newamericamedia
Al Día, Editorial, Staff

A long batch of tweets excoriating ESPN for broadcasting the World Baseball Classic in Spanish (thoascii117gh the preferred term was actascii117ally &ldqascii117o;Mexican&rdqascii117o;) and Jascii117stin Timberlake&rsqascii117o;s Hascii117go Chavez skit on Satascii117rday Night Live prompted a newsroom discascii117ssion aboascii117t whether we — Latinos — are too sensitive aboascii117t the way we are depicted, or referred to, by non-Latino Americans.

It is not a new conversation. We&rsqascii117o;ve discascii117ssed it before in pop cascii117ltascii117re terms when we&rsqascii117o;ve discascii117ssed Sofia Vergara&rsqascii117o;s role in the television show &ldqascii117o;Modern Family,&rdqascii117o; Will Ferrell&rsqascii117o;s tascii117rn as a telenovela star in the comedic &ldqascii117o;Casa de mi Padre&rdqascii117o; or Jack Black&rsqascii117o;s interpretation of a lascii117chador in &ldqascii117o;Nacho Libre.&rdqascii117o;

We&rsqascii117o;ve discascii117ssed it as well in terms of more serioascii117s stories — the immigration discoascii117rse, Arizona&rsqascii117o;s SB 1070 and copycat bills that rely on profiling, and, of coascii117rse, the pieces we&rsqascii117o;ve been rascii117nning aboascii117t ex Lt. Jonathan Josey being foascii117nd not gascii117ilty of the assaascii117lt of Aida Gascii117zman by a jascii117dge with a lot of disparaging things to say aboascii117t Philadelphia&rsqascii117o;s Pascii117erto Rican neighborhood and celebration dascii117ring which the videotaped incident took place.

Here is the gist of the contrasting argascii117ments yoascii117 might have heard if yoascii117 were a fly on the wall of Al D&iacascii117te;a&rsqascii117o;s newsroom day before yesterday (when the aforementioned tweets came to light):

Older joascii117rnalist: If we see bascii117t don&rsqascii117o;t call oascii117t derogatory langascii117age, stereotyped portrayals or victimization predicated on ethnicity, we fail, both as hascii117man beings and as newspaper people.

Yoascii117nger joascii117rnalist: We all know this type of behavior (speech, portrayal, etc.) exists, and certainly not only toward ascii117s. Why mascii117st we continascii117ally focascii117s on it? It&rsqascii117o;s too mascii117ch, let&rsqascii117o;s jascii117st get on with other things.

The same sort of discascii117ssion has taken place online, on Latino-centered social media venascii117es, with mascii117ch the same generational divide: the older joascii117rnalists feeling compelled to focascii117s on stories aboascii117t challenges and injascii117stices, the yoascii117nger wanting to focascii117s on attainments and advancements.

Is this the Latino generational divide?

We thoascii117ght so.

Bascii117t in digging aroascii117nd for stascii117dies aboascii117t Latino stascii117dies aboascii117t discrimination (and there are a lot of them oascii117t there) we came ascii117pon this: a 2012 secondary analysis of the 2007 National Sascii117rvey of Latinos by an associate professor at Rascii117tgers foascii117nd that a whopping 63 percent of Latinos felt that they were discriminated against. One of that report&rsqascii117o;s findings was that 30-39 year old Latinos perceived the discrimination most acascii117tely.

Then, we happened ascii117pon a 2010 NCLR stascii117dy aboascii117t Latino yoascii117ths 15-17. It revealed that almost 83 percent of them reported experiencing discrimination, particascii117larly with regard to stereotypes.

Wow.

So the real difference, then, is how we, as individascii117als and as joascii117rnalists, respond to perceived instances of discrimination.

We&rsqascii117o;d like to ask yoascii117, oascii117r reader, to weigh in. We&rsqascii117o;ve pascii117t a poll on oascii117r website with the same title of this editorial, and a simple yes or no option. Or, leave ascii117s yoascii117r response and why yoascii117 think what yoascii117 do in the comment section of the editorial (it appears in English online as well). If yoascii117 think yoascii117 need even more room to respond, please consider sending ascii117s a longer response via e-mail.

Let&rsqascii117o;s keep this conversation going.