“Gringo” masks: Yeah, This Is What Protesters of Arizona Immigration Law Need

Wearing one of these masks is certainly likely to fool authorities.

Failure on the part of protesters of Arizona’s immigration law to understand what’s actually in the law is now being trumped by a failure to appear serious in their opposition. Last week their banner took the form of a mugshot of a bruised and beaten Dora, protagonist of a popular children’s TV series, Dora, the Explorer. This week, it’s “gringo” masks.

Available through the website Gringomask.com, the masks—which depict a blond, blue-eyed man and woman with fair skin—are intended, according to the site’s creators, to “dignify and support the Hispanic community, with the firm intention of taking it to the streets and confronting Arizona’s statute SB 1070.” Yep, dressing up for Halloween 6 months early certainly dignifies a cause.

William Jacobson, who teaches at Cornell Law School and serves as the voice behind the blog Legal Insurrection, notes that the gesture might generate precisely the outcome the protesters are anxious to prevent. Wearing a mask in public, he notes, is illegal in many states, meaning that the gringo mask might constitute grounds for the police stopping the wearer. While Arizona no longer proscribes the wearing of masks, having repealed its anti-mask law in 1978, the professor writes, it is not difficult to imagine a circumstance (a masked individual entering a bank, for example) where questioning by police might seem appropriate.

Footnote based on a comment from a reader of Legal Insurrection: Isn’t the term gringo pejorative?

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As hot as it gets in AZ and they want to wear a mask? That won’t last very long.

Kissmygrits on May 24, 2010 at 12:28 PM

I’m offended. this seems like one-off from white face. If they break into a Carpenters tune, I’m suing.

Laura in Maryland on May 24, 2010 at 1:35 PM

Anyone wearing that mask is begging to have someone sneak up and stick an “arrest me!” sign on their backs.

Dark-Star on May 24, 2010 at 2:35 PM

I am informed by the principal of the local high school that “gringo” is not pejorative — (said principal is Mexican-American by the way.) This was in reference to the fact that a Mexican kid at the school called my kid a gringo.

I, on the other hand, consider it a pejorative. For all four of my high school years (don’t ask how long ago, but the Panama Canal Zone was still under US control.) I got called a lot of things by the local natives, including gringo, and it definitely was not a compliment.

Isn’t it interesting that names for other races are often considered an insult, but names from other races about Americans are not considered such, at least by those of the other races.

hachiban on May 24, 2010 at 3:49 PM

I, on the other hand, consider it a pejorative. For all four of my high school years (don’t ask how long ago, but the Panama Canal Zone was still under US control.) I got called a lot of things by the local natives, including gringo, and it definitely was not a compliment.

I agree with you 100%. It is an offensive, racist term. Although I do know that in Panama, some black-Americans were called “gringos” while in uniform.

We were stationed at Howard. Where were you?

The Race Card on May 24, 2010 at 4:37 PM

My father was one of the base medical officers on Rodman Naval Station from 1962 through 1966.

hachiban on May 24, 2010 at 5:37 PM

… Instead, he took his part in order to confirm his ideological fantasy of marching on the right side of history, of feeling himself among the elect few who stood with the angels of historical inevitability. Thus, when he lay down in front of hapless commuters on the bridges over the Potomac, he had no interest in changing the minds of these commuters, no concern over whether they became angry at the protesters or not. They were there merely as props, as so many supernumeraries in his private psychodrama. The protest for him was not politics, but theater; and the significance of his role lay not in the political ends his actions might achieve, but rather in their symbolic value as ritual. In short, he was acting out a fantasy.

From Lee Harris, Al Qaeda’s Fantasy Ideology

We’re all objects in their psychodrama.

LarryD on May 24, 2010 at 6:13 PM

I’m offended. this seems like one-off from white face. If they break into a Carpenters tune, I’m suing.

Laura in Maryland on May 24, 2010 at 1:35 PM

I’m on top of the world, looking down on creation…

jpmn on May 24, 2010 at 9:01 PM

I am informed by the principal of the local high school that “gringo” is not pejorative — (said principal is Mexican-American by the way.) This was in reference to the fact that a Mexican kid at the school called my kid a gringo.

I, on the other hand, consider it a pejorative. For all four of my high school years (don’t ask how long ago, but the Panama Canal Zone was still under US control.) I got called a lot of things by the local natives, including gringo, and it definitely was not a compliment.

Isn’t it interesting that names for other races are often considered an insult, but names from other races about Americans are not considered such, at least by those of the other races.

hachiban on May 24, 2010 at 3:49 PM

So, O.K., then, “beaner” is not a pejorative, I guess that’s the standard, Tijuana-style.

Lourdes on May 24, 2010 at 9:49 PM

hachiban on May 24, 2010 at 3:49 PM

I mean, I agree with you, “Gringo” IS a pejorative and it is USED pejoratively by those who use it.

We all by this time can recognize that people who support such speech are, themselves, suffering racialist frames of mind. That principal, for example.

Lourdes on May 24, 2010 at 9:51 PM

“I mean, I agree with you, “Gringo” IS a pejorative and it is USED pejoratively by those who use it.”

Depends on what area of Latin America you’re talking about. In Mexico, it is a pejorative, in Costa Rica, it’s not.

ExUrbanKevin on May 25, 2010 at 2:19 PM

Guys come on! You know the only racists on the planet Earth are White People! Period! If non-white people are racists, well it’s because they lack economic needs, or a house? Welfare Program? Or maybe we should stop making excuses and call it like we see it! All racism is bad and it’s time our “Hombres” realize we are finally awaken to their prejudices!

Humphrey007 on May 25, 2010 at 4:09 PM

Dictionary says:

GRINGO
The word gringo is a derogatory term used in Latin America to refer to white English-speakers, usually Americans, especially in the context of alleged economic, cultural and political interference in Latin America. One rather fanciful theory traces its origin to the Mexican-American War of 1846-48 and the song “Green Grow the Rushes-oh”, supposedly sung by the American troops. According to another theory it is a corruption of griego or “Greek”, in the sense of anything foreign and unintelligible, as in the English expression “it’s all Greek to me”.

DrDeano on May 25, 2010 at 6:36 PM

Where are the “Wet Back” masks for protesters of the protesters?

Roy Rogers on May 25, 2010 at 9:13 PM

They are just trying to “start a dialogue”. What’s the matter with you cracker teabaggers?
P.S. Obamacare

motionview on May 26, 2010 at 12:53 PM