How a culture of dehumanization and denial keeps ICE and Border Patrol personnel “at war with an enemy that does not fight back.”
Archived at https://archive.ph/Qv0Wk
Completely unexamined: Latino desire to get that Honorary White Card by brutalizing other Latinos. The majority of Border Patrol are Latino, and 30% of ICE.
This isn’t exclusive to Latinos, either, it’s just how huamnity works under in-group/out-group dynamics.
Latinos are also not as homogeneous as we think they are. Each nationality has it’s own biases and bigotry against other Latino nationalities.
I’ve worked with a lot of Latinos and I noticed a couple of things. They all seem to hold the same low regard for Mexicans and Cubans think they’re better than all the rest. There are exceptions, of course, but this was the general trend I saw.
The Cubans you run into are the children of the aristocratic fucks that got chased out of Cuba… so that explains that. And maybe there’s a racial component there (since whiteness and aristocracy are linked). Many Latinos are absolutely blind to their internalized racism and get immediately offended if you bring it up.
I honestly don’t know where the anti-Mexican sentiment comes from, but I heard it from an Ecuadoran–call me a [slur], call me a [slur], but don’t call me Mexican.
I’ve been told the Mexicans are seen as hicks, mainly because of their music and dress, especially “el grito” which is the characteristic shouting heard in Mexican music.
That sounds more like post hoc justification than a cause, tbh. I don’t know Mexico has a monopoly on rednecks.
I agree. Drive 20 miles outside of any metro area in the world and the density of hicks increases.
But I will grant that Mexican music is often considered an acquired taste.
Mexican music is incredibly diverse. I like old-school folk so Chavela Vargas (born Costa Rican but “Mexicans are born wherever they damn well want”) is my jam. Natalia LaFourcade also is great, once she stopped trying to be a teeny bopper. Julieta Venega … there’s some more but I’d have to log into Deezer to remember their names.
That said, this is semi-nichey stuff; there’s an oppressively homogenous vaquero music (ranchero?), of which the only good thing I can say is that it is not reggaeton.
I started to read this article, but decided quickly that I’m happy concluding that ICE / Border Patrol agents are Nazi pieces of shit that don’t deserve any compassion, sympathy, or understanding. Instead, I would like to see most of them on trial for their crimes.
Honestly, fair
It’s also well-trod ground already. See: The Banality of Evil.
I know someone who once worked for the US Border Patrol.
He ended up holding two other agents at gunpoint because they were planning to sexually assault a detainee. He left for a local police department not long after that.
Over/under that he’s still a cop?
He’s still a cop.
I don’t expect people here to take my word for it that he’s one of the good ones, but I’ll say it anyway.
Well, if he’s working for a small department, it’s possible he doesn’t have to turn a blind eye to really heinous shit.
I used to travel along the southern border at least once a year, usually twice, for weeks at a time. At that time, border patrol were pretty friendly. We really stuck out and I’m sure we’re in their database somewhere.
I stopped going down there as soon as the ICE violence started. I’m not only afraid for my safety, I’m afraid of how I will react if border patrol asks me for ID at one of the checkpoints.
