Unshocking Revelations: Latinos In The South Are Frequently Discriminated Against
21 April 2009, 6:00 PM. By Alex Alvarez
Poor Latinos in the South are - get this - frequently victims of xenophobic discrimination, like racial profiling and unfair wages. Can you imagine? The comprehensive study conducted by a Montgomery, Alabama civil rights non-profit group surveyed 500 Latinos - legal immigrants and otherwise - from five communities across the South.
Among the finding delineated in the study, researchers found:
- …that nearly half of all those surveyed knew someone who had been treated unfairly by police.
- …that two-thirds of respondents felt they were not welcomed by others in their communities.
- …that 77% of women reported sexual harassment in their places of work.
- …that 41% were not paid for work they had completed (this added up to a dramatic 80% in New Orleans).
- … that 68% said they encountered what they would describe as acts of racism on a regular basis - ranging from dirty looks to violence.
So, what have we learned? It sucks to be poor and it sucks to be Latino in America, but it really sucks to be a poor Latino in the American South.
Have any of you Southern Latinos (no, Miami does not count) experienced more racism in the South than any other places you’ve lived in or visited? God. If we could eat fried chicken, sweet potatoes and bourbon on even a semi-regular basis, we’d be too full and too outrageously content to be mean to anyone.
New report finds Latinos in South frequently victims of abuses, discrimination [al.com]
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Hmmm…that’s funny because the last five high profile Latino hate crimes were in the northeast.
when my family first moved to where we live now …the mail got mixed up and we got a letter that was delivered to our neighbor up the road and on it they politely wrote “Ain’t no blame mexican at this address but you can pick any other on the road” so i guess i fall into the 2nd bullet point…
Yeah, this is absolutely true at least in my personal experience. I’m not Latina, but until college I lived in Atlanta. The area I lived in was almost all recently arrived Latino immigrants, with a very small portion of established Latino-Americans. That shit was CRAZY. I’m pretty sure the ACLU is currently building a case against my county’s police department. They’re one of the few precincts to make their officers take this controversial illegal immigrant identification class. Even legal immigrants are terrified. I know one woman-a legal resident!- who was stopped at a driver checkpoint. Because she didn’t speak English, they somehow kept her overnight in jail until someone could come get her and provide documentation. It was so illegal it was ridiculous. I taught English and helped people with jobs, citizenship apps, etc, and some of the stories…damn they will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Police would get in my Domincan (citizen!) boyfriend’s face and then smile and me and say ma’am. Chinga la migra for real.