by Matthew Keyes
A book titled, Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism, written by University of California Los Angeles School of Law professor, Laura Gomez, is advocating for the United States to provide reparations for the Latino community.
According to Gomez’s website, the main theme of the book, as described from an excerpt from the introduction, is “the how and why of Latinx identity becoming a distinctive racial identity.” Furthermore, it says, “this book explains how and why Latinos became cognizable as a racial group— a racial group that is Other and inferior to Whites.”
In an interview with UCLA, Gomez was asked several questions about the book.
In response to one of the questions, Gomez advocates for reparations for Latinos.
“Thankfully, we’re talking a lot more about reparations to African Americans. I think that’s a long-overdue conversation. How do we repair the damage that racism has done?” she said, adding that “because of the way that American military, government, and corporations infiltrated Central America and destroyed the indigenous way of life, and slaughtered so many people,” “people in Central America should get asylum here, like we had asylum for the Vietnamese, for Cubans. We must allow those folks in.”
Gomez stated that another way to provide reparations would be to provide amnesty to illegal immigrants living in the United States.
“Another is amnesty, a pathway to citizenship for undocumented persons who are here, have not committed violent crimes, and can prove that they’ve been here for a certain amount of time,” she said. “Again, we’re looking at a different story of anti-Latino racism. And so what does that suggest in terms of what we might do as a society to make amends, repair the relationship, and bring people into the fold as full-fledged Americans.”
Professors from around the country have commented on the book.
Brigham Young University professor James-David Gonzalez wrote that “Gómez also reveals the nefarious roles the United States has played in Latin America – from military interventions and economic exploitation to political interference – that, taken together, have destabilized national economies to send migrants northward over the course of more than a century.”
“It’s no coincidence that the vast majority of Latinos migrate from the places most impacted by this nation’s dirty deeds, leading Gómez to a bold call for reparations,” he added.
UC-Berkeley law professor Ian Haney Lopez said that “Laura Gómez puts racism, colonialism, white dominance, and community resistance exactly where they should be: at the heart of the conversations about Latinos today, and the nature of race in the United States tomorrow,” according to Gomez’s website.
UCLA student Brooke Newman spoke with Campus Reform regarding Gomez’s book, saying, “I think it’s definitely an interesting take on the subject,” but adding that “I don’t really think a lot of people usually think about reparations for Latinos because generally, it focuses on the African-American community so this is a new perspective for me and probably a lot of other people too.”
“I also think this book will probably give people a new idea about reparations and what that could look like if it were to ever happen. I guess reparations doesn’t always just have to be giving money to communities but it could be something that addresses a particular issue instead like, in this case, amnesty and asylum.”
Campus Reform reached out to Gomez but did not receive a response in time for publication.
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Matthew Keyes is an Ohio Campus Correspondent, reporting on liberal bias and abuse for Campus Reform. He is a junior at the Ohio State University and majors in Political Science and minors in Journalism. He is also a member of College Republicans at OSU. Follow Matthew on Twitter.
Photo “Professor Laura Gomez” by UCLA.
Why is she pushing immigrants on African AMERICANS actual Black people in America’s reparations? I’m getting real tired of people only want to recognize US when they are looking to benefit from ours and our ancestors pain. GTFOH!!!
I totally agree.
Co-sign that! Take a number and get in the back of the line and wait your turn.
You people have lost your mind!. The Irish and Latinos did nothing or had done to them that would warrant a conversation about reparations. This premise is laughable. They have been paid for their work. The vast majority of European immigrants came after the early 1900s. They have no connection to the history of slavery but benefited from the racially codified society and became promoters of racism. There was NO Irish slavery, it’s a myth, they were indentured servants. The Irish didn’t build the railroads, canals, mines, etc Most of that was done by slave labor. If the Irish did build those things they were PAID. For most of Latino history, It was Spain that brutalized you, get your money from them. The Mexican American war was the US’s first engagement with Mexico. Mexico lost the SW (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona. and California) The US influence was really from 1950-1960. the result of that CIA lead effort has given us undocumented and document immigration to the US. Latino is not a race. Most Latinos check White on their census form. So what are you talking about? Latino racism toward Afro-Latinos is reprehensible. The first settlers of Mexico were Black Mexicans. First Black President in North America was Mexican.
She stated “reparations.” Not reparations 4 chattel slavery in the USA.
Reparations for chattel slavery must come first.
isn’t it time for reparations for Irish Americans, the people who actually did build so much of America from canals to railroads, bridges, mines and skyscrapers?
I suggest this can e financed by a special tax on all not persons not born in the US but currently living here. The individual tax can be based on all the free government services consumedly by persons living in the US illegally including education, housing, incarceration, education, housing, medical care, etc.
Indentured servants are not slaves or owned anything by this country, and you didn’t “build” so much of America, as you did step on and over the backs of black people to secure your place in the existing racial hierarchy in this country. The Irish were discriminated against when they arrived here, and as soon as they learned whiteness provided social capital over black people, they jumped on that ship with the quickness. So take several FKN hundred seats with this BS!
I live in Spain and can testify that the Spanish are very much Whites and consider themselves as such!
True.
I am a hispanic, latinx, or whatever label academics want to use . High level of corruption has been a constant south of the border. This professor has taken to victimize the whole of the population in Latin America without allowing for any accountability for national/personal responsibility. There is a culture of paternal dependency in our countries that looks to government for solutions to everyday challenges. That is not a US invention, that is a leftist progressive attitude incipient for over a century. I find this professor’s diatribe insulting. The issue in Latin America is not what the US has done to those countries, but what those countries have done to themselves.
Ok.
Native Americans, Italians, Poles, Irish, Jews, too.
nothing like advocating for picking other people’s pockets, eh?
Considering how the carpetbaggers stole our land grants, this is actually something to look into. The land grants can be traced and all of us descendants of those landowners do deserve to be paid properly for the land that was taken.
Investigate this academic agent of subversion for communist ties and financial incentives. These people are the ones sowing division and play on the fact that some Latinos and blacks will pant after free stuff taken from the white person who struggled all their lives to get where they are. Some have ancestors who died on the battlefield to free the black and IRISH WHITE slaves. We all we’re getting along until the antichrist Obama wormed his way into office to start the process of “dividing and conquering” by sowing discord among brethren, fomenting envy, hatred anger and resentment. The perfect environment for demonic attachment.
It is a spiritual war after all.