Hispanophobia
Encyclopedia
Hispanophobia is a fear
, distrust
, aversion
, or discrimination
of Hispanic
people, Hispanic culture and the Spanish language
. Its opposite is Hispanophilia. As a historical phenomenon it is considered to have had three main stages, originating in 16th century Europe
, reawakening during 19th century disputes over Spanish and Mexican
territory such as the Spanish-American
and Mexican-American Wars, and finally increasing in tandem with politically charged controversies such as bilingual education
and illegal immigration to the United States
.
and Inquisition
spread through late-medieval
Europe. During this period hispanophobia materialized in folklore
sometimes referred to as "the Black Legend
":
La leyenda negra, as Spanish historians first named it, entailed a view of Spaniards as "unusually cruel, avaricious, treacherous, fanatical, superstitious, hot-blooded, corrupt, decadent, indolent, and authoritarian." As Spain and England colonized the Americas, "[t]he Black Legend informed Anglo Americans' judgments about the political, economic, religious, and social forces that had shaped the Spanish provinces from Florida to California, as well as throughout the hemisphere."
Thus in North America
, hispanophobia preceded the United States' Declaration of Independence
by almost two hundred years. Historians theorize that the English
and the Dutch
employed and encouraged it as part of their efforts to undermine the Spanish Empire; early New England
ers engaged in hispanophobic efforts to assimilate Spanish colonies:
began to develop expansionist
tendencies, citizens adapted the "Black Legend" in order to exploit it for political purposes. In so doing, they imparted elements of racism
to hispanophobia. In the account given by Tony Horwitz
, "[w]hen 19th-century jingoists
revived this caricature to justify invading Spanish (and later, Mexican) territory, they added a new slur: the mixing of Spanish, African and Indian blood had created a degenerate race."
"Another circumstance," according to historian David J. Weber, "that shaped the depth of Anglo Americans' Hispanophobia was the degree to which they saw Hispanic
s as an obstacle to their ambitions." As the U.S. grew into a republic
, anti-Spanish sentiment exhibited a recrudescence
. Spain was perceived as the antithesis of Separation of church and state
and as a paragon of monarchy
and colonialism
; this apparently fundamental opposition to the United States' founding principles fueled hostility that would eventually culminate in the Spanish-American War of 1898. Hispanophobia is particularly evident in the historiography
of the Texas Revolution
:
Throughout the 20th century, an array of mostly political and economic forces have driven immigration
from a multitude of Spanish-speaking countries—such as Cuba
, Guatemala
, Dominican Republic
, and Mexico
--to the relatively strong economy and stable political environment of the United States. As a result, according to some historians, Americans "now have something called a 'Hispanic
,' which describes not someone born in a Spanish-speaking country, nor someone who speaks Spanish well or badly, nor even someone with a Hispanic surname, but someone who identifies
himself as such." As key corollary to this development, it is toward this group, which is not precisely or rigorously defined, that U.S. hispanophobia is now predominantly oriented. Many forms of hispanophobia endemic to the Texas Revolution still flourish in the United States today.
, together with hispanophobic jokes and discourse, as a prominent example of modern-day hispanophobia.
The "Official English movement
" has been criticized because its mass appeal is perceived not as relating to any measurable benefit that would result from the eradication of bilingual education
and other bilingual services, but from the idea that "challenges to the status of one's language typically engage deep-seated feelings about national identity and group worth." Proponents of this view claim that the English-only movement attracts public support primarily by functioning as a hispanophobic form of intimidation.
Mock Spanish
is also a particular point of controversy:
Citing groups such as the Minuteman Project, sociologists have concluded that some anti-illegal-immigration arguments in the United States have been tainted with xenophobia
and hispanophobia, many of them drawing on concepts of racial purity and eugenics
. These groups' concern with illegal immigration, they assert, "lies not in immigration per se., which has declined in the last decade, but in the changing national origin of new immigrants, that is immigrants are now mainly Latin American or Asian, which is seen as a threat to the Anglo-Saxon
tradition."
