Rape Spurs Anti-Hispanic Backlash in Ohio

AP ^ | 7/16/05

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

It started with the spray-painted, misspelled "Rapest" on the house of a Hispanic man accused of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old white girl. Then the house went up in flames in a suspected arson. Confrontations, name-calling and threats against Hispanics followed. Men roamed the streets wearing pillowcases with eye holes, and Ku Klux Klansmen in hoods and robes showed up to pass out pamphlets. There were rumors of assaults and beatings.

Now this small Ohio river city's booming Hispanic population is cowed, the streets in their neighborhoods nearly deserted.

Outside the office of the Living Water Ministry, which two months ago drew hundreds of people to its first Cinco de Mayo festival, there is still a smell of charred wood from the June 21 fire that gutted the house next door and caused damage to the outside of the ministry's office.

"Before, the street would be covered with people, people out all over the place," said Sasha Amen, community outreach coordinator for Living Water. "There's a lot of fear now. People are shutting themselves in their homes."

Hamilton has been a hotbed for Hispanic growth in a state that has lagged behind much of the nation in Hispanic population. The number of Hispanics here jumped fivefold in the 1990s, to 1,566, and is now estimated at 4,000 or more in a city of some 61,000.

For the most part, the immigrants had settled in without much controversy in Hamilton, whose mayor in the 1990s was of Cuban descent. But life here was transformed on June 19, when a 9-year-old Caucasian girl was raped, allegedly by a Hispanic man who has apparently fled the city.

"Yes, there is fear," said Ramona Ramirez, who owns a corner deli-supermarket where she says business is off and her bread delivery man is now afraid to come. "They are attacking all the Hispanics, and it is only one person. We don't know what will happen."

Lupe Galvan, a Mexican-born woman who has been here five years, said some neighbors are talking about moving away.

City and community leaders are trying to heal the wounds, beefing up patrols and trying to calm the community, Mayor Don Ryan said Friday. Ryan said authorities are stressing that the rape was "strictly a random act of violence" and not racially motivated.

"We're continuing to be a melting pot in this country," he said. "Assimilating into our culture is tough; I firmly believe that it will take time."

While the anti-Hispanic backlash has stunned many of the immigrants, some say they've felt racial prejudice here before. The Rev. Eustaquio Recalde, a native of Paraguay, says he was often harassed and ridiculed while working a factory job as the lone Hispanic employee.

"I think it's been around," Recalde said. "This was an opportunity for a few people to express it."

Ezra Escudero, executive director of the Ohio Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs in Columbus, says Hamilton is not alone in feeling tension in a state where the Hispanic population has doubled to nearly 280,000 since 1990.

"The challenge for the community is whether the tragedy will bring out the best or the worst in people," he said.

Shelly Jarrett Bromberg, an assistant professor of Spanish and Latin American studies at Miami University in Oxford, has helped organize two community forums since the fire. She called the Hamilton unrest an important moment for local Hispanics, churches, police and public officials.

"I think everyone realizes that we need to have a dialogue ... to make the community feel safe and feel that they have a voice," Bromberg said. "I think there are a lot of people who want to make this work out."

[new cruelty]

I appreciate your concern for the safety of your family and the discrimination you all face, living in the conditions you described.

That issue aside, for the moment, there is nothing too odd about people sharing the name "Martinez". I am sure you are aware that the names "Martinez", "Hernandez", "Garcia", "Gonzales", and "Rodriguez" are as commom as "Jones", "Johnson", "Smith", "Nguyen", or "Patel".

[wardaddy]

I don't blame them....revenge is good

but I'm fixin to watch Julliette Binoche's latest film

life is full of irony

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

**Where was Senator Byrd on that day???***


Good question, after all, Byrds of a feather flock together.

[Types_with_Fist]

I am sure you are aware that the names "Martinez", "Hernandez", "Garcia", "Gonzales", and "Rodriguez" are as commom as "Jones", "Johnson", "Smith", "Nguyen", or "Patel".

Well, not yet. But it's getting there...:-)

[Oatka]

". . . live in a town like I do where the Hispanics are an overwhelming majority. They are absolutely shameless about it."

Shameless? What exactly does that mean? Mexican restaurants? Mexican drycleaners? Mexican whatevers? So how does their overwhelming majority (according to you ) adversely impact on your life?

Mebbe he's talking about instances like where my sister-in-law, the only remaining white in a mushroom packing firm is told "Why don' you learn Spanish?" by her militant co-workers.

Or, perhaps it's like the construction workers outside my house, with LOUD Mexican disc jockeys gibbering away (I thought ours were idiots) and yelling to one another in Spanish. My wife says "Speak English!" They reply "This used to be OUR country." She replied (God bless her), "The operative word is USED to be."

