One thing that liberals and conservatives have in common: racism
SAN DIEGO -- I'll often hear other Hispanic journalists talk about being attacked, criticized and picked on by racist conservative Republicans -- usually over immigration, and the assumption that anyone with a Spanish surname is soft on border security.
Amateurs. You haven't lived until you've had to put up with all that noise -- while also getting attacked, criticized and picked on by racist liberal Democrats because you challenge their nonsense.
It happens to me all the time. In fact, I can't figure out who despises me more -- conservatives who believe I hate America, or liberals who resent that I think for myself.
I recently wrote that Senate Democrats owed an apology to newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh for their insulting treatment of him. That fired up an opinionated woman from San Francisco who believes Kavanaugh is a rapist, Hispanics are inferior, and Catholics are degenerates. She responded:
"I smell a sexual predator sympathy in your op-ed. A Hispanic male, probably raised in the pedophile Catholic Church, should NOT take on women's civil rights. You have been raised in a culture of hatred toward women and help disempower them. I hope your misogynist views send you to the nearest unemployment line."
Apparently, dog whistles are not just for conservatives anymore. The reader goes after Hispanic men, and a Hispanic culture that she claims hates women.
Dios mio. Another clueless reader whose understanding of Hispanics is a taco short of a combination plate. Sure, Hispanics hate women -- so much so that Mother's Day is the most important holiday on the calendar.
Over 30 years of writing for newspapers, I've encountered more than my share of closed-minded lefties. Consider the white liberal in Phoenix who -- after I criticized U.S. Attorney Janet Napolitano, the future Democratic governor of the state and Homeland Security Secretary -- told me that I ought to be more grateful to the Democratic Party for delivering the affirmative action that took me to the Ivy League. Then there was the white liberal in San Antonio who insisted on calling me "senor" and claimed my admiration for George W. Bush made me a traitor to the Hispanic community. And who could forget the delightful woman who, after I criticized Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, told me to "go back to Mexico -- and take Donald Trump with you."
I understand that the mainstream media -- which is still largely run by liberal white people -- only has one frequency when it comes to covering racism and ethnocentrism in America. They will talk our ears off about intolerance on the right. It makes them feel morally superior, and gives them a shot at winning Latino votes without actually having to break a sweat and work for them.
Luckily for the media, racist Republicans play into that narrative by saying or doing the wrong thing.
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