In 2006, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard
and U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton
sent a letter of complaint to Federal Communications Commission
chairman Kevin Martin
, in response to the following comments made by radio host Brian James:
Calling the speech "dangerous and totally irresponsible for anyone, particularly a licensed body using public airways," Goddard and Charlton expressed concern that it would lead to violence in the state, where conflict over illegal immigration was growing increasingly heated. Brian James never apologized for his comments and claimed his comments were "satire."
New Jersey
internet radio host, white supremacist, and convicted felon Hal Turner
who used to broadcast out of his house made similar remarks, a number of which the Anti-Defamation League
has posted under the category of extremism
. On April 1, 2006, Turner said:
Fear
Fear is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger...
, distrust
Distrust
Distrust is a formal way of not trusting any one party too much in a situation of grave risk or deep doubt. It is commonly expressed in civics as a division or balance of powers, or in politics as means of validating treaty terms. Systems based on distrust simply divide the responsibility so that...
, aversion
Aversion
Aversion is a horror film about a private investigator who discovers too late that the woman he is hired to follow is often possessed by a demon. Alex Stokes is a self-destructive, down-on-his-luck investigator who takes cases wherever he can. When a mysterious man offers him a healthy sum to...
, or discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
of Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
people, Hispanic culture and the Spanish language
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. Its opposite is Hispanophilia. As a historical phenomenon it is considered to have had three main stages, originating in 16th century Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, reawakening during 19th century disputes over Spanish and Mexican
History of Mexico
The history of Mexico, a country located in the southern portion of North America, covers a period of more than two millennia. First populated more than 13,000 years ago, the country produced complex indigenous civilizations before being conquered by the Spanish in the 16th Century.Since the...
territory such as the Spanish-American
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
and Mexican-American Wars, and finally increasing in tandem with politically charged controversies such as bilingual education
Bilingual education
Bilingual education involves teaching academic content in two languages, in a native and secondary language with varying amounts of each language used in accordance with the program model.-Bilingual education program models:...
and illegal immigration to the United States
Illegal immigration to the United States
An illegal immigrant in the United States is an alien who has entered the United States without government permission or stayed beyond the termination date of a visa....
.
The "Black Legend"
Early instances of hispanophobia arose as the influence of the Spanish EmpireSpanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
and Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
spread through late-medieval
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....
Europe. During this period hispanophobia materialized in folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
sometimes referred to as "the Black Legend
Black Legend
The Black Legend refers to a style of historical writing that demonizes Spain and in particular the Spanish Empire in a politically motivated attempt to morally disqualify Spain and its people, and to incite animosity against Spanish rule...
":
- "The legend first arose amid the religious strife and imperial rivalries of 16th-century Europe. Northern Europeans, who loathed CatholicCatholicismCatholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and envied its AmericanAmericasThe Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
empire, published books and gory engravings that depicted Spanish colonization as uniquely barbarous: an orgy of greed, slaughter and papist depravity, the Inquisition writ large."
La leyenda negra, as Spanish historians first named it, entailed a view of Spaniards as "unusually cruel, avaricious, treacherous, fanatical, superstitious, hot-blooded, corrupt, decadent, indolent, and authoritarian." As Spain and England colonized the Americas, "[t]he Black Legend informed Anglo Americans' judgments about the political, economic, religious, and social forces that had shaped the Spanish provinces from Florida to California, as well as throughout the hemisphere."