Or, perhaps it's the Mexican fathers preventing their kids from speaking or reading English at home because "Spanish is your heritage" and we Americans volunteer as reading tutors to try and give the kids a chance.

Or perhaps it is how, in the space of three years, a city park near a Mexican community-cum-barrio is now spattered with Spanish graffiti and unsafe to be in even during the day.

Or . . .

[Types_with_Fist]

I think Hot Tabasco may have taken offense at my use of the word "shameless." I should have used the word "blatant."

[new cruelty]

I think Hot Tabasco may have taken offense at my use of the word "shameless." I should have used the word "blatant."

Shameless what? Blatent what? Majority? Racism?

Types_with_Fist, I took your comment to mean that in you r opinion, in towns where Hispanics are the majority, they are also shameless about being racists.

Looking at the comments made by Hot Tabasco and Oatka, it would seem that they both understood you to mean that there are towns wherein Hispanics are shameless about being the overwhelming majority.

[Types_with_Fist]

I took your comment to mean that in you r opinion, in towns where Hispanics are the majority, they are also shameless about being racists.

I don't know about "towns." I can only speak about the one in which I reside. You can "take" whatever you want and shove it.

[relictele]

Hamilton is largely a rathole. Interesting to see what rats it attracts.

[ladyjane]

Whatever you do - don't use the word niggardly.

[Types_with_Fist]

Whatever you do - don't use the word niggardly.

Hoo! That'd git'em goin'...:-)

[Happy2BMe]

Long hot summer ping.

======================================

Ramona Ramirez, who owns a corner deli-supermarket, in Hamilton, Ohio, talks about racial tensions, Friday, July 15, 2005. Ramirez she says business is off and her bread delivery man is now afraid to come.

For the most part, the immigrants had settled in without much controversy in Hamilton, whose mayor in the 1990s was of Cuban descent.

But life here was transformed on June 19, when a 9-year-old Caucasian girl was raped, allegedly by a Hispanic man who has apparently fled the city.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Why? We've had people on this forum advocate nuking Mexico City. (I assume they are serious from their other posts.)

[new cruelty]

I don't know about "towns." I can only speak about the one in which I reside. You can "take" whatever you want and shove it.

Oh, calm down with the flowery insults already. Your initial point is unclear. You stated "You want to see shear, unmitigated racism... live in a town like I do where the Hispanics are an overwhelming majority. They are absolutely shameless about it."

I sincerely apologize for inferring that you meant ALL towns across the globe. In your town, where the Hispanics are an overwhelming majority, they are shameless about something. What is 'it'? Two other posters comments suggest they understood 'it' to refer to Hispanics being shamless about being an overwhelming majority. I understood 'it' to refer to the Hispanics in your town as being shameless racists.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Whatever you do - don't use the word niggardly.

Wouldn't that limit one's vocabulary?

[cyborg]

For some reason TAquinas has yet to answer this charge. Also, has some interesting views about Natalee Holloway. Just check out his/her posts. I'm willing to bet he/she is one of those freepers that doesn't speak to any freepers who are minorities. Just mho.



Go Back To Where You Came From
Posted by TAquinas to kcvl
On News/Activism 07/13/2005 7:05:38 PM PDT · 29 of 124

"if you want to come to this country, come in the front door."

LEGALLY!

But the unanswerd question remains: For Whom?

Well, our Founding Fathers said they built this country "for our progeny." That's is for the progeny of the Founding Fathers, ie Europeans.

Don't fall into the trap of the enemy leftists who would want you to say that it's ok to come whenever they want as long as they come legally. I agree they should come legally, but who? That is the question. Our Founding Fathers answered that question many years ago.

[Types_with_Fist]

I understood 'it' to refer to the Hispanics in your town as being shameless racists.

I've already apologized for using the word "shameless." I haven't even used the word "niggardly." But, yes, my point is that I've experienced "blatant" racism against me and my family in this town that is 60 percent Hispanic. I'm the weird sort who believes that an "Hispanic Chamber of Commerce" is blatant racism. And, believe me, that's been by far and wide the very least of it.

PS: You can still shove it...:-)

[hispanarepublicana]

The agency that sends over our housekeeper said she quit because she didn't want to work for hispanics, as she found it demeaning. I guess she thought we were being "shameless", even though I don't believe in concepts like the "Hispanic Chamber of Commerce" either. As for "blatant", I don't really know how hide the fact that I'm hispanic, though it might come in handy once the "papers please" days start.

[potlatch]

Don't know what to say. It's wrong to go after a whole race of people because of one mans crime. Obviously they did not like the influx of all the hispanics and the resentment was simmering just below the surface!

[hispanarepublicana]

FReepers who are minorities?
DOES NOT COMPUTE.....BACON BAD....CELERY GOOD.....MINORITIES LIBERAL.....POPE CATHOLIC....US VERSUS THEM......
</sarcasm>