The most commonly repeated stereotype in public discourse today, in my humble opinion, is that of the Latino immigrant as a criminal, parasitic and uneducated drain on American society.
Michael Savage routinely gives a more caffeinated version of the hate speech that's on the airwaves every day. In April, he suggested that Islamic terrorists were using "illegal aliens" to bring swine flu into the U.S. "They are the perfect mules to bring this virus into America," he said. At other times, he's said illegal immigrants are "killing our police for sport."
Now some of you will correctly point out that Savage's attacks are aimed at illegal immigrants, not all immigrants. In fact, some of you might argue that that's what makes the stereotype acceptable.
There are an estimated 12 million people living in our country in violation of our immigration laws. If they've broken one law, the thinking goes, that makes them lawbreakers by definition, and thus deserving of opprobrium.
No matter that an increasing chunk of that population is made up of people who arrived here as minors, brought in by their parents, or that the vast majority of undocumented immigrants pay taxes and live model lives.
This stereotyped vision of 12 million people, stoked daily by right-wing commentators, has come to taint all immigrants, and all Latinos, really, just by its sheer relentless repetition. And if you don't believe that's true, consider what happened to the family of Ana Fernandez, a Salvadoran immigrant killed in last week's train accident in Washington, D.C.
Fernandez was a legal U.S. resident. Still, according to local media reports, her relatives received hate-filled telephone calls, labeling her as "illegal."
A hate that doesn't respect death is a powerful hate.
Even mainstream organizations such as the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce are subjected to these diatribes. The chamber's mission is to foster Latino business, and it's thus inherently conservative. But CNN's Lou Dobbs has referred to members as advocates for "Mexico's export of drugs and illegal aliens to the United States."
It's become so easy to say these things, no one batted an eyelash when Rush Limbaugh met the Mexican American mayor of Los Angeles in 2007 and said Antonio Villaraigosa looked like "a shoeshine guy."
It seems to me that this kind of racism is the new, 21st century grandchild of the hatred once publicly directed at blacks.
