Two weeks ago, Hawai'i's Latino American community was thrust into the public eye when City Councilmember Rod Tam used the derogatory term "wetbacks" during a council committee meeting to characterize undocumented workers from Mexico.

Hawai'i's Latino community spoke out strongly — and appropriately — against Tam's characterization. Tam issued a tepid public apology and the council reprimanded him. But then came the backlash: Latino community leaders received hostile calls and mail. Some expressed hatred for people of Mexican ancestry. Others simply said get over it, we make fun of groups in Hawai'i.

Hawai'i's special mix of people and cultures is reflected in our aloha spirit. That spirit of inclusiveness is generated in part from our appreciation of Hawai'i's native people and many ethnic groups — an appreciation of cultural uniqueness enlivened by values of tolerance and understanding. That spirit and those values are at stake.

History teaches that negative cultural representations of groups are not accidents or jokes. Instead they legitimize harsh unfair treatment of group members. U.S. political leaders used derogatory slurs to demean Japanese in America as sinister and unassimilable and to justify the groundless internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. To defend the need for U.S. annexation of Hawai'i, politicians mischaracterized Native Hawaiians as uncivilized and childlike savages, labeling them "mongrels" and lepers in need of U.S. control.

Politicians also described Chinese as "miscreants" to push anti-Chinese legislation excluding new Chinese laborers and barring those in the U.S. (after finishing building the railroads) from working for local governments or businesses. Most notably, public officials used the N-word to denigrate and thereby legitimize the subordination (slavery, lynchings, segregation and discrimination) of an entire race for 200 years. The word was a code for uncivilized, inferior and unworthy, and it thereby made dehumanizing treatment of African Americans seem acceptable (to some). In similar fashion, for generations, demeaning terms described women's intellect and character in order to make their unequal treatment in all spheres of social life seem appropriate.

Deployed by decision-makers, negative group stereotypes block fair assessment of people as individuals and can legitimize sweeping unfair group treatment. This is why a government official's use of a demeaning term in a public setting is wrong. Not because it offends someone's sensibility. But because it has been (and can be) used to spur and justify harsh, unjust actions.

Government officials used "wetback" as a pejorative term for Mexican workers who crossed the Rio Grande and to justify a sweeping crackdown that injured not only Mexican citizens but also Mexican Americans. A politically popular effort in 1954, in a few short months the U.S.'s "Operation Wetback" expelled en masse more than 1 million Mexican immigrants (some documented, some not, many of whom had been solicited by the U.S. to work in the fields), along with American citizens of Mexican ancestry. The harsh stereotyping of Mexicans as sneaky, slippery and unwanted to legitimize the massive campaign spurred discrimination that persists today.

Now used to refer to Latinos generally, "wetback" is viewed as derogatory by both Latinos and non-Latinos. A public official's use of this term taps into this history and these stereotypic images: Latinos as outsiders and therefore unfit for our community.

But Latino Americans are not "outsiders" to Hawai'i — from the Mexican cowboys brought from California in the 1830s to teach Hawaiians the art of cattle ranching, to the several thousand Puerto Ricans brought at the turn of the 20th century to work on Hawai'i's sugar plantations. Kachi-kachi music, pasteles, and gandule rice are just one part of that legacy. Latinos of many backgrounds are now a part of the economy and the cultural mix that make Hawai'i special.

The U.S. Census says that there are now nearly 100,000 Latinos in Hawai'i.

Hawai'i's Latino American community is not arguing in favor of unlawful immigration. Nor is it saying that Councilmember Tam should refrain from discussing immigration policy. But it is saying that those discussions must avoid the kind of derogatory stereotyping that breeds intolerance and misunderstanding.

When any among us ask for understanding — like the Latino American community and friends are doing now — our Hawai'i community needs to open our hearts and minds, and take the time to learn and interact. This is the time for everyone to dial down the heated rhetoric, to listen and learn from and about each other. It is the time to live our values of understanding and tolerance — in the genuine spirit of aloha.

Eric K. Yamamoto is a professor of law at the William S. Richardson School of Law. Susan K. Serrano is director of educational development at the Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law, William S. Richardson School of Law. Moses Haia is a staff attorney at the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation. They wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.