Race, worthiness and attenuated citizenship: Puerto Ricans in the post-Cold War era

The struggle for equal citizenship in the US is facing new challenges. Whereas yesterday's hard right was blatantly bigoted today's prefers to snidely downgrade the other. This discourse does not directly challenge the civic creed as would its Jim Crow era counterpart. Instead, it implicitly corrals it by juxtaposing herrenvolk virtue with the other's iniquity. This paper will examine depictions of Puerto Ricans in the post-Cold War era as expendable, disloyal, irresponsible and unworthy. This new rhetorical style lays the groundwork for belittling Puerto Ricans and other people of color all the while feigning to uphold equality of citizenship.