Media Influence On Latinos

Improved Essays
Historically in the United States people of my race and ethnicity have been mistreated and brutalized by the media in similar ways to the black community. Just like African Americans, Latinos often times come up on the wrong side of the bullet when it comes to confrontations with the police. However, the media and the Latino community itself have failed to give they type of attention the black community gives to their issues with the police. There are few reasons for this. First of all, blacks and white have a history with brutality and hostility especially within law enforcement and the government. Blacks have made up 26% of those killed by police since 2000 (Santa Cruz, Vives, Gerber). The black community has a very real reason to be in an uproar over …show more content…
According to a study done by Columbia University 's Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, stories about Latinos make up less than one percent of main-news media coverage, and those stories that do make appearances usually revolve around Latino criminals (Planas). My family and I have noted through the years that we can find more information about what is happening to Latinos in the United States through our family in Mexico than through the American news coverage. Gustavo Arellano, the editor of the paper O.C. Weekly, said “When it comes to Latinos -- American media still only thinks of them as immigrants. They can’t think of them as victims of police brutality or anything else but immigrants.” The sad part of the quote is that it is absolutely true. When people hear that someone is latina they immediately ask things like “How did you or your parents get here?” or “When did you learn english?” Besides the fact that those questions are offensive and intrusive they lay down the stereotype for what American and the media thinks of us, immigrants. We are not students or workers or mothers or fathers or victims, we are simply

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