Eth125_Hispanic_American_Diversity

Hispanic American Diversity University of Phoenix-Axia ETH/125 – Woeltjen Hispanic American Diversity The Hispanic culture, from social origins and religion to art and cuisine, has a big impact on the United States. A Spanish speaking person, from Mexico, Spain, Central America, or Cuba is presented as Latino or Hispano. In recent years our country has seen a vast intolerance for immigrants. Though this wave of intolerance is nothing we haven’t seen before, America seems to experience this whenever there is a wave of vast immigration, it may be enhanced this time around. Some attributing factors that may be responsible for this uprising we have experienced since 2001 are our economy, ignorance, anger, sustained high levels of immigration, and fear – of both the unknown, therefore stemming racism, as well as for our personal security – the 9/11 incident was a painful teacher that we are not impenetrable. (Legomsky, 2006) Regardless of the reasoning behind our issue of anti-immigration, we as a country need to find a way to end the hate crimes being committed against Latino’s that have come to the United States with high hopes that they will have a better life. Sadly, rather than being met with the ‘American dream’ Hispanics are instead met with resistance and intolerance. In the past few years we have seen an uprising in the number of immigrant bashing hate crimes committed against Hispanics. In April 2006 a 16-year-old Hispanic boy in Texas was assaulted after trying to kiss a white girl. (Mock, 2007) His attackers, two white boys, aged 17 and 18 beat him, cut him, poured bleach on him, and sodomized him with a plastic table umbrella pole. Witnesses to the crime did nothing to stop these actions, and in fact nothing after the incident was over, leaving the young Hispanic boy lying behind the house in which the incident occurred for ten hours until he was found by someone else. (McNamara, 2006) Though the incident was clearly inspired by hate against non whites the prosecutor in the case tried to downplay the severity by claiming that the attack was not inspired by hate, and only appeared to be that because of the racial slurs that were yelled in frustration and anger. (McNamara, 2006) This may have been the case; however, the tattoos that referenced Hitler and respect for him, flaunted by one of the assailants seem to display a different story. This is not the only act of violence toward Hispanics, brought on merely for the fact that they are Latinos. On July 12, 2008 in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania two teens aged 17 and 19 beat 25 year old Luis Ramirez to death. There was evidence presented in the case that suggested that Ramirez was targeted because he was Mexican. (Grinberg, 2009) This 25-year-old father of two was beaten so badly that during surgery at the hospital brain matter oozed from his head. He was kept alive on life support for two days before officially dying. Previous to the fight racial slurs were targeted at him by the two young men. The prosecutor in the case brought charges of felony counts of aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation. The boys, however, were acquitted of these charges and charged with misdemeanor simple assault, and sentenced to a meager up to 23 months in jail. Possible attribution to this light sentencing was the fact that the case was presented to an all white jury. (Grinberg, 2009) Though the judge seems to have disagreed with the charges the jury found he was bound by the jury’s decision, though he did sentence them the maximum he could for the charges they were found guilty of. This case split the community, half of the community supported the boys and hoped they would be found not guilty while others recognized the truth and hoped they would be punished for their poor Americanism. Hate Crimes are not the only ‘Immigrant-bashing’ going on in America. On St. Patrick’s Day this year in Arizona a letter was read by Republican Senator Lori Klein on the senate floor stating “most of the Hispanic students do not want to be educated but rather be gang members and gangsters." (Valdez, 2011) This letter was later to be found to be written by a substitute teacher who claimed to have witnessed this first hand while subbing in a classroom of ‘almost all Hispanics and a few black children’. The sub claimed that he found the children to refuse to speak the pledge, and denounce English. Investigation revealed that the complaints made about these children in the email he sent to the senator were never included in his end of day report left for their teacher, or reported to any school officials. The act of sharing this letter as a way to inform people of the issues in Arizona schools, which are full of Hispanics considering almost half of state residents under age 18 are of Latino decent, proves to be poor judgment on Klein’s part. This is the kind of a attitude from officials that promote stereotyping and racism against ethnicities. (Valdez, 2011) In my experience, substitute teachers often bring out the worst in children, as the old adage goes ‘when the cats away, the mouse will play’, there is no time this is more true. Crimes against Latinos, based on race are a growing issue. According to the FBI Hate Crime Statistics for 2009, over 6,500 single-biased crimes were committed in America. Of those almost half were based on race. Though these statistics do not break down the exact racial motivation behind the crimes by looking through new articles you can surmise that many were aimed toward Latinos. This is a huge problem because of the growing number of Hispanics which are estimated to populate America by year 2050. It is estimated that nearly half of the U.S. population will have Hispanic decent. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009). At that rate of growth if we do not hinder the intolerance harbored toward this culture now we will face much larger issues in the future. Our country was built on immigrants. There is a total Hispanic population of over 48 million currently in the U.S. This number is expected to almost triple by year 2050. (US Census Bureau, 2009) If we do not do something now to end the intolerance America may experience a larger uprising than we have seen thus far. If this happens no American, immigrated, migrated, or born here will be safe from the wrath. The best option for us is to teach tolerance. One option would be to institute a program similar to this class into public schools. Teach children to be tolerable will help cut down on racism for future generations. Another option is to reach out to more adult Americans educating them on cultural diversity, thereby encouraging tolerance. As an adult in my small town the best I can do to help this along is to display tolerance to my children, educate them on the negativity that comes from intolerance and ignorance and encouraging them to lead their peers with a similar approach. Works Cited Grinberg, E. (2009, June 17). 2 Teens Get Jail Time in Mexican's Beating Death. CNN . http://articles.cnn.com/2009-06- 17/justice/pennsylvania.immigrant.beating.death_1_sentence-brandon-piekarsky- street- fight'_s=PM:CRIME Hate Crime Statistics. (2009). Retrieved April 2011, from Department of Justice -- Federal Bureau of Investication: http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2009/incidents.html Legomsky, S. H. (2006, April). Immigrant-Bashing: Why Now' Retrieved April 2011, from Race, Racism and the Law - Speaking Truth to Power!!: http://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/immigr03.htm McNamara, M. (2006, Arpril 28). Prosecutor: Teen Attack No Hate Crime. CBS News . Spring, Texas, USA. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/27/national/main1553709.shtml Mock, B. (2007, Winter). Immigration Backlash -- Hate Crimes Against Latinos Flourish. Retrieved April 2011, from Southern Poverty Law Center: http://www.splcenter.org/get- informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2007/winter/immigration-backlash U.S. Census Bureau (2007). Hispanic Americans By the Numbers. Retrieved from April 2011, from Infoplease. http://www.infoplease.com/spot/hhmcensus1.html Valdez, L. (2011, March 27). Arizona Ligislature now Latino-bashing. Tucson, Arizona, USA. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/2011/02/27/20110227v aldez27-legislature-latino-bashing.html