In 2018, I penned an op-ed about the treatment of immigrants in the United States for online magazine Across the Margin (ATM). Now the op-ed has been included in their “Best of ATM 2018, Nonfiction” roundup.
In my essay titled “Chances Are,” I share how prejudice against immigrants has personally affected me since migrating to the US from Brazil, and how that prejudice was inflamed by the 2016 election cycle.
I knew that many Americans believed negative stereotypes about Latinos, I just didn’t realize the full extent of their prejudice. When I heard Donald Trump and his supporters calling Latinos “drug dealers, criminals, rapists” and “bad hombres,” it wasn’t the words that surprised me, but the reaction of white Americans.
It brought to mind Alexandre Dumas’ famous words, “Hatred is blind, rage carries you away…”
Since the 2016 election, I keep asking myself how white Americans can hate the men and women who clean their homes, mow their lawns, and prepare their food.
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