Thus in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, hispanophobia preceded the United States' Declaration of Independence
Declaration of independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion of the independence of an aspiring state or states. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another nation or failed nation, or are breakaway territories from within the larger state...
by almost two hundred years. Historians theorize that the English
History of England
The history of England concerns the study of the human past in one of Europe's oldest and most influential national territories. What is now England, a country within the United Kingdom, was inhabited by Neanderthals 230,000 years ago. Continuous human habitation dates to around 12,000 years ago,...
and the Dutch
History of the Netherlands
The history of the Netherlands is the history of a maritime people thriving on a watery lowland river delta at the edge of northwestern Europe. When the Romans and written history arrived in 57 BC, the country was sparsely populated by various tribal groups at the periphery of the empire...
employed and encouraged it as part of their efforts to undermine the Spanish Empire; early New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
ers engaged in hispanophobic efforts to assimilate Spanish colonies:
- "[I]n North America a deep current of Hispanophobia pervades Anglo-Saxon culture. ... As early as the late seventeenth century, we find PuritanPuritanThe Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
divines like Cotton MatherCotton MatherCotton Mather, FRS was a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister, prolific author and pamphleteer; he is often remembered for his role in the Salem witch trials...
and Samuel Sewell studying Spanish--with a view to winning converts to their version of Protestantism. Sewell spoke of "bombing [sicSicSic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...
] Santo DomingoSanto DomingoSanto Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
, HavanaHavanaHavana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Puerto RicoPuerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, and MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
itself" with the Spanish BibleSpanish translations of the BibleSeveral Spanish translations of the Bible have been made since approximately 700 years ago.- Jewish translations :Medieval Spanish Jews had a tradition of oral translation of Biblical readings into Spanish, and several manuscript translations were made, either for Jewish use or for Christian patrons...
, and Cotton Mather even wrote a book on Protestant doctrine in Spanish, published in Boston in 1699, intended for--as he might say--the darker regions of Spanish America."
Hispanophobia in the United States
As the United States' foreign policyForeign relations of the United States
The United States has formal diplomatic relations with most nations. The United States federal statutes relating to foreign relations can be found in Title 22 of the United States Code.-Pacific:-Americas:-Caribbean:...
began to develop expansionist
Expansionism
In general, expansionism consists of expansionist policies of governments and states. While some have linked the term to promoting economic growth , more commonly expansionism refers to the doctrine of a state expanding its territorial base usually, though not necessarily, by means of military...
tendencies, citizens adapted the "Black Legend" in order to exploit it for political purposes. In so doing, they imparted elements of racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
to hispanophobia. In the account given by Tony Horwitz
Tony Horwitz
Tony Horwitz is an American journalist and writer. His works include Blue Latitudes or Into the Blue, One for the Road, Confederates In The Attic, Baghdad Without A Map, and A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World. His next book Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked...
, "[w]hen 19th-century jingoists
Jingoism
Jingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy. In practice, it is a country's advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests...
revived this caricature to justify invading Spanish (and later, Mexican) territory, they added a new slur: the mixing of Spanish, African and Indian blood had created a degenerate race."
"Another circumstance," according to historian David J. Weber, "that shaped the depth of Anglo Americans' Hispanophobia was the degree to which they saw Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
s as an obstacle to their ambitions." As the U.S. grew into a republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
, anti-Spanish sentiment exhibited a recrudescence
Recrudescence
Recrudescence1. Revival of material or behavior that had previously quiesced.2. A recurrence of symptoms in a patient whose blood stream infection has previously been at such a low level as not to be clinically demonstrable or cause symptoms....
. Spain was perceived as the antithesis of Separation of church and state
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
and as a paragon of monarchy
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
and colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
; this apparently fundamental opposition to the United States' founding principles fueled hostility that would eventually culminate in the Spanish-American War of 1898. Hispanophobia is particularly evident in the historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
of the Texas Revolution
Texas Revolution
The Texas Revolution or Texas War of Independence was an armed conflict between Mexico and settlers in the Texas portion of the Mexican state Coahuila y Tejas. The war lasted from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836...
:
- "In essence, the Texas rebellion had been little more than a struggle for political and economic power, but early TexasTexasTexas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
historians elevated the revolt against Mexico to a sublime collision of moral influences,' 'a moral struggle,' and a war for principles.'... Hispanophobia, with its particularly vitriolic anti-Mexican variant, also served as a convenient rationale to keep Mexicans 'in their place.'"
