Hispanic is the new black in Los Angeles
Friday, September 10, 2010 at 01:19PM Not unexpectedly, the so called Hispanics/Latinos are being treated as Black people once where (and still are, just go to San Diego, the beautiful contradiction) in southern California. On Sunday past Manuel Jaminez was shot dead by L.A.P.D. officers while allegedly wielding a knife and threatening a pregnant woman. Bicycle cops arrive on the scene and yell at Jaminez in English and Spanish to drop the knife and seconds later officer Frank Hernandez pulls the trigger of his weapon and Jaminez is dead. For Los Angelinos, this is really not an uncommon occurrence, so what would make this case different?
Talk radio in southern California is wildly conservative with the likes of Rush Limbaugh being pumped in daily and AM 640's John and Ken show during drive time. Of course, when the song of racist cops was being sung the first thing out of the mouths of white conservatives was "The cops are Hispanic, so how could it be racist?" Simply, the Hispanic cops are carrying out racist policies written and unwritten that have been followed for years in LA, period. Thats how it's racist. But, there is another underlying problem that's not so evident that should be addressed and this lies within the Hispanic/Latino collective at large.
Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called officer Frank Hernandez a "hero" and defended police Chief Charlie Beck saying it was "outrageous" to call Chief Beck a "murderer" at the community meeting following the shooting. What seems to be ignored is the obvious splinter in the Hispanic/Latino collective between those that have been in the States since, well, forever and those recently coming in the last 10 - 15 years. Officer Hernandez was known in the Westlake neighborhood and very disliked for "messing with people all the time" says Juan Lorenzo. Hernandez would often write tickets for people selling food (I suppose without a permit) or just taking the food and throwing it away. Maybe the schism is much deeper than L.A.P.D.'s racist polices for little did officer Hernandez know at the time that Manual Jaminez' first language was Quiche and may have never fully understood the English or Spanish being hurled at him by the officer. Maybe, officer Hernandez has been embarrassed by the standard of living the recent immigrants maintain, while he considers himself a full fledged "Amurkin" and 'these peasants make us all (Hispanics/Latinos) look bad'
Reader Comments (4)
I wonder if these sellouts believe that they are protected from racism or they make a conscious decision to do this or what?
I would love to read a psychological assessment of this kind of self hatred.
I've also become very interested in white self hatred/white privilege and will start seeking out books that address this.
I'll start with The History of White People by Nell Painter.
This is so true. It is the same cycle but this time we will see used more and more in the Latino collective. I wonder if the soon to be pressurized black collective will become more unified?