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<section class="gmail-featured"><div class="gmail-gallery gmail-media-gallery"><div class="gmail-gallery__lock"><ul class="gmail-gallery__slider"><li class="gmail-gallery__slider-item gmail-fade gmail-show gmail-current" id="gmail-1-image-15602158"><div class="gmail-slide__caption gmail-fade gmail-show"><div class="gmail-slide__caption-truncated">me
immigrants as animals, at the White House in Washington, May 16, 2018.
Trump on Thursday said that he had been referring to members of the ...</div><span class="gmail-credits">Photo: Doug Mills / New York Times</span></div></li><li class="gmail-gallery__slider-item gmail-fade" id="gmail-2-image-15618312"><div class="gmail-slide__image"><img class="gmail-slide-media gmail-media-gallery-slide-media" src="https://s.hdnux.com/photos/73/45/04/15618312/5/940x940.jpg"></div><div class="gmail-slide__caption gmail-fade gmail-show"><span class="gmail-count"><strong>2</strong> of 2</span><div class="gmail-slide__caption-truncated">A demonstrator protests Aaron Schlossberg, a lawyer caught on video ranting against Spanish-speaking restaurant workers.</div><span class="gmail-credits">Photo: Mary Altaffer / Associated Press</span></div></li>
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<p>For Latinos trying to survive the Age of Trump with their dignity intact, the hate just keeps on coming.</p>
<p>Americans can’t make up
their minds whether they want to appropriate Latino culture or stamp it
out altogether. One minute, everyone in the country is going loco for
Latinos; the next, they’ve just gone plum loco.</p>
<p>It’s time to take
inventory. I don’t want to keep you here all week, so let’s focus on 10
incidents only from the past several months.</p><div id="gmail-module_B_first" class="gmail-bc-recirculation gmail-bc-recirculation-b">
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<p>•Columnist Ann Coulter
told radio host Lars Larson that putting the National Guard on the
U.S.-Mexico border won’t be enough to stop immigrants from crossing it
unless “they’re going to shoot one and send a message to the rest.”
Message received: Coulter is a ghoul.</p><aside class="gmail-ad-point gmail-ad-point-right"><div id="gmail-BP300"><div id="gmail-google_ads_iframe_/36117602/hnp-sfchronicle.com/Opinion_7__container__" style="border:0pt none;display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px"></div></div></aside><div id="gmail-module_C_first" class="gmail-bc-recirculation gmail-bc-recirculation-c"></div>
<p>•Bragging about his
deportation record, President Trump told a delegation of California
officials: “We’re taking people out of the country. You wouldn’t believe
how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals.” The
next day, Trump claimed he was referring only to MS-13 gang members.</p>
<p>•White House Chief of
Staff John Kelly said that undocumented immigrants from Latin America do
not assimilate very well because they are often poorly educated and
“overwhelmingly rural people” who “don’t have skills.” Of course, much
the same thing was said about Kelly’s Irish ancestors.</p>
<p>•Fox News
contributor Tomi Lahren came to Kelly’s defense and insisted that
welcoming immigrants with “low skills” and “low education” who speak
foreign languages is “not what this country is based on.” Quite right.
It’s more accurate to say that low-skilled immigration is what this
country was <em>built</em> on.</p><div id="gmail-module_A_first" class="gmail-bc-recirculation gmail-bc-recirculation-a"></div>
<p>•In Havre, Mont., at a
gas station near the U.S.-Canada border, two women were singled out and
questioned by a Border Patrol officer who suspected they were
undocumented immigrants. The probable cause? The women were speaking
Spanish. Both are U.S. citizens. So linguistic profiling is a thing now?</p>
<p>•At a Starbucks in
Southern California, a young man ordered a white mocha and an iced
caramel macchiato. The word “Beaner,” a racial slur for Latinos, was on
the labels attached to his drinks. Starbucks apologized and said it is
investigating the incident. The company has a Venti-size image problem.</p><aside class="gmail-ad-point gmail-ad-point-right"><div id="gmail-CP300"><div id="gmail-google_ads_iframe_/36117602/hnp-sfchronicle.com/Opinion_1__container__" style="border:0pt none;display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px"></div></div></aside><div id="gmail-module_C_2" class="gmail-bc-recirculation gmail-bc-recirculation-c"></div>
<p>•An angry white lawyer
named Aaron Schlossberg was caught on video berating two women for the
sin of speaking Spanish at a New York deli. He threatened to call
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He later apologized and claimed
that he is not racist. Sure. He just plays one in videos.</p>
<p>•An Albertsons grocery
store in San Diego ran afoul of the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission after allegedly subjecting Latino employees to “a hostile
work environment.” What caused the hostility? The employees were
speaking Spanish. The company said in a statement that it has no set
language policy. Remember when being bilingual was an asset?</p><div id="gmail-module_B_last" class="gmail-bc-recirculation gmail-bc-recirculation-b"></div>
<p>•Fox News host Tucker
Carlson invited Cesar Vargas — an undocumented immigrant and lawyer —
onto his show and bullied him. Carlson told Vargas — who wants to become
a U.S. citizen — “I’m an American, and you’re not. I don’t think you
should become a citizen.” Could we take a vote on whether ugly Americans
should be able to keep their U.S. citizenship?</p>
<p>•In Georgia, Republican
gubernatorial candidates targeted Mexican immigrants. State Sen. Michael
Williams campaigned in a “deportation bus” adorned with a message:
“Danger! Murderers, rapists, kidnappers, child molesters, and other
criminals on board.” Another candidate, Secretary of State Brian Kemp,
has bragged he owns “a big truck just in case I need to round up
criminal illegals and take ’em home myself.” Georgia is famous for its
peaches, but these jokers seem like lemons.</p></section>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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