Throughout the 20th century, an array of mostly political and economic forces have driven immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
from a multitude of Spanish-speaking countries—such as Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
--to the relatively strong economy and stable political environment of the United States. As a result, according to some historians, Americans "now have something called a 'Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
,' which describes not someone born in a Spanish-speaking country, nor someone who speaks Spanish well or badly, nor even someone with a Hispanic surname, but someone who identifies
Identity politics
Identity politics are political arguments that focus upon the self interest and perspectives of self-identified social interest groups and ways in which people's politics may be shaped by aspects of their identity through race, class, religion, sexual orientation or traditional dominance...
himself as such." As key corollary to this development, it is toward this group, which is not precisely or rigorously defined, that U.S. hispanophobia is now predominantly oriented. Many forms of hispanophobia endemic to the Texas Revolution still flourish in the United States today.
"Official English" and mock Spanish
Sociologists cite the "Official English" or English-only movementEnglish-only movement
English-only movement, also known as Official English movement, refers to a political movement for the use only of the English language in official government operations through the establishing of English as the only official language in the United States...
, together with hispanophobic jokes and discourse, as a prominent example of modern-day hispanophobia.
The "Official English movement
English-only movement
English-only movement, also known as Official English movement, refers to a political movement for the use only of the English language in official government operations through the establishing of English as the only official language in the United States...
" has been criticized because its mass appeal is perceived not as relating to any measurable benefit that would result from the eradication of bilingual education
Bilingual education
Bilingual education involves teaching academic content in two languages, in a native and secondary language with varying amounts of each language used in accordance with the program model.-Bilingual education program models:...
and other bilingual services, but from the idea that "challenges to the status of one's language typically engage deep-seated feelings about national identity and group worth." Proponents of this view claim that the English-only movement attracts public support primarily by functioning as a hispanophobic form of intimidation.
Mock Spanish
Mock Spanish
Mock Spanish is a term sometimes used to describe a variety of usages common in some otherwise monolingual Anglo-American circles. The term has been popularized by anthropologist-linguist Jane H. Hill of the University of Arizona, most recognizably in relation to the catchphrase, "Hasta la vista,...
is also a particular point of controversy:
- "'Mock Spanish' indirectly indexes one dimension of "White Public Space": the right of people racialized as "WhiteWhite peopleWhite people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
" to use a language associated with "Color" without any attention to norms of correctness of grammarGrammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
, orthographyOrthographyThe orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
, or pronunciation. Finally, Mock Spanish exploits and continually reproduces negative stereotypes of Spanish speakers."
- "Jokes...along with exaggerated imitations of a Spanish accent, as in, "Es no my yob," and "My ney José Jiménez"; racist labels such as spic, wetback, greaser, beaner, bandido; and public insults like J. Edgar HooverJ. Edgar HooverJohn Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
’s admonition that one need not worry if Mexicans or Puerto RicansPuerto Rican peopleA Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...
came at you with a gun because they couldn’t shoot straight, but if they had a knife, watch out—are examples of the blatantly racist discourses that construct LatinoLatinoThe demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
s in the United States as stupid, dirty, lazy, sexually loose, amoral, and violent."
U.S. immigration controversy
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
and hispanophobia, many of them drawing on concepts of racial purity and eugenics
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
. These groups' concern with illegal immigration, they assert, "lies not in immigration per se., which has declined in the last decade, but in the changing national origin of new immigrants, that is immigrants are now mainly Latin American or Asian, which is seen as a threat to the Anglo-Saxon
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP is an informal term, often derogatory or disparaging, for a closed group of high-status Americans mostly of British Protestant ancestry. The group supposedly wields disproportionate financial and social power. When it appears in writing, it is usually used to...
tradition."
