, below), even as a swelling nativist movement has become larger and more vitriolic. read more

Questioning Obama’s Campaign Tactics

Written by Guest Blogger

With the presidential election wrapping up in less than a week a change will certainly be a-coming. Whatever the results of Tuesday’s election may be, the lives of countless Americans will be forever changed.

The lives of people like Joe the Plumber and Bill Ayers will go back to relative obscurity, at least beyond their close circle of friends and associates. This may be a good thing or a bad thing, but I must warn you, be prepared for a resurgence in the future. This year’s election has seen unprecedented things many of which will be studied. The successes and failures of Barack Obama’s and… Read more

Response to Obama Murder Plot Says Much about Belonging

Written by Eric Ward

I was a 6th grader at Clara Barton Elementary School in 1976. The school bus I rode everyday was a multi-racial smorgasbord of young kids who were excited to get to school so that we could shoot marbles or show off our newest toy before class started. It was on one of those days, on my way to school, that I was told something that changed my life forever.

On a Monday morning one of my school mates whispered that the previous weekend neo-Nazis protested against Jews and blacks in one of the parks that we passed along our way to school and that it had been in the paper. No one really talked about… Read more

Immigration

Restricting the American Dream

Written by Stephen Piggott

In December of 1997, I boarded a plane from Ireland with my family bound for America. My dad had been offered a job in Chicago and he took it without question. When we arrived I faced the daunting task of starting school in a completely different country where I knew nobody. I didn’t think I would fit in with the other kids because of my accent and because the school system and culture is completely different. But from the first day I walked into my 5th grade class I found out that I had something good going for me: in America being Irish is considered to be “cool.” I was the center of attention… Read more

Immigration

American Apparel Wages War on Failed Immigration Policies

Written by Jill Garvey

If you’re under 30 you already know about American Apparel. If not, well, you probably know them best by some of their homemade-looking magazine ads featuring skinny non-models lounging around in underwear (very ambercrombie on heroin). American Apparel is the most successful clothing company in the United States. It has 200 locations worldwide and employs over 10,000 people, 4,500 in downtown L.A. factories alone.

Several years ago I read an interview with the company founder, Dov Charney, just as the company was embarking on their rapid expansion. He came off as quite a pervert, but there was no denying he was a radical and on… Read more

Mi Razon

Written by Guest Blogger

By Fortino Vargas

Estoy aqui, soy uno mas,
de la estadistica y discucion.
Dios, dame tu paz,
en pie de guerra la imigracion.

Por piedad, no me culpen mas,
soy humano, productivo en su nacion.
Si de mi depende, no quiero irme jamas,
pero estoy escondido,.. que gran afliccion.

Estoy aqui, estaba alla, soy uno mas,
sufriendo injusticias y marginacion.
Dios. no me abandones, se que tu me amas,
pero en mis dias….solo veo humillacion.

Mientras viven en mi pais,
ladrones, ursurpadores sin consiencia en el poder.
Politicos hambrientos, llevandose lo del maiz,
… Read more

Hunger

Written by Guest Blogger

Do I need you
Sweet agony past
Have you been my
Reason for the trip?

Do you hold my hand
And guide me through the present?
Do you chain my feet as I drag you through today?

Eat up my mind and
Leave me starving for some
Other thought.

Lies in the past
Lies in the present
Where then is there any
Truth at all?

Who is this clown
Without his makeup
Is it government?
Is it politics?
Is it god?

Can you look him in the face
or through your television screen?

Starving man
In the midst of obesity.

Homeland Guantanamos

Written by Katie Bezrouch

The right to live is the most basic human right. The U.S. has been praised for its progressive human rights record by international watchdog organizations and is considered to be among the world’s most free nations. Even though this country began with a horrific genocide, some claim we are above the horrific acts once practiced in America: we are a living and leading example of freedom now, right? We have washed our hands of the blood we drew in our past, and even display a statue facing the open ocean that says “Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free…” that famously welcomes any and all oppressed peoples.

So why… Read more

Culture

America: Bigger, Taller, Stronger

Written by Guest Blogger

Somewhere in the vast plains of Iowa you can find the World’s Largest Truck stop. The Iowa 80 Truck stop is unlike any other gas station, tourist shop or rest stop. To be quite honest, it is a small city.

In addition to being able to do your own laundry, take a shower, or play a few arcade games, you can visit Irene’s barber and styling shop; have your teeth examined at Interstate Dental; seek advice from the Career Center; visit the Custom Shop if you need anything embroidered, engraved, or have a need for vinyl graphics; fill your belly at the Iowa 80 Restaurant; and even catch a classic flick at Trucker’s Theater (which… Read more

White Nationalists Running Scared from the Left and the Right

Written by Guest Blogger

By Melissa Nalani Ross

In the course of my research I was recently flipping through the latest Citizens Informer, the hate newsletter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) – an organization “advocating against minorities and racial integration” ­– expecting the usual fare of bigotry against non-whites. From issue to issue, I’m never particularly taken aback anymore by the masquerade of polished rhetoric used to rationalize their racism. Senator Barack Obama has been fodder for most of their attacks as of late, so I was expecting more of the same.

To my surprise, however, in Joel T. LeFevre’s… Read more