California woman's alleged fake abduction reinforced a harmful anti-Latino narrative, advocates and scholars say
CNN
When Sherri Papini claimed she was abducted in Northern California, investigators were led to believe they were looking for two Hispanic women who spoke Spanish, played Mariachi music and fed her mostly tortillas and rice.
Papini's elaborate story of her 2016 kidnapping, which federal prosecutors now allege was false, reinforced a number of racist stereotypes and the anti-Latino rhetoric that has fueled racial division across the United States in recent years, advocates and scholars say.
"She fell into stereotypes about the Latino community that are far too prevalent in the population at large but clearly, she was also counting on law enforcement relying upon stereotypes," said Thomas Saenz, the president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), a Latino legal civil rights group.
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