El Paso shooter puts Mexican Americans in the crosshairs
SAN DIEGO -- Forget the Alamo. Mexican Americans will always remember El Paso.
The West Texas border city is now our Selma, our Kent State, our Columbine. It's where something ghastly happened that revealed how savagely some people can treat their fellow human beings.
A lot of Mexican Americans -- and our Latino brothers from other mothers -- will tell you is that this is the natural progression in Donald Trump's unrelenting campaign to Make America White Again:
First, we're hated. Then, we're harassed. Finally, we're hunted.
With all the loose talk about "bad hombres" and "shithole countries" and "breeding" and "go back," my friends have warned me that that something like this was bound to happen. We haven't reached bottom with all the "othering," they said. Someone is going to get hurt.
They were right. In El Paso, nearly 50 people did get hurt. Twenty-four people were injured, and 22 others died.
At least eight of the dead are Mexican nationals who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border to shop. And to think, many Americans are afraid to go to Mexico because they think it's too violent.
When it comes to evil, the Mexicans have nothing on alleged mass murderer Patrick Crusius, 21, of Allen, Texas -- an overwhelmingly white suburb of Dallas.
Crusius was worried about a "Hispanic invasion of Texas." Like "infestation," "invasion" is one of those words that Trump uses to gin up his base.
The shooter was so committed to defending the homeland that he grabbed a high-powered rifle and drove 10-12 hours on a hot Texas summer day toward a city that is 80% Latino.
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