Adventures In Racial Profiling: Beware Of Camping Latinos

The U.S. Forest Service issues a statement recently warning campers of a possible marijuana-cultivation ring in Colorado! But instead of trying to keep people from racing into Colorado, their hemp bags flying out behind them, scattering bits of granola like Hansel and Gretel’s breadcrumbs, the Forest Service is warning people to stay away from specific campers. Latinos.

Officials have come out with an official list of “things to watch out for” when camping among potential marijuana growers with a penchant for camping. The list includes:

 1.Tortillas.

2. Spam and tuna packaging.

3. Tecate beer cans.

4. Latino music.

5. People speaking Spanish.

This is probably the most self-conscious, PC-striving attempt to circumvent more explicitly-worded racial profiling we’ve ever seen and it’s sort of making us laugh / reminding us to update our grocery list. The Forest Service, see, is concerned that drug cartels are using undocumented Latino immigrants for mass cultivation of marijuana in the states. But instead of saying “watch out for people who are all cultivating drugs ‘n shit out in the wilderness,” they’re only serving to make people suspicious of all Latinos - or, at least, people who enjoy partaking in Latino culture (like the consumption of Spam). Notes Marvink Correa, spokesman for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition:

When I go camping, I’ll be sure to play nothing but Bruce Springsteen.

Hm. As you please. Communist. 

How do you think the U.S. Forest Service should have handled this? Is their list of “things to watch out for” preferable to them saying, “If you think you see some brown dude looking a little nervous, tell someone. Don’t just assume he’s not sure which leaf to wipe with because it might be poison ivy.”

For the record, they did issue something of a retraction for their list. Said Hank Kashdan, associate chief of the U.S. Forest Service said:

It is inexcusable and we regret that this insensitivity distracted attention from the real problem of illegal marijuana cultivation on federal land and the threats to human safety and environmental degradation it poses.

Let’s put our differences aside and fry up some Spam tacos. Ok? 

Forest Service warns Coloradans: Beware of camping Latinos [Colorado Independent]