We’re Not Laughing: Anti-Latino Humor Has Entered the Mainstream

Roberto Lovato, New York-based contributing Associate Editor with New America Media and a frequent contributor to The Nation Magazine, today wrote about the trend of anti-immigrant humor in mainstream popular culture and our collective lack of attention to this disgusting pattern:

While the immigration debate in Congress ended months ago, the immigrant jokes haven’t. This is not so much because the late night hosts are at the tail end of a political trend, but because they are, in fact, at the front end of a major cultural trend: the mainstreaming of anti-immigrant sentiment.

Immigrant rights activists have concentrated much energy on challenging rightwing radio as well as blatantly racist, formerly fringe video games like “Border Patrol” in which players shoot immigrants for points. But little attention is paid to the more mainstream fare: Top-selling video games in which white good guys kill immigrant bad guys and black and Latino zombies; popular television shows like NBC’s The Office, in which immigrant characters are ridiculed for their accents, nationality, and other traits; movies like the supernatural thriller Constantine or last year’s comic hit Nacho Libre, in which immigrant characters embody evil and stupidity.

The proliferation of anti-immigrant messages in pop culture moved UCLA linguist Otto Santa Ana to study what he calls an “explosion” of anti-immigrant representations in pop culture.

…

Depictions of Latino immigrants do not all fall into the negative category, however. The Emmy award-winning Ugly Betty sitcom treats immigrant and immigration in a funny yet respectful manner. It’s no accident that the show is produced by immigrant Salma Hayek. A new video game, “ICED! I Can End Deportation,” developed by the New York-based nonprofit Breakthrough, turns players into undocumented immigrants as they flee from cruel border patrol agents. The same Spanish-language radio jocks who played definitive roles in last year’s immigrant mobilizations are continuing citizenship and voter registration campaigns. Comedians such as George Lopez draw attention to racial issues in much the same way African American comedians have done for decades. Columnists such as Gustavo Arellano, who writes the popular “Ask a Mexican,” similarly use judo-like methods to deflect and draw attention to an anti-immigrant streak that grows.

Thanks to Prof. Carlos Muñoz, Jr. for sending this out. Read Lovato’s full post here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roberto-lovato/no-laughing-matter-anti_b_74495.html

Heartland Presidential Forum on Dec. 1 in Des Moines, Iowa

From an email I received today from Alan Jenkins:

As we head into the 2008 presidential election cycle, it’s time to consider how we center the values that are important to us in the midst of the political rhetoric and debate. We want to share with you one such opportunity. Held in Des Moines, Iowa on December 1, The Heartland Presidential Forum will kick off the Campaign for Community Values. This campaign emphasizes through community values the idea that we’re all in it together, and that we must address challenges collectively to move forward.

The Heartland Presidential Forum, sponsored by the Center for Community Change, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and dozens of grassroots organizing groups, will bring together Iowans, Midwesterners and others who want to address issues important to them through this lens of community. With special emphasis on health care, clean elections, workers’ rights, and immigration, the Forum will challenge candidates to outline how their vision for the country will bring us together and strengthen our national community. Participants will include Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and Barack Obama.

If you are in the area, please consider joining us for this remarkable event.

Sincerely,

Alan Jenkins

The Heartland Presidential Forum
Saturday, December 1, 2007
1:30 p.m.
HyVee Hall
730 3rd Street
Des Moines, Iowa

For more information about the forum, and for tickets:
http://www.communitychange.org/iowa-heartland-forum/

To learn more about the Campaign for Community Values:
http://www.communitychange.org/community_values/

MALDEF: FBI Report Documents Hate Crimes Against Latinos at Record Level

MALDEF today issued a press release saying that a FBI Hate Crimes Statistics Report issued today shows a sharp increase in the number of hate crimes reported against Hispanics based on their ethnicity or national origin to the highest levels since the reports were first mandated by the Hate Crimes Statistics Act.

According to the report, in 2006, Hispanics comprised 62.8% of victims of crimes motivated by a bias toward the victims’ ethnicity or national origin. In 2004, the comparable figure was 51.5%. Since 2004, the number of victims of anti-Hispanic crimes increased by 25%.

“Anti-immigrant hatred heard on the radio and cable shows reaches America’s neighborhoods with real consequences,” stated MALDEF President and General Counsel John Trasviña. “Heightened anti-immigrant sentiment has blocked immigration reform and seeks to turn local police into immigration law enforcers thus making it more difficult for victims to report crimes. The FBI report should serve as a wake up call to our nation’s leaders to take action on comprehensive immigration reform, reduce tensions and safeguard the basic civil rights and liberties of all Americans.”

The report goes on to demonstrate the steady growth of anti-Hispanic hate crimes after 2004.

2006: 576 anti-Hispanic crimes against 819 victims
2005: 522 anti-Hispanic crimes against 722 victims
2004: 475 anti-Hispanic crimes against 646 victims
2003: 426 anti-Hispanic crimes against 595 victims
2002: 480 anti-Hispanic crimes against 639 victims

Founded in 1968, MALDEF, the nation’s leading Latino legal organization, promotes and protects the rights of Latinos through litigation, advocacy, community education and outreach, leadership development, and higher education scholarships. For more information on MALDEF, please visit: www.maldef.org

A&E TV’s ‘Silly Putty’ Version of Diversity

San Francisco-based photographer and EJS ally Dwayne Newton shares his reactions to A&E TV’s approach towards diversity.

