The mainstream media, in its seemingly comprehensive coverage of the recent swine flu epidemic, has left largely uncovered one of the most important stories: the wrongful stigmatization of Mexicans as disease carriers, and the effects of such a label.
In China, more than 70 Mexican nationals were detained and quarantined in early May, according to the Agence France-Presse. Only one of the quarantined was actually confirmed to have the virus. In Central and South America, several countries canceled soccer matches that had been planned with Mexican teams, even though none of the players were sick, according to articles by both The New York Times and The Washington Times. These incidents are not the only times when Mexicans have been mistreated due to the association between them and the swine flu, not by a long shot.
Neither are the effects of the stigma confined to specific events: the rampant fear that originally caused the stigma has created a climate of blame and suspicion in the world at large. This climate has been perpetuated and worsened by anti-immigrant political figures’ exploitation of the circumstances for their own gains and by the mainstream media’s Mexico-intensive coverage of the swine flu epidemic — now an illogical approach, given that the disease is present in 38 other countries, according to the World Health Organization.
Paly senior Jessica Garcia says this climate is felt in Palo Alto.
“People that I know have been looked down upon, where people think that they’re swine flu carriers,” Garcia said.
It appears that many people believe Mexicans to be at fault for the evolution and spread of the disease. When speaking about the disease, many civilians and public figures seem to be operating in a nationality-based mindset rather than a medically–based one.
Paly senior Binui Morales offers a succinct wake-up call in response to misinformation about the swine flu.
“Just because you’re Mexican, that doesn’t mean you have a higher risk of being infected,” Morales said.
In addition to confusion on the part of the public, there are many anti-immigrant pundits, politicians, and radio or television show hosts who have taken to citing the swine flu as a strike against Mexican immigrants, according to an article on the Anti-Defamation League’s Web site. These anti-immigrant commentators stand to gain, politically and monetarily, from establishing Mexicans as detractors from American society. The panic over the swine flu, and the public’s relative ignorance of the epidemic’s specifics, has given these people a golden opportunity to spread their skewed version of reality.
Garcia notes that much of what is said linking Mexicans and the swine flu is false, and an attempt by American nativists at advancing their own interests.
“In the United States, people who are against immigrants, they’re labeling the immigrants in the U.S. as the ones who brought the swine flu over from Mexico,” Garcia said. “For them, it’s just another way of saying, ‘Let’s close all the borders.'”
The heavily biased, anti-immigrant sources that Garcia describes are not the only ones contributing to the negative labeling of Mexicans; the mainstream, supposedly objective, media has published its fair share of misinformation. To date, numerous news articles, opinion pieces, and other media have been published, reinforcing the contrived link between Mexicans, immigrants, and the swine flu. One particularly blatant example was a political cartoon published in the April 28 edition of the Sacramento Bee, showing a yellow road sign on a deserted border road with the word “CAUTION” at the top, and, below it, the silhouetted image of a family running, followed by a pig, also running.
It is this kind of media coverage that truly promotes the idea of the Mexican swine flu. And, whereas the simple observation that the epidemic’s first documented cases were in Mexico would not have been enough to create the stigma that Mexicans now face, the mainstream media’s particular emphasis on the swine flu in Mexico and the entirely false belief that Mexicans are responsible for spreading the disease has managed to make most people ignorant of the situation.
As a result of that ignorance, many people have started to make assumptions about Mexicans.
Paly senior Ana Yanez Lara has felt the negative effects of this attitude, but understands its origins.
“Sometimes it’s taken too far, and you kind of think about it, like, why’s it just us?” Yanez Lara said. “I think it’s just an unconscious type of thing; you are not really aware of who you’re labeling, but that’s what’s happening.”
Unfortunately, modern societies tend to respond to stress or fear by blaming one arbitrarily chosen group for the circumstances causing the discomfort. Thanks to media neglect and politically-charged misinformation, the swine flu epidemic has not been any different, so far.
Garcia makes a valuable observation that speaks to the larger theme of “to freak out, or not to freak out” that crops up so often in discussions of this epidemic.
“Don’t worry, nobody at Paly has it [the swine flu],” Garcia said.