Especially on internet blogs? How do we know what's fact, and what's false? with so many extremist taking over the internet. What can we do to stop or even limit it?
Leave Hateful Rhetoric Out of Immigration Discussion
The Houston Chronicle made some important discoveries with its recent series by Susan Carroll on the failure of law enforcement officials to deport or keep in jail illegal immigrants who commit crimes.
What concerns us at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is despite Carroll's attempts to reach readers with the results of research that "found that recent immigrants are far less likely than their U.S.-born counterparts to commit crimes and end up in prison," anti-immigrant bigots seized on parts of her series to insult, stereotype, and even advocate violence against immigrants and others they perceived to be immigrants, especially Hispanics.
Here are some examples of the comments from Chronicle blogs:
• "This is a no-brainer to me. Start with the jails and get all those people deported, then construction companies, garbage companies, landscape companies, restaurants and must I go on?"
• "All of our grandchildren's children are going to live in a third world country."
• "We the taxpayers are footing the bill for these society leeches.The people from Katrina were bad enough. Our crime rate is still high."
• "I got a great idea — just shoot them on the spot if they commit a serious crime in Texas."
ADL has noticed an increase in such rhetoric among extremist groups in recent years, coupled with a marked increase in hate incidents and hate crimes against Latinos and those perceived to be Latinos. Further, the FBI has documented a disturbing four-year trend in the increase of hate crimes against Latinos from 475 in 2005 to 595 in 2007 nationally.
We need to read such articles thoroughly and thoughtfully. If the bloggers quoted above had done so, perhaps they wouldn't be so quick to paint all immigrants with a broad brush. We should ask our elected representatives, law enforcement officials and media to avoid demonizing immigrants and to work together with us to solve real problems and promote understanding.
Leave Hateful Rhetoric Out of Immigration Discussion
The Houston Chronicle made some important discoveries with its recent series by Susan Carroll on the failure of law enforcement officials to deport or keep in jail illegal immigrants who commit crimes.
What concerns us at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is despite Carroll's attempts to reach readers with the results of research that "found that recent immigrants are far less likely than their U.S.-born counterparts to commit crimes and end up in prison," anti-immigrant bigots seized on parts of her series to insult, stereotype, and even advocate violence against immigrants and others they perceived to be immigrants, especially Hispanics.
Here are some examples of the comments from Chronicle blogs:
• "This is a no-brainer to me. Start with the jails and get all those people deported, then construction companies, garbage companies, landscape companies, restaurants and must I go on?"
• "All of our grandchildren's children are going to live in a third world country."
• "We the taxpayers are footing the bill for these society leeches.The people from Katrina were bad enough. Our crime rate is still high."
• "I got a great idea — just shoot them on the spot if they commit a serious crime in Texas."
ADL has noticed an increase in such rhetoric among extremist groups in recent years, coupled with a marked increase in hate incidents and hate crimes against Latinos and those perceived to be Latinos. Further, the FBI has documented a disturbing four-year trend in the increase of hate crimes against Latinos from 475 in 2005 to 595 in 2007 nationally.
We need to read such articles thoroughly and thoughtfully. If the bloggers quoted above had done so, perhaps they wouldn't be so quick to paint all immigrants with a broad brush. We should ask our elected representatives, law enforcement officials and media to avoid demonizing immigrants and to work together with us to solve real problems and promote understanding.