Dallas Multicultural Expert Recalls Another Stereotyping Incident By The Cambridge Police

Whatever you think about the Cambridge, Mass., flap that’s led to today’s beer-drinking session at the White House, Dallas’ Edward T. Rincon says it was “not an isolated incident” with the Cambridge Police Department. Rincon, president of multicultural research firm Rincon & Associates, recalls a 1999 Dallas Morning News story describing how Cambridge training officers once contended that pepper spray doesn’t work on Mexican-American suspects. Why not?, the cops were asked. Their answer: because “Mexicans grow up eating too much spicy food, and because they spend so much time picking peppers in the fields.” Rincon says the remark, which drew outrage from Latino groups and a quick apology from the cops, “illustrates the power of stereotypes and how easily they can be translated to public policy.”