In 2006, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard
Terry Goddard
Samuel Pearson "Terry" Goddard III was the Attorney General of Arizona, from 2003 to 2011, who also served as Mayor of Phoenix, Arizona from 1984 to 1990....
and U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton
Paul Charlton
Paul Charlton was a United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico from 1911 to 1913.-Biography:...
sent a letter of complaint to Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
chairman Kevin Martin
Kevin Martin (FCC)
Kevin Jeffrey Martin was the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He was nominated to be a commissioner by President George W. Bush on April 30, 2001, and was confirmed on May 25, 2001. On March 16, 2005, President Bush designated him as FCC chairman, to replace Michael K. Powell...
, in response to the following comments made by radio host Brian James:
- "We'll call it 'Immigration Roulette,' What we'll do is randomly pick one night every week where we will kill whoever crosses the border. Step over there and you die. You get to decide whether it's your lucky night or not. I think that would be more fun."
Calling the speech "dangerous and totally irresponsible for anyone, particularly a licensed body using public airways," Goddard and Charlton expressed concern that it would lead to violence in the state, where conflict over illegal immigration was growing increasingly heated. Brian James never apologized for his comments and claimed his comments were "satire."
New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
internet radio host, white supremacist, and convicted felon Hal Turner
Hal Turner
Harold Charles "Hal" Turner is an American white nationalist, Holocaust denier and blogger from North Bergen, New Jersey. In August 2010, he was convicted for making threats against three federal judges with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...
who used to broadcast out of his house made similar remarks, a number of which the Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
has posted under the category of extremism
Extremism
Extremism is any ideology or political act far outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards...
. On April 1, 2006, Turner said:
- "These filthy, disease ridden, two-legged bags of human debris are too stupid to believe....Just think, America, if we bring enough of them here, they can do for America exactly what they did for Mexico! Turn our whole country into a crime-ridden, drug infested slum....These people are sub-human. I would love it if folks who do have such weapons, used them on the crowds on April 10 [at immigration rallies2006 United States immigration reform protestsIn 2006, millions of people participated in protests over a proposed change to U.S. immigration policy. The protests began in response to proposed legislation known as H.R. 4437, which would raise penalties for Illegal immigration and classify illegal immigrants and anyone who helped them enter or...
]. I advocate machine gunning these invaders to death at their rallies!"
See also
- HispanophileHispanophileHispanophile is a word with two meanings. The first meaning refers to a person who is fond of Spain, its people, or its cultures, and it can also be the corresponding adjective. The second meaning generalizes the first one to all Spanish-speaking countries...
- Illegal immigration to the United StatesIllegal immigration to the United StatesAn illegal immigrant in the United States is an alien who has entered the United States without government permission or stayed beyond the termination date of a visa....
- XenophobiaXenophobiaXenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
- Anti-Mexican sentimentAnti-Mexican sentimentAnti-Mexican sentiment is a fear, distrust, stereotype, hostility and aversion of people of Mexican descent, Mexican culture and/or the Spanish language...
- Colombia in Popular CultureColombia in Popular CultureThe depiction of Colombia in popular culture, especially the portrayal of Colombian people in film and fiction, has been asserted by Colombian organizations and government to be largely negative and has raised concerns that it reinforces, or even engenders, societal prejudice and discrimination due...
External links
- "Immigration — and the Curse of the Black Legend." Tony Horwitz. New York Times 9 July 2006
- GalleryBlog on Latina/o Stereotypes that also works to document anti-Latina/o hysteria in U.S. mass culture. This blog serves as a constantly updated resource for Tex(t)-Mex, a University of Texas PressUniversity of Texas PressThe University of Texas Press is a university press that is part of the University of Texas at Austin. Established in 1950, the Press publishes scholarly books in several areas, including Latin American studies, Texana, anthropology, U.S...
volume (2007) - "Cobardía, crueldad y oportunismo español: algunas consideraciones sobre la "verdadera" historia de la conquista de la Nueva España". Lemir (Revista de literatura medieval y del Renacimiento) 7 (2003): 1-29. http://parnaseo.uv.es/Lemir/Revista/Revista7/NuevaEspa.pdf