Thursday, December 20, 2007


“They Hate Each Other Too!”
or Blacks and Latinos Can be Bigots Too
Earl Ofari Hutchinson



The shock jock on a popular Los Angeles talk radio station screamed through the microphone with apoplectic delight, “You see, they hate each other too. The “they” and the “each other” are African-Americans and Latinos. His shout was loud, crude, and aimed to do what shock jocks get paid to do, namely shock. But this was not standard shock jock bluster. He based his rant on a troubling eye catching response to a question in a recent survey by the New America Media. NAM is a consortium of ethnic media groups in the San Francisco Bay Area. In a wide-ranging poll, it sampled opinion among blacks, Latinos and Asians about each other.

The response that raised the eyebrows was that a near majority of Latinos said that blacks were crime prone and that they feared for their safety around them. A slight majority of blacks returned the negative typecast compliment and said that Latinos take jobs from blacks and they are out to undercut their political power.

Those are the type of utterances that white bigots supposedly spew. However, now they just as easily rolled off of black and Latino lips. That revelation for the shock jock and for many other whites merely confirmed that blacks and Latinos can be bigots too. The ugly truth is they’re right. And that also tells much about the often muddled, confused, and conflicted picture of race and ethnic relations in America.

For decades bigotry was always defined as racial discrimination and violence against blacks by whites. The black power movement and the strident black militancy of the 1960s dramatically changed that. Now blacks were hammered for their anti-white racial taunts. That eventually morphed into and codified as blacks playing the race card whenever things went especially bad. That always meant making whites feel guilty to get an advantage. The point is that blacks and whites were still the only ones that hurled vicious and vile negative stereotypes about each other and at each other, and that’s where it ended. The NAM poll convincingly exploded the notion that blacks and whites were the only groups that saw each other through jaundiced racial lens.

Blacks, Latinos and Asians can hold the same hostile racial attitudes toward each other, and aren’t afraid to voice them. The first real tip that things weren’t as idyllic as they appeared on the ethnic relations front came in 2005 with the furor over the quip by then Mexican President Vicente Fox. In a speech, Fox said that Mexicans are hard workers and will work jobs that blacks won’t work. That ignited a storm of protest from civil rights leaders and many African-Americans.

The top rung Latino civil rights groups and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus instantly understood the severe harm that the remark could do to the fragile relations between blacks and Latinos, and rushed to denounce Fox. But denunciations and demands for apologies couldn’t erase Fox’s words, or the sentiment behind them. Many Latinos openly and many more privately probably agreed with Fox. They insisted that immigrants would work the hardest, dirtiest, lowest paying jobs that blacks won’t work. And some even less charitably claimed that blacks wouldn’t work these jobs because they are lazy and slothful.
That belief, of course, is crude, false and racist. But it reflected the big problem that relations between blacks and Latinos are rife with falsehoods.

Yet ethnic insensitivity, however, is not a one-way street. In a blast at Fox for his remark on immigration and jobs, Al Sharpton also reflected the skewed view held by many blacks that Latinos are an economic threat: “We need to deal with the fact that there has been an inordinate amount of tension where people have come across the border for almost slave wages, competing with Latinos and blacks.” Sharpton rammed the point home by describing illegal immigration as a 21st century slave trade. That dredged up the negative images of hordes of uneducated, poor Mexicans invading the U.S.
Latino activists have waged a furious battle for decades against that image as well as against the depiction of Latinos as lazy, immoral, crime-prone, drug dealers, illegal aliens, service workers, and mothers with packs of ragged children. Those images constitute stereotypes that TV and Hollywood have done much to propagate.

The common litany of stereotypes, myths and misconceptions that many blacks and Latinos now routinely toss out about each other sooner or later will rudely force their way into and badly taint the way blacks and Latinos see each other. In a worse case scenario, the gulf in attitudes, perceptions and ultimately relations could widen rather than narrow between the two groups. The New America Media survey zeroed in on the negative beliefs and sentiments that blacks and Latinos hold about each. It other offered more proof that race relations and worse racial bigotry can no longer be colored in black and white.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation between African-Americans and Hispanics (Middle Passage Press)

hutchinsonreport@aol

4 comments:

The Breaking Point said...

This is nothing new. People on the ground have known for some time of the emnity that thrives between blacks and Hispanics.

We're (the two groups, of which I am the former) wasting our time fighting each other. If you've seen the film Ronan, recall the scene where DeNiro sketches a kill scenario suggested by a man who was claiming to be ex-British Special Forces. Shooters were set up on either side of a narrow road through which the mark was to travel, but the crossfire would take out both sides, not the mark.

Same thing here. The mark in this case isn't white people, but access and racial equality. While we're sniping at each other and taking each other out, the mark slides right on by.

Anonymous said...

I think a broader distinction needs to made between the views of Latinos and Latino Immigrants. The Gulf is quite wide. For example, Carribean culture is rife with racism due to its colonial legacy. Puerto Ricans and Dominicans frequently insult each other based on the darkness of their skin, or kinkyness of their hair (they both also show nearly universal disdain toward Haitians). Where as Central Americans come from a Colonial legacy in which "indios", or those with indigenous roots are the most looked down upon.
So why does this matter? Because in the Carribean, where almost everyone has the blood of former slaves in their veins, they console themselves by saying, "well at least were not dumb indios.". In central America, the poorest of the poor in the highlands of Guatemala and Mexico say," well, at least we're not blacks (read:slaves).".
These sentiments are quite distinct from the second, third, or fourth generation Latinos, which in some recent surveys, show intermarriage to African Americans nearly a common as with whites.
Of course a huge cause of the gap in understanding between Immigrant Latinos and African Americans comes down to competition for limited geographical space in certain areas, and of course to a strong language barrier.
Lastly, coming from a part of this country with a long presenceof Mexican Immigrants, the tensions between Immigrants and African Americans is noticably lower here, as time has broadened peoples views.

