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It?* ^Portland (Observer
lune 23, 2010
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New (Old) Language of Racism
Today’s diatribe
on immigrants
by
J oe F eagin and J essie D aniels
The new language o f anti-M exi
can racism is actually drawn on
centuries-old im ages from the
white racial framing o f African
Am ericans, now repurposed for
other people with brown skin.
The current white diatribe tar
geting M exican im m igrants— re
vealed in polls, media com m entar
ies, actions o f Arizona legisla
tors— is much like the invective
used against African A m ericans
during the civil rights era.
Where does this language come
from? It’s developed over centu
ries o f real racial oppression, in
cluding slavery and Jim Crow, by
whites that wanted to explain the
social order in ways that rational
ize the fact that black Am ericans
were consistently at the very bot-
tom ofsociety. Now, a similar strat
egy is being used against M exi
cans, M exican A m ericans, and
other Latinos.
This white racist frame adapts
to new groups by re-im posing old
racist imagery and stereotypes,
with some tweaking.
Today, M exican im m igrants
work at some o f the most danger
ous, difficult and low est-paying
jobs in the country. And, not co
incidentally, an anti-M exican lan
guage has emerged to ju stify their
low position in the social order.
It’s sim ilar to the strategy o f the
old anti-black language rational
izing slavery, Jim Crow, and con
tem porary anti-black racism.
This old language o f racism now
circulates in new ways as it rever
berates and spreads easily via the
web. Just last year as concerns
about the swine flu virus were
w idespread, rumors abounded on
the Internet that swine flu might
be a plot by M exican im m igrants
to “reconquer” the U.S. by inten
tionally spreading the disease
here. In the echo cham ber o f right-
wing websites and cable news
channels, such rum ors often get
picked up by m ainstream news
outlets.
Linguistics scholar, Otto Santa
Ana, exam ined language used by
m ainstream media editors and re
p o rters ab o u t M exican im m i
grants. He found num erous new s
paper articles with com m ents like
this: Public programs are “a lure to
im m igrants.” The electorate has
an appetite for “red meat o f depor
tation.” INS agents catch “a third
o f their quarry.” We need to “ fer-
Recently, an assistant director
o f the Texas Election Division jo k
ingly suggested that local white
election officials should “speak
slowly and loudly, in broken En
glish” to Latino voters in need o f
the language assistance required
under the law. Such m ocking is
not new, for whites have for cen
turies mocked the accent and char
acter o f English spoken by A fri
can Am ericans.
A nthropologist Jane Hill has
Today, Mexican immigrants work at
some o f the most dangerous, difficult and
lowest-paying jobs in the country. And, not
coincidentally, an anti-Mexican language
has emerged to justify their low position in
the social order.
ret out illegal im m igrants.”
Today, in A rizona and m any
other areas in the U.S., w h ites’
use o f the hostile m etaphorical
language o f “burden,” “disease,”
“ in v asio n ,” and “ flooding the
c o u n try ” conveys an overt or
sublim inal image o f Latino im m i
grants as very threatening and
dangerous.
pointed to the w idespread use o f
m ock Spanish by w hites-m ade-
up term s such as “no problem o,”
“ el c h e a p o ,” “ w a tc h o y o u r
backo,” “hasty banana,” and “no
way, Jose.” These term s incorpo
rate a negative fram ing o f M exi
cans and M exican Am ericans. As
Hill puts it, through the m eans o f
m ock Spanish “people are en-
dowed with gross sexual appe
tites, political corruption, lazi
ness, disorders o f language, and
m ental incapacity.” This too is
sim ilar to the way whites have
mocked black speakers o f English,
for centuries.
This new language o f anti-Mexi
can racism matters. The way legisla
tors, mainstream media, and every
day folks talk about the issue o f
immigration matters because it has
real consequences for peoples’ lives.
If people are deemed “illegal,” it
becomes easier to enact laws threat
ening their existence. If Mexican
immigrants are “dangerous,” it be
comes easier to deny them basic
human rights.
There are m any lessons we can
learn from earlier civil rights
struggle. One o f the most im por
tant ones is that the right to re
spect through language is a cru
cial part o f the struggle for equal
ity and hum an dignity.
Jessie Daniels, PhD, a nation
ally recognized expert on white
racism, is Associate professor o f
Urban Public Health at Hunter
College o f the City University o f
New York. JoeR. Feagin, a former
president o f the American Socio
logical Review, is the Ella C.
McFadden Professor o f Liberal
Arts at Texas A & M University.
MKMM
Small Banks and Small Businesses
An economic
engine worth
supporting
by
riday August 6th, 2010: Place to be announced
Saturday August 7th, 2010: Embassy Suites Portland Airport Hotel
(rooms available for only 5109 + tax)
Cost for reunion: Classmates $65 spouse or companion $35
Please R.S.V.P. as soon as possible to
E-mail to: leilablakely@gmail.com (preferable)
Voice mail: Carol Erdmann 503-982-3051
Snail mail: JHS Class of 70 / PO Box 19905 / Portland, Oregon 97280
J udge G reg M athis
S m a ll b u s in e s s e s
d riv e th is n a ti o n ’s
econom y and m ake up
the m a jo rity o f o u r
w orkforce; when they
struggle, so too does the rest o f
the nation.
W ith so m any sm all businesses
currently unable to receive the
funds they need to hire new staff,
it’s no wonder the unem ploym ent
rate rem ains dism ally low. Ben
Bernanke, Federal Reserve chair
man and one o f the w orld’s m ost
respected financial voices, re
c e n tly su g g ested that len d ers
need to increase loans to small
business in an effort to decrease
unem ploym ent. Bernanke is right
on target; le t’s hope lawm akers
take this idea and run with it.
A sm all business is any busi
ness with less than 500 em ploy
ees; th a t’s m ore than 90 percent
o f A m erican businesses and an
overw helm ing m ajority o f A m eri
can jobs. Loans to sm all busi
nesses dropped from $700 billion
in 2008 to $660 billion in
2010. Lending has de
creased for several rea
sons, a key one being
the new credit standards
bank put into place after
the financial m arket col
lapsed.
President O bam a has proposed
a $30 billion fund that will encour
age com m unity banks to support
sm all business. The m oney would
com e from the U.S. T reasury D e
partm ent and would go to sm all,
com m unity banks that w ant to
increase their small business lend
ing. T reasury officials say that
the fund w on't cost taxpayers
m oney in the long run, though we
may pay for it in the first few
years.
Knowing how im portant small
businesses are to the econom y,
any responsibility placed on the
taxpayers by the proposed fund
w ould be a welcom e one. Y es, we
were outraged at having to bail
out big financial institutions and
m ajor auto m anufacturers, but
only because corporate greed and
excess put those com panies in
fragile positions.
Additionally, many o f us d id n ’t
imm ediately understand how bail
ing out m ulti-billion dollar corpo
rations would affect our daily lives.
The im pact o f sm all businesses,
how ever, is felt m ore directly and
their financial health is directly
linked to ours.
The President hopes Congress
will m ake a decision on the pro
posed fund soon; if they delay,
sm all businesses will continue to
struggle and the econom y will
rem ain at a standstill. W hile this
support should have come sooner,
it is not too late for lawm akers
step in and assist the n atio n ’s
sm all businesses.
Help speed up the process by
contacting your elected officials
and urge them to quickly pass this
legislation; the econom y depends
on it.
Greg Mathis is a retired Michi
gan District Courtjudge and syn
dicated television judge.