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MY LATEST @LATIMES COLUMNA: For Latinos and the L.A. Times, a complicated past — and a promising future. RT, porfas, and a THREAD (1/?) https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-09-27/los-angeles-times-historical-latino-coverage
Today, @latimes released a package not only publicly apologizing for all the racist coverage this paper has heaped on communities of color, but also with examinations on that history. The full package here: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-09-27/los-angeles-times-reckoning-with-racism
I got tasked with examining the LA Times' history with Latinos, both in coverage and in hiring. And, well, here's the nut graph: "Over the last 139 years, Los Angeles Times readers have seen in their newspaper the best and worst of how the American media have covered Latinos."
That's putting it VERY politely. No group had it more bifurcated than Latinos. LA Times almost uniformly demonized Asian Americans through 1960s, and actually did good coverage of African Americans in early days (LAT founder Harrison Gray Otis was a Union general). Latinos?
On one hand, we are the home of the martyred Ruben Salazar: https://www.latimes.com/projects/chicano-moratorium/ruben-salazar-reporting-legacy-la-impact/
The Pulitzer Prize-winning "Latinos" series that showcased a changed Southern California https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-26/archiving-los-angeles-times-latino-pulitzer-series
And -- of course -- has done great work with covering Mexican food to the point that the 1st edition of the LA Times had an ad for a Mexican restaurant! https://www.latimes.com/food/story/2019-09-16/mexican-food-los-angeles-times-history
Sadly, all of this remain specks in the cesspool of anti-Latino coverage by the LA TImes that seeped into the paper well into the 1980s.
And now, ROLL CALL OF RACISM!
And now, ROLL CALL OF RACISM!
Here's an 1883 rumination on "greasers," a slur that has no real equivalent today, given it was based solely on the idea that "Mexicans" were not of pure blood and hence evil.
Here's the LA Times in 1913 arguing against Mexico turning into a democracy because, you know, you can't trust Mexicans to vote!
Here's a 1914 editorial cartoon of Pancho Villa. The big sombrero and mustache is expected, but notice how the LA Times relied on American racist depictions of Blacks to darken Villa (he was light-skinned) and thicken his lips.
This 1919 LA Times editorial page rant is particularly vile. In just 4 sentences, they call for US takeover of Mexico, ridicule Native Americans, and call for a Spanish-language newspaper in LA to get shut down AND have its reporters arrested (Google history of Seattle Record)
The LA Times' coverage of the Zoot Suit Riots is well-known for how noxious it was. It was so bad that a 1956 American Journal of Sociology study found we “gave sanction to making the Mexican the victims of widespread hostile crowd behavior.”
Before the United Stated rounded up over a million undocumented Mexicans during the 1950s, the LA Times was more than happy to slur them. Here's a 1949 front-page headline:
We so freely used the term "wetback" that we even shortened it to make the slur even more useable smh. Will find clip later, but here's one more headline, by legendary LA Times columnist Ed Ainsworth. His column is actually sympathetic—but that word...
Central Americans didn't escape the LA Times' venom. Upon news in 1934 that Nicaraguan hero Augusto Sandino was assassinated by the Somoza regime, the paper called him...well, read it for yourself:
When Central Americans refugees began to arrive in Southern California during the 1970s, here was an LA Times headline to match the moment:
And on and on and on I can go...but you gotta give them hope, you know? So that's where the @LATLatinoCaucus — inspired by the @LATBlackCaucus — came in this summer to push this paper to reckon with its racism once and for all. https://latguild.com/news/2020/7/21/latino-caucus-letter
As @LATLatinoCaucus co-chair alongside @palomaesquivel, I and the rest of us look forward to helping to elevate Latino voices in the paper, letting readers know that the sins of the past are not forgotten — but that we are moving forward in our mission to TRULY cover our stories
Anyways, gracias for staying with me. Read the rest of the series—great work by @sewellchan @TeresaWatanabe @SandyBanksLA @GeBraxton @pattmlatimes and other voices. And if you like what we’re doing? As @Scrface87 would do:
