Overheard on the bus home from work yesterday evening:
“Yo, so it’s just Mexicans you hang out with?”
“mumble mumble mumble.”
“Well, if it’s so unfortunate, whyn’t you quit?”
Plus snippets of information about “when I was in prison” and various X3 gang signs duly noted in someone else’s house.
Something on cnn yesterday really had me puzzled. It was a story, rather it was more of a headline I heard as I flicked by… about how americans are afraid of hispanics. So tonight after reading your blog I remembered and had to google, and discovered it was all about a book by Geraldo Rivera called “His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S.” What I’m really wondering is… who are the hispanics? should I be typing that with a capital ‘H’? Excuse my ignorance, but isn’t a hispanic a spanish speaking person? Why would people be afraid?
I think they’re using hispanic as an ethnic grouping. And I assume they’re not referring to the hispanic citizens among us. So in that sense the fear they’re referring to is mass unassimilated illegal immigration by our neighbors to the south. I’m not sure how many Americans are afraid of hispanics/latinos/la raza, but it’s the loudest and shrillest xenophobes who get noticed and assumed to be spokespersons for the rest of us.
Interestingly enough, the largest subset of illegal immigrants I’ve known personally have been Brazilians. Amazing how you can go to a party with them and at some point samba is going to inevitably break out.