It was a team of young men that beat up Luis Ramirezdetail of image from Arrochar & Tarbet, for link click here
What happened next really surprised me. Thank goodness my kids didn't hear what they said. The boys decided to throw the ball up in the air when we walked by, while screaming out "stupid Mexicans." Which is what they did. I was so shocked I didn't know what to say. The memory of this still haunts me now.
One of the boys was the son of our next door neighbor - who had an Hispanic last name but was Italian.*
There are a couple of thoughts that come to mind when I remember the incident. First of all, if the editor of the New Yorker wanted an image of this on the front page, judging on his previous decisions, someone would draw a picture depicting what is imagined to be a group of stupid Mexicans.
Maybe (I am hoping) someone else would probably handle this type of situation differently - with a drawing of the boys playing ball while two kids and their mother (who are Latino) walk by. A bubble with a few words would be next to the boys, depicting what they actually said twenty years ago.
Each image would present an entirely different story. Which would be more accurate? If you draw Mexicans then all you see are three people walking down a sidewalk - if you want to present them as "stupid" there are many ways to depict this, but they all focus on the negative evaluation of the two kids and their mother. If you draw little boys screaming nasty things as the Mexican kids walk by, then you depict an interaction that starts in the mouths of the boys playing - it is the boy's nasty language - there is no connection with anyone around them, except for their own imagination.
Too bad the New Yorker didn't think of this when the magazine published the Obama cover last week.
P.S. A few years later we moved to the Jewish side of town. People were much nicer -
...
below is an article about another group of young men who called someone a stupid Mexican. Different time frame though - the first story is from 1988, the second from 2008.
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Immigrant's beating death exposes tensions in Pa.
MICHAEL RUBINKAM
The Associated Press
Philly.com
SHENANDOAH, Pa. - Luis Ramirez came to the U.S. from Mexico six years ago to look for work, landing in this town in Pennsylvania's coal region. Here, he found steady employment, fathered two children and, his fiancee said, occasionally endured harassment by white residents.
...The 25-year-old illegal immigrant was beaten over the weekend after an argument with a group of youths, including at least some players on the town's beloved high school football team, police said. Despite witness reports that the attackers yelled ethnic slurs, authorities say the beating wasn't racially motivated.
...An investigation continues, and no charges have yet been filed, but police say as many as six teens were involved in the fight, which ended with Ramirez in convulsions and foaming at the mouth. He died early Monday of head injuries.
Crystal Dillman, the victim's 24-year-old fiancee, who is white and grew up here, said Ramirez was often called derogatory names, including "dirty Mexican," and told to return to his homeland.
...Arielle Garcia and her husband, who were with Ramirez when he was beaten late Saturday, said they had dropped their friend off at a park but returned when he called to say he had gotten into a fight.
She saw someone kick Ramirez in the head, she said, and "that's when he started shaking and foaming out of the mouth."
The Garcias said they heard the youths call Ramirez "stupid Mexican" and an ethnic slur...
Despite the witness statements, Borough Manager Joseph Palubinsky said he doesn't believe Ramirez's ethnicity was what prompted the fight: "I have reason to know the kids who were involved, the families who were involved, and I've never known them to harbor this type of feeling."
for complete AP/Philly.com article click here:
*Part of Italy was Spanish territory during the Renaissance period.
