Newspaper Comment Sections Become Cordoned-Off Hate Crime Scenes [View all]
Last edited Sun Jul 6, 2014, 12:46 PM - Edit history (1)
By Roberto Cintli Rodriguez, Truthout | News Analysis
The unexpected new locations for hate crime scenes in the 21st century appear to be the comments sections of the nation's leading newspapers, where calls to violence have become routine and through which progressives have decided correcting the record is a waste of their time.
Hate crime scenes are dehumanizing places of revulsion. They shock the conscience and psyche of entire communities and leave searing memories. One normally associates hate crimes with cross burnings and lynchings or something equally heinous, however, the shocking and unexpected new locations for hate crime scenes in the 21st century appear to be the editorial pages of the nation's leading newspapers, (1) where calls to violence have also become routine. (2)
In Arizona, exposure to constant hate is a daily occurrence in the letters to the editor or comments section of media. Within these contexts, communities are subjected to vicious anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant hate disguised as discourse against "illegals," or "illegal aliens." This hate can be found in not just the daily newspapers, but also in most of the mainstream media and their websites and, of course, right-wing talk radio. Not a few intimate the use of extreme violence. Often, the letter-writers take their cues from editorial or column writers who themselves tend to be hostile toward anything Mexican, again, under the guise of combating illegal immigration. As a result, Arizona letter-writers respond with a vitriol that was not permitted in newspapers until very recently. The following are two letters that illustrate this point from the June 25, 2012, The Arizona Republic in response to an article regarding the US Supreme Court striking down three of the four anti-immigrant SB 1070 provisions. (3)
From Fastfreddy: "Would you rather see the citizens of Arizona use the 2nd amendment as a solution to the illegal problem or rather see the courts try to solve the problem."
This kind of discourse with allusions to violence has become so normalized that no one appears to give it a second thought. If this constant badgering and threats of violence involved the daily haranguing of other peoples, for example, Jews, African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Anglo-Americans or any other identifiable group, it is assumed, per the newspaper's comment guidelines, that they would never make it into these pages.(4) But they inexplicably do and thus, the media, particularly letters to the editor sections, have become what I refer to as hate crime scenes.
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