FAIR Claims Demonizing Rhetoric Unrelated to Anti-Latino Violence
The (FAIR), the most important anti-immigration group in America, recently issued an angry press release denouncing those who suggest that leads to hate violence. FAIR said that this 鈥渙utrageous behavior鈥� was part of 鈥渁 calculated strategy鈥� aimed at 鈥渟ilenc[ing] legitimate immigration policy debate鈥� and added that those who suggest such a link between rhetoric and hate crime 鈥減rovide no proof whatsoever.鈥� FAIR and its leader, , were particularly incensed that Latino rights organizations had 鈥渃ynically鈥� suggested that the recent on Long Island, N.Y., by white teenagers who had gone hunting for 鈥淢exicans,鈥� was related to the demonization of Latino immigrants that had been particularly heavy there.
FAIR accused the National Council of La Raza, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), and unnamed other organizations of 鈥渕anipulat[ing] the data鈥� on hate crimes. But the fact is that it is FAIR that dishonestly manipulated data as part of a bid to minimize anti-Latino hate violence.
FAIR says that anti-Hispanic hate crime incidents went up by just 3.3% between 2006 and 2007, and it is right. But it completely ignores the fact 鈥� which is what La Raza, MALDEF and the Southern Poverty Law Center (publisher of this blog) have been pointing out 鈥� that that figure is only the latest rise of many. In fact, the very same FBI hate crime statistics cited by FAIR to make its case show that anti-Latino hate crimes have risen a total of 40% between 2003 and 2007 (see chart below). While the FBI statistics are not conclusive, they indicate a trend that parallels the rise in anti-immigration groups and their often-vicious anti-Latino rhetoric. As Jack Levin, the Brudnick professor of sociology and criminology at Northeastern University and a national expert on hate crime, told Hatewatch: 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just the most recent numbers. It鈥檚 the trend over a number of years that lends credibility to the notion that we鈥檙e seeing a very real and possibly dramatic rise in anti-Latino hate incidents.鈥�
听
听
FAIR also suggests, based on the number of incidents reported by the FBI, that the prevalence of anti-Latino hate crimes is very low 鈥� 1.3 attacks per 100,000 Latinos. It ignores the important, 2005 Justice Department study () that concluded that the real level of hate-motivated attacks on Latinos (this at a time before the anti-immigration movement and its rhetoric had really exploded) was vastly higher 鈥� 90 per 100,000 Latinos. The study, considered by criminologists to be far more accurate that the annual hate crime statistics, that huge numbers of hate crimes are not reported to police or don鈥檛 find their way into the FBI鈥檚 statistics for various other reasons. The underreporting problem is even more severe among undocumented immigrants, who rarely report crimes to police because they are afraid they will be deported.
FAIR takes the remarkable position that hate speech directed against Latinos 鈥� allegations that they are secretly planning to hand the American Southwest over to Mexico, that they are far more criminal than others, that they are bringing dread diseases to the United States, and so on 鈥� has no relationship at all to hate crime. In addition to defying common sense, that head-in-the-sand approach completely ignores the statements that are typically made by hate criminals during their crimes. In the Long Island case, for instance, prosecutors said the suspects told police that they were 鈥渟pecifically targeting Hispanic males.鈥� 鈥淟et鈥檚 go find some Mexicans to [expletive deleted] up,鈥� they said, according to Newsday. They told detectives they were going 鈥渂------jumping鈥� and they used racial epithets during their attack. The facts are similar in most such cases. 鈥淩acist rhetoric and dehumanizing images inspire violence perpetrated against innocent human beings,鈥� Levin concluded.
Hate criminals鈥� sentiments come from somewhere. Just because it鈥檚 not possible to pinpoint the exact source of the Long Island attackers鈥� racial anger 鈥� rhetoric from their parents, nativist groups in the area, politicians, pundits or even FAIR itself 鈥� does not mean it magically popped into the assailants鈥� minds. But FAIR uses the fact that we don鈥檛 know precisely where their anger started to claim that the angry and demonizing rhetoric FAIR and others promote is unrelated to criminal violence.
Finally, FAIR keys in hard on the idea that those who criticize the authors of demonizing propaganda are attempting to suppress free speech. But the fact that hateful things can be said and enjoy First Amendment protection does not mean that hateful rhetoric doesn鈥檛 promote violence and it does not absolve groups like FAIR from moral responsibility for such rhetoric. In reality, as the Chicago-based human rights group (CNC) points out, . In 2001, not long after FAIR began work in the area, two young men tried to beat two immigrant laborers to death with hammers; in a later case, a Mexican family escaped with their lives after their home was firebombed in a hate attack. Perhaps, given its history, it鈥檚 no surprise that FAIR, started by Michigan nativist in 1979, is working so hard to convince us that demonizing rhetoric 鈥� including its own 鈥� has no relationship to criminal violence.
听
