The reach of anti-immigrant hate
IN NEW York City, there have been no less than 10 hate crimes committed against people of Mexican descent this year. Many of these vicious attacks took place in a neighborhood quaintly named Port Richmond in the borough of Staten Island.
The most recent attack occurred at the beginning of August when a 17-year-old was beaten and subjected to racist slurs for $10 out of his wallet. The local media has continued to bow in deference to the NYPD classification of the attacks as "bias crimes" instead of "hate crimes"--the latter, of course, qualifies the perpetrators for harsher punishment.
New York City is largely off the radar in terms of the national discourse on immigration, especially in light of the inhumane laws being passed in states like Arizona. But New Yorkers have an obligation and a stake in protecting our Mexican brethren. The time has come to stand up for those who are oppressed because of their skin color and their legal status, which make them both targets for abuse by intolerant xenophobes and less likely to receive the full protection of the NYPD.
In one recent news report, a Staten Island resident offered an explanation that the attacks are grounded in high unemployment among native-born. The conflation of unemployment with immigration perpetuates the falsehood that immigrants are stealing jobs from "Americans." In fact, most immigrants work long hours at sub-minimum wage jobs like dishwashing and meatpacking, which most Americans won't take.
In my research for a class on immigration at Columbia University, I've spoken with immigrants of varying legal status, and time and again, the story is one of very hard work with very little reward--many of these individuals work 11-12 hour days for six days per week.
These are hard workers often far from their families only searching for some way to improve the lot in life for both themselves and their families. To blame them for our economic problems adds salt to untreated wounds.
A more accurate account of high unemployment rates would look at the thievery of Wall Street and the corporate downsizing justified in its wake, at to those at the absolute bottom of the capitalist hierarchy.
Perhaps it is a sad bit of irony that Port Richmond sits directly across the Hudson River's Upper Bay from Wall Street--the only thing between them is one of our nation's most iconic monuments: the Statue of Liberty, which claims that the U.S. stands ready to accept the "poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Nowhere is it inscribed on the statue or that this freedom does not apply to Mexicans.
All New Yorkers and all Americans should be ashamed and outraged every time a hate crime is perpetrated against a human being, and that outrage should be doubled when the victim is an immigrant falsely blamed for our economic problems and lacking the full protection of the state.
Bradley Powell, New York City
