Hispanics within the U.S. originate mainly from Mexico and are one of the largest minorities within the U.S. today, easily surpassing the number of Asians and are in fact growing to such an extent that they are almost on par with the African American population. As of late Hispanics have been portrayed in the media as leeches on the American public system wherein they take but do not give, are responsible for the growth in crime rates in certain cities, and are generally portrayed as being “illegals” meaning that they entered into the U.S. illegally without applying for citizenship (Jacobson, 2007). When examining this social group in the context of Clark’s four stages of minority representation, it can be seen that they are currently on the ridicule stage due to the way in which they are generally considered as lazy, inefficient, laughable due to their inability to speak English at times and are simply looked up by scorn by many within American society due to the way in which they have been portrayed by the media (Alexander, 2008). Examples of this can be seen in the proliferation of news stories that emphasize the sheer amount of “illegals” entering into the country with little if any focus on the impact these illegal aliens have on the way in which legitimate American citizens of Hispanic ethnicity are negatively impacted as a result of their incursion into the U.S. The media has in effect focused on the negative while entirely avoiding other aspects of the story. The one positive implication of the groups’ portrayal within the media is that it at least addresses the issue of illegal immigration into the country, which should be stopped, however, the negative implication of the portrayal in effect generalizes all Hispanics as being nothing more than individuals who have entered the country illegally, which is generally not true.
Reference
Alexander, D. (2008). U.S. Hate Group Attacks Against Hispanics. Conference Papers – American Society Of Criminology, 1.
Jacobson, L. (2007). Media Campaign Involves Hispanics. Education Week, 26(18), 9.