As we have been learning about the racial injustices in society against African Americans, Native Americans and even women I have been thinking about a racism I feel is growing in the US which is the racism towards Hispanic people. In my high school, the Hispanic population grew tremendously in just the four years I was there. There were blamed for thefts based on no evidence whatsoever. They were all referred to as "Mexicans" no matter what country they were from and were just generally looked down upon. I feel like this racism is often overlooked or ignored, but it is something that has affected me very much just from witnessing it in my school.

I think the media has a lot to do with the racism towards the Hispanic population. In Charlotte there have been many cases of a drunk driver getting on the interstate going the wrong way...many times Hispanics...killing innocent people. Yes, this makes me angry and even resentful sometimes but the headline or the first sentence always states "Hispanic Male" or something of that nature.
I think it is also important to point out that many of these Hispanics are doing jobs that many Americans (including myself) WOULD NOT DO.

Nikki and Ashley,
I can definitely see your point in this matter. I am from the Charlotte area and I have seen a lot of the racism towards Hispanic people. My family has been fortunate to develop a close relationship with a Hispanic family from our church, and I have learned so much about their culture and their daily life from this friendship. I think that it is so easy for us to say hurtful things about Hispanics, like that they pack themselves into cars, stare rudely at women, are only suitable for manual labor, and many other stereotypes. Instead of stereotyping, Americans need to understand what many Hispanics have gone through to come to America. My friends have left all their family to come here, even their younger son. They have no money, no car, and are barely making a living here, but even that is better than their former lives. They are sacrificing everything they have so that they can hopefully provide a better life for their children and the rest of their family. I think that if many Americans were put in their position they would do the same.

I think everyone is apprehensive at first when encoutering and interacting with people form a different country and culture. Racism towards Hispanics is very real in the US as many Americans look down on Hispanics and often do not give them equal treatment. Like Taylor said, I think Americans need to understand Hispanics are here to make a better life for themselves, not to cause any problems. Even the worst existance in America is better than what most Hispanic people came from in their home countries.

I think the racism toward Hispanics can be paralleled with the sufferings of women in the 18 and 19 hundreds. I think it boils down to the people in charge being scared of sharing power with someone else. They are scared that if we accept them into our society, then they will threaten the authority of the people in power. This is simply spawned out of ignorance. I myself have played soccer with Hispanics most of my life and many of them are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. Another thing that I think Americans are guilty of is judging a whole race based one a few bad individuals. We judge all of them based on the ones that break the law, but now the ones that work hard, support their families and have a happy life.

Ashley, I agree with you. I do feel like Hispanics at this time in America are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to judgements. After watching The Guestworker a few weeks back I have come to a larger realization that Hispanics come to America for one thing...a better life. Conditions where they are from are not suitable for any type of living. They wish only to make a better life for themselves and I feel that we as Americans, being immigrants ourselves, should welcome them. I would want the same to be done if I was in their situation. Americans just assume all Hispanics are the same, and this is not fair. Any group of people will have its bad ones, but we must also remember that there are many more good ones as well.

It seems that over history different groups of immigrants have experienced racism but that for today Hispanics seem to be the main focus of ethnic hatred. It was seen with Chinese, Japanese and Italian immigrants, just to name a few. I think this ties with in a fear of something new and change, like Adam mentioned. Americans seem to hate change and seem to be pretty willing to do anything to stop the encroachment of "outsiders." Since this trend has been seen before, I wonder what new ethnic group will begin to take the place of ethnic hatred currently being disproportionatly focused on Hispanics.

I think that this topic is a lot like the discussions we had about Paul Cudros and his book A Home on the Field. His book addresses all these issues. I know that I learned so much about Hispanics from this book. I had always heard comments about them living here without paying taxes and other horrible things but you never think about all the hard work that they do. Americans would never do the things they do and accept the low wages that they do.

Good point Candace. I think that the racism that exists towards the Hispanic population is like the current version of the African American hatred and lynching. While the prejudice is not that great yet, or dangerous, I hope, I think it is the same thing. The judgments made about the Hispanic population are similar to those made about other groups like you mentioned. We weren’t around during the lynchings and Civil Rights movement, but we are here now when the same thing is going on with Hispanics. We have often said in class that, we don’t know what we would have done, being in a situation or a time like that, but we are in such a time. We are now in a time when people are being judged and “persecutedâ€

Maybe these were my personal blinders, but until I came to Boone I didn't see too much racism towards the Hispanic population. I'm from Asheville and the population ratio there isn't quite as intense as the large Latino population in Hendersonville which is about 20-30 minutes away. I did hear a few off color comments about Hendersonville, but I didn't really witness much negative commentary towards the Hispanic populations. Perhaps it was my school, which wasn't very integrated.

I agree with everyones comments and find that racism towards Hispanics is terrible. I think Americans should be flattered that they are coming to this country because of opportunity. I used to work with a guy from Cuba who was more hardworking then anyone I had ever met. He worked full time, took 15 credits at the community college and took care of his little brothers. He and his mother moved to the U.S. just a few years before I met him and he said he was the happiest he has ever been. He loves going back to Cuba and visiting his family, but feels like the U.S is his home. Why would we be racist to people who love this country and would do anything for it. Probably more then even some Americans. I find, as I'm sure you all do, all racism ridiculous.

I agree with Nikki and how the media can create so much blame for one race with a headline. I think as Americans we assume way too much stuff about other people instead of trying to get the facts. It's a whole lot easier just to write it off in a way that none of them are any good.

An interesting side note that goes with this as well as the post about working with Immigrant workers. We were talking about it in another class and from some of the statistics he presented the US Economy would go from 1 or 2. depending on what statistics you believe to about 15 in the world. Thats a huge drop in production if we decided to send all of them back because of a few bad apples.

Where I'm from Hispanic racism is a major problem. The area I'm from is a major tobacco producing area, and the majority of the workforce for this crop is Hispanics. The influx of this race to supply work has greatly affected the people in my area. There is a multitude of reasons why people from area dislike Hispanics. My junior year it even spread to the high school when the Hispanics at school were tired of being picked on. One night some group of people came onto school and painted the Mexican flag over everything in school. They wrote racial slurs towards the white population along many other ways of destruction to the school. School was canceled the next day for clean up, but things were very hostile when school resumed.