The Cuban-American community holds conflicting ideas about itself. It’s painful to see it up close. As a community it’s successful and assimilated. Because of the distribution of wealth and opportunity in Cuba before the revolution, it is largely white and passes for white easily in American society. It’s the most wealthy group among Latinos and is politically conservative. Maybe at this point, fifty years after the revolution, it’s just another white ethnic subgroup in the US. It is secretly or not so secretly racist – its members, young and old, spend far too much time discussing skin tone. These discussions aren’t always about how to bring equality, though; they are frequently about how to avoid being classified as “not white.” But the community is full of pride for the Spanish language and its own beautiful Cuban cultural heritage. It’s been successful in preserving that culture for the two generations born in the US since the revolution.
Rick Sanchez recently made comments about Jon Stewart that cost him his job. It’s likely that Sanchez had a tough row to hoe on his way to his job at CNN. Assuming his path to his job was paved with discrimination, his resentments are clear. Yet, Rick Sanchez is wrong about Jon Stewart. Stewart does not pick on him for his Latino characteristics or his Cuban-American ones. His criticisms are about his empty headed commentary and reporting. As much as Sanchez has a right to be wrong, he doesn’t have a right to employment. He is employed at the discretion of CNN, as so many of us are employed at the discretion of our employers.
Should the Cuban-American community rally around Rick Sanchez and protest his firing? The way to do that would be to claim a liberal media bias and to claim a bias against Latinos. Claim number one comes easily to Cuban-Americans, who see all things, always and everywhere, through the lens of the Cuban Revolution. Throw in a little antisemitism for spice. Claim number two is harder to make because of the Cuban-American community’s own conflicted desire to be seen as other than Latino. Or, better yet, to redefine “Latino” in its own image, to carve out the term “Cuban-American” as something else altogether. But then Cuban-Americans need to ignore the obvious cultural similarities with Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic and the immigrants from those places, along with other places with Spanish colonial heritages.
So choose, compay. Do you think Rick Sanchez is just another mediocrity fired from his job? Do you think he is a victim of the so-called liberal media bias? Or do you think he is a victim of racism against Latinos?
The thought mechanism of this kind of persecution mentality is a very familiar one to me as a Jew. The pride/shame of belonging to a group that has suffered from prejudice results in some behaviors that are way out of proportion to any real harm suffered, or that are directed at misidentified targets.
When I was growing up, antisemitism was much more common and more openly expressed than it is today. Once you’re trained to be aware of prejudice, it can become very hard to keep your perceptions accurate. You begin to see it everywhere and from everyone. It’s a lot easier and less painful if you can blame your failuresm disppointments, and shortcomings on a deliberate attempt to sabotage you because of membership in a vulnerable group.
This isn’t to say that real prejudice doesn’t exist or that real people suffer real harm because of it. But Sanchez chose to see a personal critique as a mamifestation of ethnic hatred, which does neither him nor members of his group any good.
AIPAC does this all the time in regard to Israel, and so does the Anti-Defamation League, which is why I don’t support either one.
From Lindsay Beyerstein’s recent Big Think piece about what Sanchez actually said that got him fired:
When Dominick suggested that Jews are just as much a minority as Hispanics, Sanchez scoffed at the idea:
“Very powerless people… [snickers] He’s such a minority, I mean, you know [sarcastically]… Please, what are you kidding? … I’m telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they — the people in this country who are Jewish — are an oppressed minority? Yeah. [sarcastically]”
What Sanchez said next hasn’t gotten as much media play as the “Jews run CNN” allegation, but it’s even uglier. When Dominick implied that Jews can relate to the oppression of Hispanics because of their cultural memory of the Holocaust, Sanchez shot back that he hoped Jews fear a repeat of the Holocaust.
Pete asked, “They can’t relate to that? A Jewish person doesn’t have a constant fear in the back of their head that we could [inaudible] the Holocaust?”
“I think his father could,” Sanchez replied, referring to Stewart.
“I think every Jewish person feels that way,” Pete said.
“I hope so,” Sanchez responded.
Bigoted tirade against a particular ethnic group = lose your job. As you said, Rodriguez, he has the right to be wrong, but he does not have the right to be employed. He and Helen Thomas can get together and commiserate about how it’s so unfair that you can’t hate on Jews.
If Sanchez wants to cry foul, he should go after Fox News, whose commenters routinely spew tirades against Latinos.
It’s also worth pointing out that there are many, many people who are both Cuban and Jewish. There was a vibrant Jewish community in Cuba before the Revolution, but most of them fled to Miami when Castro came to power and settled in the same communities where Rick Sanchez was raised.
Mischief, I agree that the ADL and AIPAC leave a pretty bad taste in my mouth, and I would never argue that I’m oppressed the way people who aren’t white are. But it’s hard to forget going home in tears from school because another kid said something viciously anti-Semitic. I’m pretty wary of declaring something a persecution complex – of declaring that a minority isn’t as oppressed as they think they are. It just seems a little too much like when men suggest women are being irrational when they complain about sexism, and I know that’s wrong.
@Avogadro: I’m pretty wary of declaring something a persecution complex – of declaring that a minority isn’t as oppressed as they think they are. It just seems a little too much like when men suggest women are being irrational when they complain about sexism, and I know that’s wrong.
So true. I find that kind of dismissal often comes with a side of Oppression Olympics: You think YOU were oppressed? Lemme tell you about how bad WE had it!
I used the term, not clearly enough, to refer to reactions like the one under discussion here which are not a rational reaction to any genuine incident of bigotry. Of course there is real prejudice out there. But when a person who belongs to a minority group assumes that every bad thing that happens to him or her is due to membership in that group, it’s a persecution complex in my book. It doesn’t serve, say, the Jews or any particular Jew to find group hatred where there isn’t any. The ADL is a perfect example of crying wolf so often that you lose your credibility.
Btw, if the Jews own and control the media, do you think Sanchez thanked the one who hired him in the first place?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Vyckie D. Garrison, Pursuit of Harpyness. Pursuit of Harpyness said: Rick Sanchez & the Aspirations of the Cuban American Community: A Guest Post by Rodriguez http://bit.ly/9O1GUW [...]
@BeckySharper – I am wary of it too, but having grown up with Irish parents during the time of the Troubles I am also wary of allowing ourselves to see everything through the prism of the past. It’s very common in certain parts of Northern Ireland for example to see everything in terms of British oppression and to refuse to believe that anything could or has changed.
My father, for example, who came to England at a time when hotels carried signs saying ‘No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish’ in that order still often insists that the oppression of the Irish in the UK is an on-going thing because it’s hard for him to view change in the light of his childhood.
All of which makes it sound like i’m entering the oppression olympics, which is not my intention. What i wanted to say is that history should never be denied but nor should it be used to shackle a group or community.
Honestly I think his firing had more to do with the network he worked for. If he had been working for Fox I think he would have apologized but ultimately kept his job. CNN (at least tries) to appeal to a more progressive audience.
Also I wonder if CNN gave him the option to apologize and he refused and it was then that they decided to fire him.
At some point, we have to go beyond race and creed, and accept that as an individual, you are responsible for what you say and do. Rick Sanchez can wave the discrimination card if he likes, and undoubtedly his road to an anchor job was not as easy for him as a WASP male, but stupid knows no color, and what he said was stupid, so he can’t sit there and whine about it. Maybe he should think about what he said and why it was wrong.
I had me a really good idear, but then I watched Rick Sanchez explain the news, and now I dont think so good no more. So I guess the first one? Yeah, Rick Sanchez is a mediocracy.