The Growing Perception of Hispanics in America: Expectation versus Reality
The Problem
In the past few decades, hostile behavior and discrimination have been faced by many in the Latino and Hispanic community of the United States. Many minority groups in America, including Native Americans and African Americans, tend to face various kinds of discrimination, ranging from police brutality to racial profiling. However, discrimination towards Latinos has been steadily increasing, and the growth has become exponential with recent politics. There exists a growing false perception, one that makes Latinos – in particular, immigrant Latinos – seem lazy, poor, and permanently dependent on government assistance.
Background
This narrative is becoming legitimized with recent statements by the 45th American President, Donald J. Trump. His word has influence over the opinions of a large portion of American citizens. Many of his supporters have shown on various occasions that they will believe anything he says, regardless of their alignment, or lack thereof, with actual truth. This gives him power, for whatever he says is real, his followers will believe to be real. When the President uses social media to spread negative misinformation, which he has done regarding Mexicans and other Latinos, his followers then undoubtedly gain a negative perception of them.
This is essentially the argument of Victoria DeFrancesco-Soto, a professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. When interviewed by NPR, she said that when the President began his 2016 electoral campaign, he “put Latinos in the bulls-eye,” with his promise to deport them and construct a wall along the southern Mexican-American border, and with his insulting remarks towards them. This in turn gives his followers permission to continue being racist towards these Spanish-speaking minorities, and we can see proof of this discrimination.
In the United States, Latinos and Hispanics, whether documented, undocumented, immigrant, or native-born citizen, face various types of discrimination. For example, a federal court ruled that the Texas Voter ID Law was intentionally designed to discriminate against minorities, the majority of which are Hispanic. This law suppresses the ability to voice their political opinion and face equal representation under the law in the democracy promised by the Constitution. Furthermore, a notable percentage of Latinos say that in the process of applying for jobs, being paid or promoted equally, looking for housing, or interacting with the police, they have been unfairly discriminated against. This creates a feedback loop, wherein the negative perception of these people prohibits many of them from climbing the social ladder, keeping them in poverty and in need of government assistance despite their hardest efforts, and further adding to the negative stereotype that already exists about them.
It’s imperative to note that these negative stereotypes exist despite Latinos’ best efforts to be viewed as otherwise. A growing percentage of the American workforce is made up by Hispanic people, often documented or undocumented immigrants who are willing to do jobs that other Americans won’t. I saw evidence of this during one of my field site observations. I observed the working-class people of Washington Heights on 181st Street, one of the neighborhood’s busiest streets. What I saw contradicts the false narrative that the President and his supporters have used as a defense for constructing the wall on the Mexican border. Whereas he claims that these immigrant groups are comprised mostly of drug dealers, rapists, and criminals, what I saw was seemingly endless amounts of Hispanic-owned businesses, Latino men and women coming home from work, parents walking the next generation home from school, or working there themselves, as there was construction on some avenues as well as within the 1-train station.
To begin investigating the issue of why these false notions exist despite blatant evidence to the contrary, I had to conduct some research, and I found evidence that deepens my understanding of the issue and that can even propose answers.
Annotated Bibliography
David R. Roediger, Working Toward Whiteness: How America’s Immigrants Became White: The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs, Basic Books, 31 May 2005
Highly respected scholar David R. Roediger writes about a different type of immigrant that landed on American soil prior to Latino immigrants. It speaks of how white immigrants of Polish, Italian, and Slavic descent were faced with similar kinds of discrimination. It shows how discrimination of immigrants is a constant cycle of when those who have settled here generations ago are confronted by a new wave of foreign people with different values who wish to contribute to American society in the same way the ancestors of the already-settled have.
Gratton, Brian, and Jon Moen. “Immigration, Culture, and Child Labor in the United States, 1880-1920.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 34, no. 3, 2004.
This book provides information on the culture of immigration in the late 19th and early 20th century, including the workforce percentage of these immigrants and their children.
“EEOC releases federal work force data annual report shows number of Hispanics or Latinos increased; minorities make gains in securing senior level positions.” States News Service, 21 Mar. 2012, pp. States News Service, March 21, 2012.
This report outlines the Hispanic/Latino workforce of the United States in 2012. It can be compared to information of the same kind, but of some time period decades prior, to analyze the growth of the American Hispanic community and their contributions to American society.
Reimers, Cordelia W. “Labor Market Discrimination Against Hispanic and Black Men.” The Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 65, no. 4, 1983
This publication goes into deep detail of discrimination faced by Hispanic and black men in America. It’s a study of wages, work hours, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic placing, its advantages and disadvantages, and education amongst these two groups and how they compare to each other and that of white people. Author Cordelia W. Reimers judges these mathematically, giving scientifically sound measurements of amounts of discrimination and racism faced by these groups.
