-
Website
http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/ -
Original page
http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/2008/01/black-brown-tensions/ -
Subscribe
All Comments -
Community
-
-
Top Commenters
-
Popular Threads
All Comments
They're trying to make it about race and play on racial divisions to win. There is a word for that--Rovian.
My new neighborhood is decidedly lower on the economic scale, and is mostly Latino and Asian. While the circles I move in everyone either has a college degree or attended college, the census data doesn't bear that out. The owner/workers are all sitting on our neighborhood council. They were involved in politics at their high school and colleges. The people (workers and customers) at my local coffee shop are Obama supporters (this was interesting as I heard they held something of a mini-caucus with customers to determine which candidate was going to get the support). Everyone gives Edwards an eyeroll because his campaign message seems to be "I'm the White Knight that will save your minorities". And again, the appreciation for Mrs. Edwards among this group is even lower. No one thinks that Edwards will even try to live up to his rhetoric. I also find that there's some regional bigotry involved in some of their thinking.
As for me, I've never had a problem with Latinos personally, but there are Latino areas of LA you couldn't pay me to go into.
I will mention that there are issues within these communities. For example, Mexicans really like to think that their culture is THE culture. When reggaeton hit it big, the biggest outcry was from Mexicans and countries near it. While those of us from closer to the caribbean, with greater african roots, loved the crossover into american music.
Living in a majority Latino neighboorhood I can say a lot of the same things about Latinos. And while most of us don't fit those sterotypes, it does bear truth for a few of us.
But yes I say there are tensions. A lot of my neighboors don't understand property boundaries. They drive on our grass, let their dogs run everywhere, and sometimes have parties with loud music spanning days. Obviously that creates tensions with the born in America people.
Yeah! What's up with white people like
Tatcho Mindiola, Jr.?
If you ever read 'Ask A Mexican', the unspoken reason why it's ok to diss Guatamalans is because they're considered black.
But I don't know. It's real, though. I think it not only depends on location, but also numbers.
MSM has come down on "whiny" blacks for pointing out racist comments made by the clinton camp. it backfires on Obama.
I'm gonna vote for Obama, but america is not ready for a black president.
Tasha
www.thesowingcircle.blogspot.com
Anyway, I have never had a problem with Latinos and Chicanos. I mean, every group has its bad seeds. Growing up here in Texas, those Mexican kids, and a Puerto Rican teacher, accepted me without prejudice at predominantly white schools I attended. Sometimes I was asked stupid questions like "you don't look ALL black." Many Mexicans are of African descent or black Mexicans. Plus, many arriving from Central and South America are of African heritage and not at all ashame of it.
There are supporters for Obama among many ethnic Hispanics both African heritage and non-African heritage. Unfortunately, as always, it's always the bad seeds among them (among any group) with the bigger mouth who always get the attention more easily than the good guys.
i've written way too much about race and racism from a puerto rican perspective. go to httP//culturekitchen.com/categories/racism and just read to your heart's content.
one of my favorite is
"Blanquito vs. Latino or the unbearable lightness of Alberto Gonzales"
http://culturekitchen.com/liza/blog/blanquito_vs_latino_or_the_unbearable_lightness_of_being_alberto_gonzales
Don't let the political affiliation of the subject fool you : There's a lot of liberal and democrat latinos that fall into the "blanquito" category.
'nough said.
we cannot say definitively that "chicanos" dont have african heritage. check mexican history. there was a portion of the population early on that was black. so no chicano knows that for sure, unless they do a DNA test.
Slavery was everywhere and racism is one of the many things we latin americans and american latinos need to contend with; but let me tell you, I think latinoamericanos are more hip to socio-economic dynamics of race than most people in this country.
I mean, we wouldn't have a Lula or a Cesar Chavez or an Evo Morales. We wouldn't have a growing environmental justice movement led by indigenous peoples from Patagonia to Rio Colorado. If Latino Americanos weren't hip to the social dynamics of race, we wouldn't have Carnaval or Fiestas Patronales celebrated by each and every country as opposed to just the Mardi Gras only celebrated by not even a region of the United States.
It's weird. Most of hip hop is consumed by white folks but we still don't have a "mulatto" culture in this country. Maybe in another 10-15 years when the white kids buying 50 cent become breeders, power brokers and property owners. Maybe we will see a shift, who knows.
Then again, look at the main purveyors of African American and Latino culture in this country : BET and Univision. It's enough to make anybody wanna cap a n*&^ or a sp**^.
