Comments on: Rick Sanchez & the Aspirations of the Cuban American Community: A Guest Post by Rodriguez

By: BearDownCBears

BearDownCBears — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 01:08:39 +0000

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.

By: NefariousNewt

NefariousNewt — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 19:12:01 +0000

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.

By: bluebears

bluebears — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 17:18:18 +0000

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.

By: emilyanne

emilyanne — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 17:07:39 +0000

@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.

By: Tweets that mention Rick Sanchez & the Aspirations of the Cuban American Community: A Guest Post by Rodriguez - The Pursuit of Harpyness -- Topsy.com

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 17:02:04 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: mischiefmanager

mischiefmanager — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 16:18:13 +0000

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?

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:29:37 +0000

@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!

By: Av0gadro

Av0gadro — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:21:45 +0000

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.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:15:40 +0000

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.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 14:12:44 +0000

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.