Are Hispanics Just Plain Dumb? Many of Us Think So

I admit that I'm a little late to the party, in that I just recently read Freakonomics, the bestseller from a few years ago. Like everyone else who read the book, I'm amazed at the bizarre factoids and surprising conclusions that it supplies. And it's also convinced me never to buy a swimming pool for my backyard.

In any case, one of the sections in Freakonomics looks at a study done on that forgotten game show The Weakest Link, which is best known for supplying a short-lived catchphrase that I will refrain from repeating.

The Freakonomics authors were curious if data would uncover hidden racial prejudice or sexism among the contestants on the show. Their conclusion was that blacks and women were not discriminated against. They write, in a burst of set-you-up optimism, that "perhaps ... discrimination was practically eradicated during the twentieth century, like polio."

Wouldn't that be most cool? Racism eradicated - with game shows like The Weakest Link serving as a mass-media, pop-culture Salk vaccine! How nifty keen is that?

Well, as you may have predicted, the story doesn't end there. The authors point out that "the Weakest Link voting data do indicate two kinds of contestants who are consistently discriminated against: the elderly and Hispanics."

Somehow I knew this case study would end badly for us.

What the authors are saying is that my grandmother would have been eliminated from the show before the announcer finished his intro.

So why are Latinos and the elderly picked on? Well, the authors conclude that "all but the most insensitive people take pains to at least appear fair-minded, at least in public," and that discrimination still pops up when aimed at "other groups that society doesn't protect as well."

In other words, white people will go out of their way to avoid looking like they're picking on black people. But when it comes to, say, Hispanics, all bets are off.

The authors even pinpoint the form of bigotry aimed at Latinos. They say that "Hispanics suffer information-based discrimination," which is when someone "believes that another type of person has poor skills, and acts accordingly." The authors note that "other contestants seem to view the Hispanics as poor players, even when they are not."

The prejudice against the elderly, in contrast, is "taste-based discrimination," which is when someone "prefers to not interact with a particular type of other person."

So the good news is that many Americans don't get skived out at Hispanics the same way they do at, for example, old people. It's just that they automatically think that we're really, really stupid.

Well, that makes me feel better.

Regardless, the Freakonomics study creates a conundrum. It assumes that Latinos are a group that "society doesn't protect as well." This confuses me because I have been told, repeatedly, that we live in a post-race society. Ergo, even the slightest suggestion that people are treated differently - or that some groups receive more societal protection or favoritism than others - is a roundhouse left to the legacy of MLK. At least, this is what I've heard from my conservative friends.

Another issue that the study raises is whether the parsing of bigotry is even possible or relevant. If we categorize prejudice, can we combat it more effectively? Or is it all just shop talk for academics?

Assuming that discrimination comes in different flavors, can we tackle it with more education? After all, the majority culture is not creeped out by Latinos (as opposed to the universal disgust aimed at those icky old people), which implies that this type of prejudice is more analytical than emotional. As such, can we convince others that we're not total morons, or is it a doomed enterprise, because minds are already made up? And isn't the very attempt to persuade the majority culture of our worth a degrading endeavor?

Obviously, I don't know the answer to these questions. Maybe I'm not smart enough. But I do know that, henceforth, I'll do my best to avoid verifying the majority culture's perceptions of Latinos. I will take great pains to not appear like a total ignoramus.

From now on, I vow to be all, like, intellectual ... and stuff ... yup.

Comments

[Aaror]

Perhaps Univision should search for the "top ten latino minds," in the US.
Publishing this would give young Latinos something to aspire to, heroes, and would leak into the mainstream media (helped ironically by fox news making fun of it), pushing the idea of Latino scientists into the public consiousness.

[averygard]

Certainly no dumber than white people (see: Teabaggers. Or: Talk radio. Or: The republican party. Or: Glenn Beck. Or: Lou Dobbs. Or.......)

[joelwisch]

Amazing things to say. There are currently very significant issues with the illegal aliens, but those illegals come from just about everywhere. But are American Hispanics discriminated against? I don't think so. They are in fact running half the businesses in this country I suspect. However, those Hispanics who fail to learn English and wave the Mexican Flag on Cico de Mayo in massive open protest to law enforcement of immigration law decidedly left an impression on us and if you don't speak English in public, I don't think you are going to be appreciated very much.

Prejudice? Bigotry? Cure thine oneself Cubias. You presume prejudice and bigotry when it may simply be preference. Further, any analysis of the winners on a TV show hardly qualifies for factual analysis of anything.

[Aaror]

They were not looking at the winners. They were looking at whether the choices for who to vote off were based on unbiased game theory, or whether there were racial or other biases at work.
Personally I suspect that there were two types of discrimination at play with the female element, which would require further analysis.
I suspect that folks thought of voting off females due to a (false) belief that they were less intelligent, but kept them because of a desire to interact with them more. If that were true, then less attractive women would have been voted off sooner than they should have, and more attractive women would have survived longer than they should.
But an analysis like this is much better than a survey, since money is on the line, people will be less likely to vote based on PC and more likely to vote their (percieved) financial interest. Although as the author points out, there is a PC bias against kicking off african americans, probably because it is on TV.

[Daniel Cubias - Huffpost Blogger]

It's good to know that Hispanics are not discriminated against... unless of course, they're illegal aliens and have it coming (and even then, it's just a matter of "preference"). It's also good to know that Hispanics are "running half the businesses in this country." Wow! For 14% of the population, we're doing great.

[TheMellowFellow]

I bet you're speaking from the comfy pedestal of being a White Male -- of course racism and bigotry doesn't exist in your world!

[mltaylor13pt1]

Us? Speak for yourself pal.

[ladycubsfan]

What's with the "many of us think so" in the title? Who is the "us?" I tend not to paint everyone with the same broad brush. There are good and bad, smart and dumb, in every culture. Can we just move past this already? No, I suppose that's too much to ask...(sig­h).

[Aaror]

Us would be generally Americans, and specifically weakest link competitor­s...