Seriously.
To the posters on this particular subject, I would advise you to be honest and quit trying to justify or diminish the bigotry and outright racism associated with hispanics in this country and their disdain for African Americans who have fought to good fight only to have latins/hispanics without fear of reprisals say out loud that they dispise Black folks.
How ironic that Blacks in THIS country stayed here to fight the battle for racial equality while latins/hispanics sit in the shade and proclaimed their whiteness, only to change once the hard fought battles of the civil rights era were won. How hypocritical can you be and still call Black folks with a straight face whiny, complainers and have too much political power? WOW. If it had not been for the whiners and complainers hispanics/latins wouldn't be able to hold their heads up in this country as well, as they try to run away from their Indian and African heritages.
So I would admonish all these Black intellectuals, academics, and so-called upper class to remember this poll as you stand up and fight the battles of people who have such a low opinion of you.
If you are Black, you are Black period.
I'm proud to be Black and if you are latin and black you should be as well.
Dang, don't you people learn? What is it about being white that is so appealing to you that you have such a low opinion of yourself?
1. who are you talking to?
2. you're "historical facts" about latinos is absolutely incorrect. latinos have fought one way or another against racist imperialism. in the west it was mexican, in the east at least since 1898 this country has seen puerto ricans and at one point cubans fighting for equal rights.
that socially we may have issues with racism? well, there is no question about.
but know your history. i find it obscene that so many people jump to conclusions about latinos but if you ask them when puerto rico was invaded or when it was incorporated into the US, they just blink in wonder.
3. not a lot of people are 'genetically' black in latin america. that's just the fact. and there's a lot of people who can pass who are not even brown but truly white looking.
the issue is about identity politics. what do you identify yourself politically as a latin american.
and, again, the issue is also of a national identity. whe latin americans consider our countries the product of miscegenation.
in this country? a lot of black people even have problems talking about their mulatoness.
so seriously, don't go knocking us down that fast.
I think you should reserach your own history a little further.
When the slave ships dropped off slaves in America they also did so in Latin America, hence the large population of Blacks in many latin american countries. Within the colonization of these countries by Europeans, the Indians were indoctrinated into believing that Africans were inferior to them and anything associated with them was inferior. To this day many in the latin culture do not like being referred to as Indian let alone African or Black.
When I said fighting battles, I was referring to the battles African-Americans had to fight in THIS country, not one in which when the going got tough they ran to another country. I ask you, how many hispanics were water hosed, bombed, or lynched for participating in civil rights demonstrations, how many attempted to vote? How many are taking advantage of the gains made through civil rights legislation fought for in THIS country by those whiny and complaining black folks with too much political power that hispanics are taking advantage of now?
As I said earlier to all these pro-illegal immigrant black folks. Be careful of your hand, when you put it out there you might draw back a nub.
If you know your history in THIS country, miscegnation is a bad word to many African-Americans who have attempted to PASS to make their lives a little easier in this racis country as many latins have done when they "crossed over." We consider ourselves Black and proud of it. I guarantee there are more latins who are trying to pass then black folks ever will.
For some historical context and relevant to today's history, please go to the archives of the Miami Herald and read an interesting series that did regarding Blacks in Latin America and how they are faring in today's world. It is an eye opener and I warn you, the opinions of many of these latins is common today in those countries as it is here in Miami.
The articles title: A Rising Voice: Afro-Latins.
Good reading and it explains a lot regarding the self-loathing that so many latins have regarding their African ancestry.
An invitation to you.
Come and visit Miami, Florida. The land that left the US a long time ago.
You will be awakened to experiences as an African-American you have never had before.
It's almost like living in the 1950's segregated South only with a Spanish sheriff.
This is a microcoism of what will happen in the rest of the US if we continue to bend over to help these poor, poor misunderstood people: arrogance, disdain, bigotry, disenfranchisement, discrimination, corruption - all the symptoms of living in a third world country.
So come on down.
They just have not been counted as part of the population by their own government until recently.
Remember the brohaha when Jesse Jackson went to Mexico after the Mexican government officially endorsed a racist Black Sambo image that the Mexican government did not see a problem with and wondered what our problem was.
A whole group of people not even recognized by their government no wonder they have anxiety complexes about their racial identity.
There are plenty of web sites regarding Afro-Mexicans, check em out!
This is for you.
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/feature/ethnic/bv/spec0303.html