Hatred Against Latinos is Rising, Even in Schools

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), in their March 10, 2008, newsletter, there are now 888 hate groups in the United States, a 48% increase since 2000. Many of them have been formed out of hatred towards immigrants, particularly those of Latino or Hispanic descent. The SPLC quotes FBI statistics noting a 35% increase in hate crimes against people of Hispanic descent between 2003 and 2006. The FBI's experts say that many of these crimes are carried out against people whom the criminals believe, often wrongly, are illegal immigrants. In Kentucky, for example, a teenager who is an American citizen of Latino descent was beaten by the Imperial Klans of America; they are facing a trial now.

The rising jobless rate may be partly to blame; many lower-income white Americans who have lost their jobs blame that job loss, rightly or wrongly, on illegal immigrants. They seem to forget that not all immigrants are illegal, and some of the jobs that immigrants take are not jobs they would have wanted. It seems to be easier to hate people who don't look like you do, or speak the same language that you do; and to lump them all into one invalid stereotype. But that stereotype has been promoted by the worst kinds of politicians, though it has been noticeably absent from recent campaign rhetoric in both major political parties.

But to me, it seems that the worst of this hatred is what it is doing to children. On March 6, 2008, UPI released a story about a Camden, NJ, vice principal at an elementary school who punished a group of fifth grade students by making them sit on the gym floor to eat their lunch for two weeks. Their crime? One of them spilled a water jug when trying to move it. These students were all in a special English as a Second Language Class, and they were all from other countries; all of them spoke Spanish as a first language. When the parents of the students organized and brought a grievance to the Camden Education Association, Vice Principal Theresa Brown was placed on leave until the "incident" could be investigated.