Isn't it time to acknowledge that seemingly reasoned appeals to prejudices and insecurities foster a climate of fear and an escalation in violence?
Sadly, we learn that sixteen year old Latino, David Ritcheson was beaten and brutalized by two white teens because they suspected Ritcheson of trying to kiss a white girl.
In a case that's garnering national attention, David Ritcheson, 16, clings to life at Memorial Hermann Hospital while the other two are in the Harris County Jail -- charged with aggravated sexual assault after prosecutors accused them of sodomizing him with a pipe because they think he tried to kiss a 12-year-old girl.
Shades of 1955?
[diary continued below the jump]
In a
comment below
kineticdissent writes:
"I was planning on writing something about it because (as they say) there but for the grace of God go I...I've been spit on and threatened and slurred and you name it because I am Latino. I simply cannot believe that the immigration uproar right now has no effect on attitudes towards people with similar heritage. Like I said I've been there. These days I take great measures to make sure I don't even look white women in the eye. Not worth the trouble. I know it sounds hyperbolic to put it that way so I must ask you to take it on faith that I'm speaking the truth as I see it. I've seen too much of this similar thing to really speak out about it."
Earlier this month
anti-Mexican slogans were scrawled on the sides of a San Diego area Mexican restaurant and the restaurant was set ablaze.
JAMUL, Calif. -- Shortly before midnight on Monday, somebody set Mariachi's Mexican restaurant on fire in an apparent hate crime. On Tuesday, FBI investigators showed up at the scene of the fire.
This week we also learned that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante have been receiving death threats.
Mayor Villaraigosa has been targeted for some time. During the mayoral race hate-monger Hal Netkin created an anti-Villaraigosa automated call campaign citing Villaraigosa's links to a Mexican American organization which encourages the pursuit of education.
In May of last year Netkin drove his van into a group of Latino protesters:
Netkin arrested
Valley dingbat Hal Netkin ran a phone bank during the mayoral election that called voters with automated anti-Villaraigosa messages. He's obsessed with immigrants and the mayor-elect, and on his website calls Villaraigosa "the MECHista mayor who virtually takes his orders from Mexico City." So, no surprise, Netkin is the guy who was arrested last night in Orange County for driving his van into a crowd of Latinos protesting an appearance by the head of the Minuteman Project.
Posted May 26, 2005 11:17 AM
That was the same month that a radio host popular with many Kossians declared that "The real problem is all of these Mexicans flooding across our borders"
I received a lot of flack for the diary linked to the above quote and perhaps I should have posed the question of whether that beloved talk show host was a demagogue. But I really do think that "respectable" "reasoned" expressions of intolerance lead us down a slippery slope and into a chasm of fear and violence.
Come on people - let's turn it around
Everyday People
by Sly Stone
Sometimes I'm right and I can be wrong
My own beliefs are in my song
The butcher, the banker, the drummer and then
Makes no difference what group I'm in
I am everyday people, yeah yeah
There is a blue one who can't accept the green one
For living with a fat one trying to be a skinny one
And different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo-bee
Oh sha sha - we got to live together
I am no better and neither are you
We are the same whatever we do
You love me you hate me you know me and then
You can't figure out the bag l'm in
I am everyday people, yeah yeah
There is a long hair that doesn't like the short hair
For bein' such a rich one that will not help the poor one
And different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo-bee
Oh sha sha-we got to live together
There is a yellow one that won't accept the black one
That won't accept the red one that won't accept the white one
And different strokes for different folks
Oh sha sha-
I am everyday people.
peace out