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“Post-Racial” Tu Madre: U.S. Hate Crimes Down- Except Against Latinos

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By Roberto Lovato, Of América

Today’s Washington Post (WAPO) has this story about the good news of a decline in overall hate crimes in the U.S., according to FBI Director Robert F. Mueller. Good news, that is, for almost every racial, ethnic, religious and other group except one: Latinos. The WAPO story also tells us that, for the 4th straight year, hate crimes against Latinos continue their upward tick in the downward spiral of hate in our “post-racial” society. 4 years; 4 years in the face of an overall decline in hate crimes means that anti-Latino hatred is becoming dangerously normalized, even institutionalized when we consider who profits economically and politically from hate.

According to the WAPO piece,

“Crimes against Hispanics also increased for the fourth year in a row, the ADL said, with 595 incidents reported in 2007, compared with 475 in 2004.”

And the FBI statistics are but a small -and inaccurate-measure of the size of this monster in our midst.

Read more.

Posted at 12:26 PM, Oct 28, 2008 in Immigration | Permalink | View Comments


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You can see this trend in pornography, as well. Pornography featuring Latina actresses has always been around, and has always (like all racialized porn) included stereotypical racist depictions of Latina women as part of the sexual thrill. But over the last few years, the race/sex dynamic in pornography has shifted from fairly ridiculous stereotypes ("ay, papi!") to degradation, humiliation, and abuse. Which is not to say that degradation, humiliation, and abuse isn't a general feature of a good deal of pornography (and has been getting more extreme lately), but the level of abuse being featured in pornography with Latina actresses is usually only otherwise found in porn that is specifically marketed as degrading porn.

That is, if you want to look for pornography where women are beaten, humiliated, or otherwise abused, you can search for "abuse" or you can search for "latina" -- you'll get the same search results. It's a very disturbing trend, and in pornography, there isn't a lot of subtlety or code words to mask what's really going on here. It's an intense level of hatred, and in porn, it's much more naked (no pun intended).

If you have a strong stomach, you can see what I mean by googling "latina abuse." But you're not going to like it, and I wouldn't recommend it.

Posted by: Harriet Jacobs | October 28, 2008 2:42 PM