DOS_patos
Unverified Legion of Trill member
For South Florida native Yvonne Rodriguez, being Black in West Miami means coming in frequent contact with her white Hispanic neighbors’ casual racism, be it in the form of “off-putting jokes” or uncomfortable appellations (“What’s up, mulata? What’s up, mi negra?”). Even as a second-generation Cuban American, Rodriguez finds her Latin identity, and her ties to her parents’ homeland, put under constant questioning.
“It is psychologically exhausting to try to convince someone that you are just as much of a Latino as them,” she said.
In the summer of 2020, when a diverse cross-section of Miamians mobilized in near-daily protests to demand justice after the police killing of George Floyd, some Afro-Latinos expressed hope that a meaningful racial reckoning could be on the horizon for Miami’s Hispanic community. But Rodriguez wasn’t among them.
“I was not even mildly optimistic,” she said.
To an extent, Rodriguez feels she was proven right: Local Hispanic backlash against the wave of summertime activism materialized almost immediately — and has carried on through the November election and into 2021, thanks in part to alarmist rhetoric on social media and on the airwaves of influential Spanish-language media outlets.
Within weeks of Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, a much-discussed counterprotest to Black Lives Matter demonstrations was organized by the group Cubans4Trump in Miami Lakes, an overwhelmingly white Hispanic town. In that rally, as well as in other pro-Trump gatherings over the course of election season (including a “Law and Order” rally held in July), flags from Latin American countries were flown alongside the “thin blue line” flag, a symbol of support for law enforcement that has come to also signal opposition to Black Lives Matter and has been associated with white supremacist groups.
“They were literally carrying signs saying Black Lives Matter es socialista, es comunista,” said Raymond Adderly, an Afro-Cuban in Miami and one of the co-founders of Cubanos Pa’Lante, an alliance of progressive Cuban Americans. “That was the reality of Miami in the summer and all the way up until November, and even now.”
In the wake of the civil unrest sparked by Floyd’s killing, some Spanish-language media personalities repeatedly insinuated that those who protest violence are untrustworthy or dangerous. That includes radio host Carines Moncada, who made national news in October when she claimed on Actualidad Radio, Miami’s most popular AM radio station, that a co-founder of Black Lives Matter practiced “brujería,” or witchcraft.
“So you ask yourself, ‘Why are they destructive?’ ” Moncada said, in reference to protesters. “Because they are vibrating with the devil. They are vibrating with negativity. They are vibrating with the dark.”
In January, after a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol, some in Miami’s Spanish-language media falsely claimed that Black Lives Matter and far-left groups like antifa were to blame for the chaos. In their respective coverage of the Capitol insurrection, Moncada’s co-host, Agustin Acosta, and popular Cuban YouTube influencer Alexander Otaola both stressed that the violence in D.C. paled in comparison to the unrest last summer (experts have called such comparisons “false equivalencies”).
“It is psychologically exhausting to try to convince someone that you are just as much of a Latino as them,” she said.
In the summer of 2020, when a diverse cross-section of Miamians mobilized in near-daily protests to demand justice after the police killing of George Floyd, some Afro-Latinos expressed hope that a meaningful racial reckoning could be on the horizon for Miami’s Hispanic community. But Rodriguez wasn’t among them.
“I was not even mildly optimistic,” she said.
To an extent, Rodriguez feels she was proven right: Local Hispanic backlash against the wave of summertime activism materialized almost immediately — and has carried on through the November election and into 2021, thanks in part to alarmist rhetoric on social media and on the airwaves of influential Spanish-language media outlets.
Within weeks of Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, a much-discussed counterprotest to Black Lives Matter demonstrations was organized by the group Cubans4Trump in Miami Lakes, an overwhelmingly white Hispanic town. In that rally, as well as in other pro-Trump gatherings over the course of election season (including a “Law and Order” rally held in July), flags from Latin American countries were flown alongside the “thin blue line” flag, a symbol of support for law enforcement that has come to also signal opposition to Black Lives Matter and has been associated with white supremacist groups.
“They were literally carrying signs saying Black Lives Matter es socialista, es comunista,” said Raymond Adderly, an Afro-Cuban in Miami and one of the co-founders of Cubanos Pa’Lante, an alliance of progressive Cuban Americans. “That was the reality of Miami in the summer and all the way up until November, and even now.”
In the wake of the civil unrest sparked by Floyd’s killing, some Spanish-language media personalities repeatedly insinuated that those who protest violence are untrustworthy or dangerous. That includes radio host Carines Moncada, who made national news in October when she claimed on Actualidad Radio, Miami’s most popular AM radio station, that a co-founder of Black Lives Matter practiced “brujería,” or witchcraft.
“So you ask yourself, ‘Why are they destructive?’ ” Moncada said, in reference to protesters. “Because they are vibrating with the devil. They are vibrating with negativity. They are vibrating with the dark.”
In January, after a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol, some in Miami’s Spanish-language media falsely claimed that Black Lives Matter and far-left groups like antifa were to blame for the chaos. In their respective coverage of the Capitol insurrection, Moncada’s co-host, Agustin Acosta, and popular Cuban YouTube influencer Alexander Otaola both stressed that the violence in D.C. paled in comparison to the unrest last summer (experts have called such comparisons “false equivalencies”).