Sponsored message
Logged in as
Audience-funded nonprofit news
radio tower icon laist logo
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Subscribe
  • Listen Now Playing Listen

This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

News

Notes Left On Cars in Long Beach: "Go Back to Baja Wetbacks"

2846806253_48364f4119_z.jpeg
Photo by Nuno_Oliveira via the LAist Featured Photos pool

One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.

Over the Labor Day weekend, someone decided to leave some nasty notes on the cars of beachgoers at Belmont Shore in Long Beach.

OC Weekly has a few pictures of the notes. One says, "The Mexicans invaded this beach now—sad". Another says, "You Mexicans took over Cherry Beach—(no white people allowed) now you invade our beach go back to Baja wetbacks".

One of the people who found a note on her car was Griselda Suarez, a lecturer in the Department of Chicano and Latino Studies at Long Beach State. Suarez told OC Weekly: "There were several cars with notes like these."

Suarez filed a police report, but officers said that it was a freedom of speech issue, according to the OC Weekly. Gustavo Arrellano points out that this brand of racism was extra-ignorant: most of the Mexicans in the Long Beach area hail from Michoacán.

One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.

You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.

If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief

Make your tax-deductible donation today