Making America Hateful: The Spike in Hispanic Hate Crimes Post Election

Hate crimes against the Latinx community in the United States have been connected to instances of perceived ‘threat’ from Latinx individuals. Historically, Latinx people have been targeted during moments when immigration has been said to be a national crisis. This reinforces harmful stereotypes and can cause threats to jobs, safety, and their own cultural identity. These crimes show that anti-Latinx violence is not random and is connected to larger arguments to who belongs in our country.

In the past couple of years, our political scene has created people’s attitudes towards Latinx people. Donald Trump has stated that “They are bringing drugs. Bringing Crime. They are Rapists” (YouTube, 2016). It’s argued that this type of language is normalizing fear and hostility towards Latinx people. Policies focused on immigration can make these debates much worse. Data shows this impact. The FBI has reported that anti-Latino bias is consistently one of the most common forms of ethnic based hate crimes in the US (UCR – CDE, 2026). Together historical, politics, data, and the stories of others demonstrates why hate crimes against the Latinx community are still a major issue today.

There are multiple dimensions of oppression that influence the psychological development of marginalized groups. Society must recognize the proneness that intersectionality has on vulnerable communities, and how it shapes those marginalized groups’ experiences. Unfortunately, it is more common than not for Latinx people to experience the negative effects of hate crimes. Whether it is psychological or physiological, it still leaves a heavy wound in one’s chest. Hate crimes are often seen as leading to feelings of racial victimization, rooting from deeper systemic issues that can lead to hopelessness within a population. Having a lack of trust in not only the government, but also one’s own community, can lead to immense feelings of chronic stress, which relate to the Minority Stress Model. This model, developed by Ilan Meyer, postulates that prejudice-related stressors accumulate over time, resulting in negative overall mental health (Kite, 2023). People that experience dimensions of oppression are often susceptible to stereotype threat, the psychological stress and anxiety caused by the risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s social group. It is necessary that we, as a society, practice reappropriation and reframing strategies to change the status quo, and model critical hope or authentic allyship. In a positive light, most marginalized groups develop a strong sense of resilience that encourages them to keep moving forward, even when it might seem hard to. 

The unequal treatment of the Latinx community in the United States has been deeply rooted in a long history of exclusion, discrimination, and structural inequality for them. They are a crucial part of our society to continue thriving, however our government and many of its followers have struggled to see this for years and years. Historical patterns have shaped modern systems that continue to disadvantage Latinx communities today.

Segregation, labor exploitation, and discriminatory policies have been prevalent in Latinx populations in America. For example, Mexican and Mexican American workers are often in low-paying jobs that are typically in the agricultural and industrial industry. These jobs also often have little legal protection or work advantages. Donald Trump in his presidential campaign described Latinx individuals as “criminals” and “invaders,” creating a false and incorrect portrait through these micro-aggressions. Unfortunately, remarkably similar to today’s ICE agents, in 1931 police officers would block exits in Los Angeles to deport hundreds of people to Mexico, regardless of their citizenship or immigrant status (Blakemore, 2017). This tragedy was just one incident in a history of discrimination against Latinx people in the U.S.

Today, historical injustices have manifested into structural inequalities that shape everyday life. Latinx individuals are disproportionately affected by poverty and have limited access to quality education, healthcare, and stable employment opportunities. Immigration status further increases these challenges. We are seeing extra barriers to legal protection, more fear of deportation, and relocation. Addressing these issues requires confronting present-day attitudes and dismantling structural inequalities that have been built throughout generations.

The society that we are currently living in has been perpetuating an attitude of “us” vs. “them”, something created by design to drive the divide in our country even deeper. Our current administration has pinned friends against friends, family members against family members, and race against race. We were intended to be a nation united, where diversity is celebrated and encouraged, not punished. Somewhere throughout time we have lost the scope of what it means to be an empathetic member of society, someone who stands out against injustice and uplifts those who have been consistently let down by the system. The topic regarding effects of Hispanic hate crime is incredibly under-researched and seems to slip through the cracks of conversation. This begs the question, why should we care?

To that we would ask you to briefly consider the situation of a 42-year-old man named Mahud Villalaz, a Milwaukee man who was left with second-degree burns after a brutal hate crime. A man, consumed by bigotry, took it upon himself to angrily confront Villalaz in the parking lot of a restaurant, saying phrases like “You came here to invade my country. You came here illegally”. The situation escalated when Villalaz, still maintaining his composure, simply said “Everybody came here from somewhere else”, which caused the man to retaliate by throwing acid onto his face. Villalaz was left terrified, fearing for his life, and severely burned, all for being Hispanic (Allen, 2019). This is something most of us won’t even experience in our nightmares, but this is the cruel and harsh reality that the Latinx community have been living in. Imagine living with this omnipresent fear that you will be victimized for simply existing. This is why we are all called not only to care, but to practice authentic allyship and assist in making our society a safe and inviting place for people of all races and ethnicities to call home.

References

Allen, K. (2019). Hispanic man says he was doused with battery acid in racist attack. ABC News. https://abcnews.com/US/hispanic-man-doused-battery-acid-racist-attack/story?id=66731058

American Psychological Association. (2016). Stress in America: The impact of discrimination.

Blakemore, Erin. “The Long History of Anti-Latino Discrimination in America.” HISTORY, 27 Sept. 2017, www.history.com/articles/the-brutal-history-of-anti-latino-discrimination-in-america.

CNN. (2016). Donald Trump Doubles Down on Calling Mexicans Rapists. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jaz1J0s-cL4

FBI. (n.d.). Cde.ucr.cjis.gov. https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend

Mays, V. M., Cochran, S. D., & Barnes, N. W. (2007). Race, race-based discrimination, and health outcomes. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 201–225. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.57.102904.190212

Meyer, I. H. (2003). Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in minority populations. Psychological Bulletin, 129(5), 674–697. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.5.674

U.S. Census Bureau. (2023). Income and poverty in the United States.

Whitley, Bernard E., and Mary E. Kite. Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination. 4th ed., Routledge, 2023.