Color-Conscious Anti-Racism: Bias and Opportunity in the Violent Victimization of Central American Migrants in Long Island, NY

• In Event: Regulation in All the Wrong Places: What In-Situ Research on the Operations of Law, Policing, and Informal Social Control Has to Tell Us About What We’re Doing Wrong and How We Can Do Better

Abstract

In 2008, Ecuadorean migrant Marcelo Lucero was murdered in Patchogue, New York, by seven White, Black, and Hispanic teenagers who described what they had done as “Mexican hopping.” A widespread belief emerged in the press and policy publications that the killing reflected pervasive racism directed at Latin American migrants. Public discourses around the killing led to community programs to teach ethno-racial tolerance and sensitivity training for public officials and police, who were accused of enabling a climate of anti-immigrant racism. However, the typologies of racists, anti-racists, and illegal aliens that refracted this incident failed to draw on the voices of the migrants themselves. This paper addresses this lacuna through a respondent driven sampling survey of 146 Central American migrants who reported victimization during the previous twelve months in neighboring Nassau County in 2008. Findings suggest that anti-racist correctives directed at the Lucero killing did not meet the needs or address the concerns of the majority of violently victimized undocumented migrants whose primary vulnerability appeared to be state-sponsored impunity, including legal status and being part of the un- or under-banked 20 percent of the US, more than, or in addition to, their racial or ethnic identity.

Author

• Anthony Marcus, John Jay College of Criminal Justice