Ryff, Carol D., et al. “Status Inequalities, Perceived Discrimination, and Eudaimonic Well-Being: Do the Challenges of Minority Life Hone Purpose and Growth?” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, vol. 44, no. 3, 2003
This article provides information about the inequalities and discrimination faced by minorities in the United States. It speaks of African-Americans, the various ethnicities that make up the Latin-American diaspora, and how they are treated politically, socially, and economically. It provides proof of Latinos’ lower incomes, voter suppression, and lower wages even in the same jobs as white Americans. It also gathers reasons for why this discrimination exists, based off of surveys completed by whites, blacks, and Latinos. It asks how Latinos perceive themselves, how some whites perceive Latinos, and how Latinos think whites perceive Latinos.
Taylor, Patricia A., and Ann. Carmel. A Profile of Hispanic Employment, 1974-1976. U.S. Civil Service Commission, Bureau of Personnel Management Information Systems: Supt. of Docs. U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1978.
A Profile of Hispanic Employment, 1974-1976 provides historical statistical information regarding Latinos and their engagement in the workforce between these two years. The 1970s was a time of Hispanic mass migration into the United States, especially of Caribbean island such as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. This will provide an insight on whether the amount of Hispanic employment has decreased or increased and to what degree, when compared to the Hispanic employment of today.
Objective
As much of the research cited above shows, Hispanics contribute a great deal to American society, even in the face of opinions that state otherwise. My end goal is to discover why this is and what can be done to change it.
In Working Towards Whiteness: The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs, author David R. Roediger explicitly expresses the hardships that European immigrants from countries like Greece and Italy faced when coming to the United States. According to the book, in the 1920s and 1930s, southern and eastern Europeans were simply referred to as “racials,” and they suffered employment discrimination. One informant told Roediger that the Italians of the workplace, including him, were “treated like blacks” upon his arrival to the States in 1926. New immigrants suffered wage discrimination, receiving as much as ten percent less pay than natives with the same level of skill. Among a group of Italian tunnel workers in New York made about $1.75 to $3.00 daily, whereas the more racially accepted Irish-Americans made $3.00 to $5.00. The unskilled Irish-American’s wage averaged $2 for a ten-hour day; his Italian, Slavic, and Hungarian counterparts made $1.46. The book goes on to explain how unions were unwilling to challenge racial discrimination, which is a “textbook example of nonracial syndicalism’s ability to cohabit with white privilege.”
Immigrants were treated lesser, despite their contributions to American society. Gratton’s Immigration, Culture, and Child Labor in the United States, 1880-1920 provides the percentage of immigrants in the workforce. According to the study, 6o percent of Italian children between the ages of ten and fifteen held gainful employment. About 23 percent are German; 12 percent Bohemian. Yet, a cartoon published in the New York Herald in 1903 provides eloquent testimony to the reformers’ views in its portrayal of “obese immigrant parents, sodden with drink-being pulled along by their straining, emaciated children.”
This mirrors what goes on today with Hispanics.
Remier’s Labor Market Discrimination Against Hispanic and Black Men outlines the types and level of discrimination faced by Latino men in the United States. According to the study, discrimination may be responsible for an 18% difference in wages, about half of the 33% wage-offer gap for Puerto Rican men. The largest (36%) is in the case of Central and South American men. This is 86% of the total wage-offer differential between them and white non-Hispanic men. Discrimination may cause a wage gap of up to 12% for “Other Hispanic” men, a little over half of the total gap. Meanwhile, the Labor Department of the United States released statistical information in December of 2017 that shows Hispanic unemployment rates have reached a new, 17-year low. It currently sits at 4.7%. Furthermore, the Hispanic workforce makes up 17% of the entire workforce of the United States, which is equal to that of the African-American and Asian workforce combined (12% and 5% respectively). Lastly, a March 2017 study by the Cato Institute states that “[undocumented] immigrants are 44% less likely to be incarcerated than native[-born Americans]. [Resident/citizen] immigrants are 69% less likely. […] Immigrants are underrepresented in the incarcerated population while native[-borns] are overrepresented.”
The question, or objective, is why these notions exists despite evidence to the contrary.
Method
To find these answers, more research is needed.
More field site observations would strengthen the basis of this research. I observed a second field site, a Dominican barbershop in the Bronx, and found a broader range of socioeconomic statuses than that of Washington Heights. Whereas I saw mostly working-class people in Washington Heights, the Bronx barbershop saw poor people, middle-class, and well-off people. This range in socioeconomic status could be studied more in more field site observations that are also comprised of a majorly Latino or Hispanic population. Perhaps the percentage of Hispanic people in a certain economic class is the reason for the perception of them.
Interviews can take place with people who are heavily informed on the subject. This can range from historians and history professors to people who have studied society and culture and the immigration of people into the United States, their perception, media representation, and their contribution to the economy, political affairs, and society. It would also help, though, to interview people with little knowledge on the subject in order to paint a more accurate picture of the general perception. Moreover, interviewing those who have personally experienced discrimination because of their ethnicity, including more than just Hispanics, can add to the research.
Conclusion
By taking these steps, perhaps the answer of why Hispanics currently face discrimination in the United States can be found. People like Trump and his supporters are attempting to legitimize this narrative of them, one of laziness and dependence, despite the fact that the record shows the opposite. By rounding out the why this happens, we can take steps to figure out how to stop it, and how to prevent it for future waves and generations of immigrants.