梁爵 said...

2020.05.26酒店小姐的基本介紹跟工作內容領檯: 在餐廳從事接待顧客工作,一般通稱領檯之工作人員,所負責的工作不外乎就是1.我在酒店上班的日子在餐廳門口迎接顧客,並引導入座2. 不敢來酒店上班-酒店打工的原因在門口歡送顧客酒店領檯通常的條件一定要比制服酒店公關漂亮,跟酒店公關一樣要坐檯才會有漂亮的收入! 通常客人沒有選到喜歡的酒店公關時,就會考慮點領檯來坐檯。所謂「特種行業」,係指酒店上班-酒店兼職-兼差如何達成人生的第一桶金「視聽歌唱業」、「理髮業」、「三溫暖業」、「舞廳業」、「舞場業」、「酒家業」、「酒吧業」及「特種咖啡茶室業」等八種行業,因其略分為八大類,故俗稱「八大行業」,以上酒店兼差不是一個複雜的工作環境?八種行業目前回歸由商業登記主管機關管理,其營業範圍職場須知 【酒店PT 】: 1、視聽歌唱業:指提供伴唱視聽設備,供人歌唱之營利事業。夢想在面前,卻少了一筆錢?人生夢想清單想出國、想買房,卻做不到?我們提供妳一個簡單的工作,只要有心,妳也能月入六位數。想脫貧?這次好機會別錯過。薪資超透明 月入10萬不是夢。酒店小姐一定有S嗎?老司機專業勸世文被贊爆八大行業指依「臺北市舞廳舞場酒家酒吧及特種咖啡茶室管理自治條例」管理之舞廳業、舞場業、酒家業、酒吧業、特種咖啡茶室業、視聽歌唱業、理容業及三溫暖業。

梁爵 said...

2020.06.12前新北市議員李婉鈺日前在節目中透露酒店小姐的基本介紹跟工作內容,她30歲時曾和一名斯文富二代有過婚約,當時我在酒店上班的日子已經認定彼此是要走一輩子的人,沒想到訂完婚後,對方卻背著她把酒店小姐帶回新房過夜,事後連一句道歉也沒有,讓她對這段感情心死,決定解除婚約。 李婉鈺在節目《不敢來酒店上班-酒店打工的原因單身行不行》透露,她30歲時曾經訂過婚,男方是一名大她9歲的富二代,從事酒店上班-酒店兼職-兼差如何達成人生的第一桶金建築室內設計方面的工作,事業穩定且家世相當好,兩人認識3個月就決定結婚。當時男方很貼心地把求婚及結婚的東西都準備好,不僅安排酒店兼差不是一個複雜的工作環境?楊凡導演幫忙拍攝照片,就連婚紗也是用知名品牌,所有東西都選最好的,她什麼事都不用操心,職場須知 【酒店PT 】只要人到場就好。李婉鈺說,兩人訂完婚後,某次男方說要去酒店參加朋友替他舉辦的告別單身派對,而她也沒有多想,很放心地讓對方出門。沒想到隔天送養肝茶給男方喝時,對方卻一直不開門、也不接電話,讓她越想越不對勁,於是乾脆站在門口守株待兔,從早上等到傍晚,直到外傭回來幫忙開門,一個女生突然從屋子裡衝出來,把她撞開後迅速離開現場,她才知自己被男方背叛,對方居然把酒店小姐帶到兩人的新房過夜。 李婉鈺透露,當時男方沒有解釋、也沒有感到抱歉,只是站在屋內對著她說「妳到底想要幹什麼?」讓她瞬間崩潰心死,什麼話也沒說就轉身離去,「哀莫大於心死,我覺得已經沒救了」,之後她也把婚戒退還給對方並解除婚約,放棄了這段感情。 李婉鈺說,「我後來輾轉知道他晚上都玩得很瘋狂,我就去拜託他身邊的好朋友,說拜託你們帶我去他常常去的酒店,然後叫他常常叫的酒店小姐出來,我想要知道她們到底哪裡好,我為什麼比不上她們」。事後還有媽媽桑向她透露,男方是酒店的常客,每次一定會帶一個女生回去,酒後還會做出失控舉動,讓李婉鈺不禁直呼,「很慶幸我那時候還沒有踏入婚姻這一步,就只是訂婚而已」。便服店: #王牌酒店 #香閣里拉酒店 #麗園酒店 #龍亨酒店 #香水酒店 #金典酒店 #威晶酒店 #威士登酒店。禮服店: #麗緻忠孝酒店 #麗緻敦南酒店 #維多立亞酒店 #百達妃麗酒店 #萬豪酒店 #金荷酒店 #大富豪酒店 #絕色酒店。制服店:#麗都 #淘寶酒店 #金碧輝煌酒店 #金昌酒店 #金聰酒店 #君悅酒店 #盛世酒店 #奧斯卡酒店 #龍昇酒店 #龍昌酒店 #百富酒店 #台北東區酒店兼職。