Hispanics are one of the most looked down upon races in recent times. Why so?
Posted by admin in Question & Answers, tags: Down, Hispanics, looked, Most, races, Recent, Times, UponYes, well I am trying to come to terms with this. Sure I can ignore this but its hard when left and right people criticize and belittle us (and please don’t deny it because I hear what they say). I can blame the media for the bad publicity, essentially portraying us as some sort of infestations, similar to rats or locusts, invading and dominating the place, but there are other forms of influencing the mind…My family has always paid into the system, even opting to send me to private school since I was young. Now I’m going to USC as a science major. They came here and worked hard to adapt. I don’t know if you guys know this but basically all of Latin America is in pretty bad shape, mostly due to corruption. Poverty rates of above 50%, 60%, is normal around those parts. I’ve talked to many people who have tried the legal way but have had to wait not months but YEARS for a Visa and stuff. Imagine having to live for years in a house with a tin roof and walls made of plastic and scrap wood. Most of the people I talked to had to come out of necessity to escape these conditions. I wonder if all this anger and bittterness stems from the fact that people have forgotten that we as humans all carry basic needs and desires, that people immigrate to fulfill their desire to survive. I’m all for laws but can we really forget our humanity? We are all people trying to survive. All this hatred (because it is quickly coming to that) seems to stem from a seemly simple explanation: selfishness and ignorance. I hear people complain that their are no jobs and we are taking them all but really think, would the masses of unemployed Americans really stop and apply for unskilled jobs after they just lost their cubicles? Isn’t it more because they are all vying for that same position in another company? And yes, companies hire illegal immgrants to provide cheap labor, but off the skimpy salaries these people have to build a life here. It would work if the people had better schooling but how can you pay for schooling when you barely have enough to eat yourself? I’ve also read that we are also hated because we don’t pay taxes and yet we “sponge” off the governemnt through welfare programs and such. Well, again, through personal experience I wish to challenge this because my family and other families I’ve know have never done this. They are undocumented, they don’t register in the governement’s eye so why give to what isn’t there? From what I know immigrants are purchsing products and services on American soil, therefore can I argue that they do play an important part in the country’s economy? Isn’t this a part of what the US needs to get out of this recession, consumers? I don’t know, I have no idea how to change this negative image of Hispanics. I try but people always find some other (mostly unfounded) reason to consider us a burden. I just don’t know anymore…
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Hispanics are White…
Unless you’re talking about the Mestizos and Mulattoes of Central/South America?
“Hispanics are white” Umm…some are, but most are not. I’m pretty sure that when he says hispanics he means Mestizos and mulattoes and the multiracials (Black, taino and white)
Now you know how US blacks feel….Doesn’t feel good, does it?…The things Hispanics do to for work Blacks, had no choice or rights…
I guess I am supposed to thrum my heartstrings over your tale but I just can’t do it!
I see hordes of people coming to the USA to capitalize on the better money opportunities here. I see those same hordes of people who haven’t the “guts” to stand up to their own government so they can make their own country a livable place to be. Why is it up to us Americans to right the wrongs you have allowed to accumulate in your lifetimes? You have an education…..go home and share it with the ones who are not as lucky as you have been! Teach your fellow countrymen to stand up for their rights.
No, I see the gutless wonders who do stay home with the same greed in their hearts that you and your parents have. They join the drug cartels for the money instead of fighting for their rights. They kidnap and steal and kill people for their greed. If you do not help….who will?
Essentially, I think its because people need someone to blame problems with the government on.
I noticed this trend with Blacks, Africans, Middle Easterns, and pretty much every other minority.
Generalizations are also at fault, because most of them are WRONG! (That’s a generalization too, lol.)
I just learned you gotta keep your head high and kick everybody’s ass at whatever you’re doing.
And be nice.
Because people will always blame your people for your behavior, and even though you may wanna give someone a nice “talking to” just smile and yell about it to a friend later.
Almost all minorities have to go through it at some point.
Welcome to the world.
Jan Brewer
“Now you know how US blacks feel….Doesn’t feel good, does it?…The things Hispanics do to for work Blacks, had no choice or rights…”
^^
It’s funny that people think blacks were the only minorities that were denied cival rights in pre 1964 America. Anyone not white in America before 1964 didn’t have rights.
If you were brown back then, in the south you could get beaten, hung, shot, and burned just as easy as any black person, and people would just look the other way.
Strictly speaking, there is no Hispanic “race” since the people range in skin-tone and facial structure from light-skinned Europeans to darker indigenous peoples and mixed-race indigenous and blacks.
I’m a first-generation American of Greek heritage and a foreign language prof. I take every opportunity to tell students that the Hispanic gangster stereotypes they see in the media are just that: stereotypes, and that no ethnic group has a monopoly on brains or ambition. Fortunately, the culture sections of Spanish text books now highlight the accomplishments of Hispanics, so there are hopes of improvement.
But basically the negativity comes from these:
Xenophobia—fear of strangers, i.e. people with a different language, customs, habits, etc. (been the victim of some of that myself)—and some is just bigotry, both usually among people who live in homogeneous communities where everyone is more or less just like they are. Evolutionarily (?) speaking, it was helpful to fear the unknown, but we should be way past that by now.
Perceived inequality—both native-born Americans and those who had to wait patiently for permission to enter the country legally look at undocumented Hispanics as ‘line jumpers’ who then get special treatment. They resent the ones who make money here and send it “home”, and even people who agree that the living conditions in many parts of Latin America are deplorable don’t see that as a legitimate reason for entering the US illegally since there are many, many places in the world with conditions as bad or worse. Native English-speakers, and legal immigrants who had to learn English on their own, don’t have a lot of sympathy for undocumented Hispanics whose children swell public school enrollment in some places, requiring the establishment of bilingual programs and the hiring of bilingual teachers. The strain on hospital emergency rooms by patients without insurance or funds is seen as another result of those in the country illegally, especially now that so many American citizens are jobless and/or without insurance.
I know what you’re talking about; it isn’t fair to paint all Hispanics with the same brush. The family of one of my best friends has lived in San Antonio for hundreds of years, and she rightfully resents it when people ask how her family “got here.” Unfortunately, I don’t think the negativity towards Hispanics is going to change unless illegal entry into the US is halted or greatly reduced.