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Mar 14, 2012, 12:16 PM
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Member Since: Jun 2007
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Posts: 5,518
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My husband is of Mexican heritage, and we've been together a very long time. It has been very disheartening to see the increase of hatred for our Latino population in this country, especially over the last decade. It has caused me to be continually on guard for an attack. 
It's bad enough having to constantly live in fear, but the profiling is literally pushing me over the edge.
My husband uses a work truck, provided by his company. His boss has gotten a lot of complaints by clients because they see my husband's brown skin and assume he's a "terrorist" or "illegal alien." He was born and raised in the U.S, never even been to Mexico, but many of the clients insist "white only." For this reason, my husband does not qualify for a decent wage OR benefits of any type. He continues to hold a "probationary" status. He is also required to pay for his own gas, even though they send him all over the state. Yes, he is looking for other work - but no one will offer him a decent wage or benefits.
The other day he got a ticket for not displaying his current license tags. He had them with him....he just didn't get around to putting them on the plates. Instead of allowing my husband to put them on then and there, the cop gave him a ticket AND took away his drivers license. Taking away a person's license for such an offense is NOT the norm around here - it's just an example of how people of color can be treated differently. The added humiliation of having to produce a ticket instead of drivers license as a valid ID helps to perpetuate the "criminal/unruly" stereotype.
This morning he was told he needed to be somewhere far away. While stuck in traffic, his boss called saying the client was screaming for him to get there immediately. My husband decided to take a side road to avoid some of the traffic......and got stopped AGAIN!!!
This time they got him for driving a few miles over the speed limit. DUIH!!! He's desperately trying to keep his job!!! He's desperately trying to keep his boss and clients happy! He's desperately trying to keep a roof over our head and food on our table!!!
Do they show him any mercy? HELL NO!!! They threw him in JAIL!! He's borderline diabetic, suffers from severe arthritis and high blood pressure, and I'm completely disabled/homebound.
Did they show ME any mercy? Well sort of.....if I managed to scrape together $200, they would let him go - even drove him to the house to pick it up.
Needless to say, his boss and that client are FURIOUS. So am I because I don't have any extra money....not even savings. That money was our grocery money for the month. In order to make up for the cost, I'll have to go back to eating a single bowl of oatmeal to cover my breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I'm really tired of people trailing behind my husband and son, watching and waiting for them to make a mistake - or become vulnerable enough for an attack.
I'm sure that cop is proud of himself for humiliating my husband, taking away our grocery money, and causing me to become enraged. 
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