In the wake of the mass murder of six people on January 9 in a Tucson shopping mall, which left another 14 seriously wounded, El Tecolote grieves for the people who lost life and limb in a senseless act and for their families.
At the same time we want to remind people that as horrendous as this recent act of violence was, it is just the latest wave in a flood of deaths that has plagued Arizona for a long, long time. Most of the time the victims have been Latino immigrants who have faced death and hardship and who have had their basic human and civil rights violated time and time again.
Last July in an interview with the Associated Press Dr. Bruce Parks, the Pima County Medical Examiner, reported that so many immigrants had died crossing the desert that his office had to use a refrigerated truck to store some of the bodies. In the first 16 days of July alone 40 bodies were delivered to his office – 40 human beings dead in 16 days.
El Tecolote is perplexed as to why these deaths don’t elicit the same outpouring of sorrow and anger as the most recent incident. Mainstream media discussions about immigrants often link them with the perpetrators of violence and overlook the real forms of violence that afflicts people seeking to immigrate for a variety of social and economic reasons. Hate speech against immigrants has been normalized through tirades carried out by political pundits and even some politicians, as well as through legislation that legitimizes racial profiling. Our conclusion is that racism and xenophobia have truly helped to transform these 40 people, and the countless other immigrant victims, into a worthless commodity, devaluing their humanity and erasing their contributions.
This fluid value that we assign to human life is shameful. It’s clear to us that the anti-immigrant rhetoric and general hatefulness spewed by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and others does have an effect. People are debating the role that this type of speech played in the attack by Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner. We say it certainly didn’t help. It goes hand-in-hand with the demonizing discourse that pervades discussion of immigrants and that denies basic humanity to a vulnerable population of people.
That type of speech does not promote an environment that encourages the dialogue that we need on issues related to immigration, the economy and security. We are concerned that this type of speech instead puts all immigrants on par with the small percent of law-breakers, when the vast majority are law-abiding people who contribute mightily to U.S. society. It’s time that we start viewing all human life as valuable.
And just an ending thought, we all should wonder that if Jared Lee Loughner had been Arab American or Latino how quickly the label “terrorist” would have been bandied around, as depictions of these communities continue to characterize them as threats to national security.