Anti-Mexican Media Hysteria Makes Life More Dangerous for Latinos in the U.S.

By Leslie Savan, TheNation.com. Posted May 13, 2009.

Rosen has since backpedaled a bit, and testimonies to Sotomayor's intellect ("she'd be the kind of justice who could change some minds") and temperament ("one of the best mentors I've ever had") are coming in from named sources. But, as Media Matters asks, in a terrific, detailed piece, "Where does Sonia Sotomayor go to get her reputation back?" A TPM commenter adds, "It's this allegation about intelligence that most deeply plays into the hands of anti-'affirmative action' conservatives who just love to suggest that this woman, despite graduating summa cum laude at Princeton and so on, isn't as smart as a white guy."

Maybe playing fast and loose with Latino caricatures isn't the best idea in times of plague and economic dislocation. Remember how Jews were blamed for bringing the Black Death to Europe in the 14th century, setting off the mother of all pogroms?

Last week, Maria Hinojosa, senior correspondent for NOW on PBS and managing editor of NPR's Latino USA, spoke about how swine flu hysteria is hitting home. On New York radio's The Brian Lehrer Show, Hinojosa said a friend of hers, a domestic worker in Spanish Harlem, told her that she was recently "hassled by groups of women who said, 'Go ahead, tell them you're sick.'" Later that same day, she "was hassled again on the bus, and she saw a group of women physically push a Mexican man away."

"This has very human consequences," said Hinojosa, who is amazed that "in 2009...all of us here, suddenly we have to protect the lives of Americanos in New York City. It's crazy."

Hinojosa also cited the case of Luis Ramirez, a 25-year-old Mexican immigrant who was killed 10 months ago in the predominantly white town of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, apparently for walking with a white woman.

"A group of teenagers beat him to a pulp, beating his head in till his brains came out," said Hinojosa. "All of them, last week, just a few hours from here, were found nonguilty, only guilty of lesser charges, and in the courtroom when that was announced there was a crowd of cheers and applause.

"That's the country that we live in and the area that encompasses all of us."

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Leslie Savan is the author of Slam Dunks and No-Brainers: Language in Your Life, the Media, Business, Politics, and, Like, Whatever.

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