Anti-Latino Hate Crimes Rise for Fourth Year in a Row
Originally posted on SPLC’s blog, Hatewa
tch, 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
The Discrimination of Lowered Expectations
By Nora Flanagan
As a teacher, I often encounter the supposedly subtle indicators of bias in the form of differentiated expectations for various groups of students, followed in my head by the screaming subtext.
“He’s very well spoken…[for a black kid.]”
“Her writing is exceptional…[for an immigrant.]”
“Her mother is very involved in her education…[for someone from the projects.]”
These are the most stinging kind of backhanded compliments. You do something well, but only because we don’t expect your kind to excel in that area. We are pleasantly surprised when a Muslim in a burqa speaks her mind, but a woman of Puerto Rican descent is living up to her stereotype by the same behavior. We file people into infinitely complex levels of predictions and benchmarks, not realizing that in doing so, we collectively hold a group back to the minimal expectations we allow for them, both individually and collectively. Read more
Hip-hop Republicans are Down With GOP. No, Seriously.
Skimming campaign news items last week I came across a commentary on the theroot.com that made me giggle. It was called We Down With GOP and was about Hip-hop Republicans. Nerdy title aside, I launched into the article with as much objectivity as I could muster.
Lenny McAllister, the author started by telling a personal story that convincingly explained why Republicans are real people who have a right to their political opinions. McAllister tweaked my interest a bit when he said, Read more
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