I haven’t had a chance to view A&E Network’s reality TV show entitled “Dog The Bounty Hunter” starring Duane “Dog” Chapman and family, and it looks like I won’t get the chance anytime soon – the show was yanked by A&E after an audio taped phone call was released featuring “Dog” Chapman repeatedly barking the “N” word in reference to his son’s girlfriend.  But Chapman’s foaming rhetoric led me to something I felt was equally disturbing.

“Dog the Bounty Hunter”  chronicles Chapman’s Hawaii-based and family run Da Kine Bail Bonds, and how he tracks down bail-jumpers while keeping track of  some of his dozen children.  One of his offspring,  24-year-old Tucker Chapman, happens to have an African-American girlfriend; Daddy Chapman, in an effort to protect his interests and short chain Tucker, unleashes on Tucker during a phone call that, unknown to Daddy Chapman, was being tape recorded…

Duane “Dog” Chapman speaking to his son Tucker Chapman: “I don’t care if she’s a Mexican, a whore or whatever. It’s not because she’s black, it’s because we use the word nigger sometimes here. I’m not gonna take a chance ever in life of losing everything I’ve worked for for 30 years because some f**ing nigger heard us say nigger and turned us in to the Enquirer magazine. Our career is over! I’m not taking that chance at all! Never in life! Never! Never! If Lyssa [Dog's daughter] was dating a nigger, we would all say ‘f**k you!’ And you know that. If Lyssa brought a black guy home ya da da… it’s not that they’re black, it’s none of that. It’s that we use the word nigger. We don’t mean you f**king scum nigger without a soul. We don’t mean that sh*t. But America would think we mean that. And we’re not taking a chance on losing everything we got over a racial slur because our son goes with a girl like that. I can’t do that Tucker. You can’t expect Gary, Bonnie, Cecily, all them young kids to [garbled] because ‘I’m in love for 7 months’ – f**k that! So, I’ll help you get another job but you can not work here unless you break up with her and she’s out of your life. I can’t handle that sh*t. I got ‘em in the parking lot trying to record us. I got that girl saying she’s gonna wear a recorder…”

Ummmm, Father Knows Best?  It’s unsettlingly fascinating how “Dog” Chapman takes the trouble to distinguish the nuances of “niggers,” as if he were utilizing some sort of Dante’s Infernoesque Nine Levels of “Nigger” scale in his rant.  He was, but that’s another story.  Tucker Chapman’s response:  “I don’t even know what to say.”  Rather than waste his breath, Tucker handed the tapes over to the National Enquirer for hard cash and the proverbial cat was out of the bag.   “Dog” Chapman issued an apology, but the damage was done; civil rights leaders put heavy pressure on A&E TV Networks to suspend the show, which brings me to the why I’m writing this.

As an African-American male, I was more piqued than outraged – I don’t particularly care what happens to convicted murderers like Duane “Dog” Chapman, nor was I concerned about Chapman’s privacy issues.  I was going to blast an email to A&E and I wanted to know just what A&E was going to do about their “N-word” flinging, mullet-sporting cash cow.

So I navigate to www.aetv.com and at the bottom of a busy page, I find faint links directing me to the backlot of A&E TV – “terms of service,” “site maps,” “corporate information,” which I select.  Before I write my digital umbrage, let’s just see what’s what.   More links,  and one link caught my eye – “diversity.”  I clicked, and what I initially saw made me laugh out loud but what I read made me go silent.

http://www.aetn.com/diversity.html

On first glance, I thought that of eight A&E employees pictured, not one was a person of color.  But lo!  There, third from the top, was an Asian male.  And yes, there were three women there.  I sat there with mixed feelings.  There’s nothing wrong with having a page of images with few if any people of color on it; I’m used to that by now.  But this was the “diversity” page dammit and I wanted some color.

Then I read the text.  I’d found my answer for the lack of color and I forgot all about “Dog” Chapman’s racist rant…

From A&E Televison Networks website:

“Diversity extends beyond race, color, creed or sexual orientation. Diversity is that combination of traits and characteristics that makes each of us unique individuals and what brings us together toachieve our goals.  Diversity is about respect, openness, innovation, and knowledge. It’s what  we practice in our business.”

Wow. Apparently A&E has a new definition for diversity.  After hearing the term “diversity” almost used as a slur itself (along with it’s cousin “multicultural”) this was a surprise and a sea change for the word itself.  And conveniently enough, it almost seemed as if A&E’s  Silly Putty version of diversity explained away why they felt they could post a “diversity” page with such a dearth of diversity.

Take a look yourself.  I could be wrong, or overly sensitive, I’ve been accused of that. Or maybe the people of color happened to be out,  having mint juleps with “Dog” Chapman.  Or the photographer was color-blind.  Or…