5:33 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Obama| Politics| race| society · 2 Comments
15 Jun 2009
Mainstream media really knows how to blow up a relatively insignificant piece of data. Case in point: the newswires are all a-flutter with “news” that Obama is the U.S. president that has appointed the most Latinos ever to his administration. How many? A whopping 11% for posts requiring Senate confirmation:
The Houston Chronicle reported Sunday that Obama has tapped significant numbers of Latinos from California and Texas to serve in his administration.Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said he credits California’s large Latino population, its quality educational system and its concentration of “more progressive Latinos” for its high number of Obama administration picks.
While this is nothing to wince at, it’s not anything to marvel over either. Obama is being compared to former President George W. Bush with 5.5% and former President Bill Clinton with a paltry 4.5%.
These appointments are welcomed, but let us not forget that Latinos now account for 17% of the U.S. population, and that is only counting those residents recognized by the U.S. Census.
Don’t be fooled. This type of “news” is helping along the Right’s suggestions that Obama is, to use their term, a “reverse racist” gone wild, when in reality all he is doing is making meager attempts to diversify his administration.
Via / UPI
8:44 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Family| Immigration| Media| Violence| arizona| children| crime| media justice| race · 4 Comments
15 Jun 2009
When Brisenia Flores and her father Raul were shot to death by Shawna Forde and Gunny Bush, two anti-immigrant activists with ties to the Minutemen, they weren’t asked for their papers. The goal wasn’t to observe, document and report as Jim Gilchrist, the leader of the Minuteman Project, has said in trying to distance himself from his associates charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree burglary and one count of aggravated assault. The goal was to use violence against a family viewed as expendable to help further their cause of using violence against those viewed as expendable.
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