ABSTRACT
T h e D e c e m b e r 2000 i s s u e of The American Enterprise, a magazine published by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Wash ington, D.C., think tank, features two pictures on the cover that sym bolize the “problems” and “solutions” associated with the issue topic “Fixing Our Immigration Predicament.” The first picture shows two Latino males throwing gang signs in front of a decaying graffiti-covered wall.1 The other picture contains six multiethnic youths, presumably White, African American, and Asian, reading college preparatory books. The persistent stereotype of Latino males as gang members in the “prob lem” photo, especially in an era of record low youth violence rates, and their apparent exclusion in the “solution” photo is remarkable, not the least of which is the lack of any significant writing on crime or gangs in any of the essays and certainly the absence of any analysis on Latino or immigrant crime in the issue. Instead, the magazine cover symbolizes the long-standing stereotype that Latinos are violence-driven and prone to gang violence.
