…and our small Mexican feminist sister has written a short, sharp and very funny piece at newstaco.com which begins:
I’m tired of talking about race. The topic makes me want to concurrently take a nap and scream. Though I’ve been talking about it for a long time now, ever since I was a feisty communist teenager with unfortunate haircuts. Now, I’m bored of it.
However, never having been passive, whenever I see or hear something racist, I feel the need to talk about it. (Unfortunately, sometimes I become finger-in-your-face kind of angry, my neck jerking back-and-forth in a ghetto-like fashion.)
People often seem to believe that racism is something that I imagine, as if I’m some sort of conspiracy theorist. After all, many naïve folks want to believe that we live in a “post-racial” society. Perhaps this post racial society is a place I’m not familiar with, a land filled with gnomes, Smurfs, and fairies made of chocolate. Here is a list of ignorant comments that have been directed at me over the years:
I sympathize completely. Yesterday I got into a fb discussion with some guy about guns. He made the incredibly bizarre assertion that gun laws were created to keep guns away from black people. He also said that women become victims because they don’t understand how men think.
I told him that I wanted to see a legitimate, reputable source for his claim about gun laws. My name is a common Jewish one and I use it on fb, so what does he do? He sends me a link to some group called Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. Really.
This kind of idiocy is part of what it means to belong to a minority. It gets tiresome on occasion. I’m always happy to answer a reasonable question, but the kinds of obnoxious stupidity that OHN lists in her article are not reasonable.
I didn’t think you were Latina because you don’t have an accent: check
You speak like a white person: check
You don’t look Mexican(Latina): check
My answer to this one is – logic fail. I am a Latina so by definition I am what Latinas look like.
You were academically successful because you are a minority: I internalized this point for a long long time. I’m really just getting over it now, and I’m a cuarentona. (40-something).
Hells, there is a whole lot of interesting in this post, please revisit this!
Just last week, I ran into a casual acquaintance who shares my last name. Me: “Hi Rodriguez, I always notice people named Rodriguez, it sticks in my brain, that’s my name too.” Her: “Oh you must be married to Rodriguez.” Me: “No, I am Rodriguez.” Her: “Well you certainly don’t look it.” etc etc blablabla. Yuck.
I am a Latina so by definition I am what Latinas look like.
Excellent response. I am going to add that to my repertoire the next time someone says to me “You don’t look Jewish.” My usual response—which is fairly effective—has been a frosty stare and, “What do you think Jewish people look like?”
Thanks for reading and sharing your stories! And thank you Harpies for posting!
I need to fix my disqus account which is messed up somehow and cross post there. But really, hells, I would love for you to pursue the idea about “undeserved” academic success if you have not done so elsewhere! b/c
1) I carried a weight around with me (is it true? no…it’s not true…but is it?)
2) When I managed to beat that back, then I would look at other latinos and think – what’s up with you people then?
It was poisonous.
Good one, rodriguez!
I was watching the soccer game yesterday and reveling in the diversity of ethnicities on the teams and in the names of the team players. You couldn’t possibly match the players to their names based on their appearance. It is just amazing to me that Americans haven’t gotten a clue about that by now.
@ Rodriguez. I will definitely explore this further. I hadn’t written about grad school yet because the wounds were still fresh. I think it’s time though. Thanks for the suggestion!
@oh hells nah
Oh! I forgot that everybody loves Mexicans and that the whole country is just dying to lavish us with undeserved success. Allow me a few minutes to prostrate to the benevolent gods of this so-called “affirmative action.
Thanks for that bit of laughter during my day. I have heard all of these things as well and they used to frustrate me to no end, but I just respond with sarcasm. Many people can’t tell what ethnicity I am so they say, “What are you?” and I just respond, “I’m American.”
When I lived in the States, I had people tell me that I spoke English really well, and ask me where I was from; my usual response was and still is, I am from California, born and raised there.
When I lived in China, people would ask me where I was from, and my response was I’m American. The follow up comment was almost always: But you don’t look American. Which was more welcome than the people who insisted that I wasn’t American, because I did encounter that response a couple of times.
In China, I partially understood it, because for them, where you are from, is intrinsically tied to where your ancestors are from. For the Chinese, where your ancestors are from, that is where you are from; the idea of adopted/changed identity doesn’t make so much sense. Also of course, the different language semantics is also a big part of that.
I feel like there is no winning here. I hate that this is a topic that we will never stop discussing in our lifetime; I’m tired of needing to explain myself. The only thing that I look forward to, is that, every time I explain myself, hopefully somebody might start to think in a different way. I’m looking forward to the day that somebody surprises me, much like the NYPD did for BeckySharper the other day.
I was drawn to this via a google post – after being told about a controversial post by this author on marrying a euro-american (which I’ve yet to find). But anyhow, and I say this will all due respect, not as a shot. My first reaction to this piece was something I saw a tweeter (redhostdesi if not mistaken) post in regards to a similar topic: Check your privilege at the door.
If this is why we are “tired of talking about race” I could only one day hope it gets that easy for nuestra Gente. That means we would be getting access to quality education and becoming truly bilingual (or in some cases tri/multi-lingual).
Now, I get the annoyance – I understand, but frankly we have far bigger concerns to use precious blog/tweet/social network space on, especially when we have the access to communicate as the author apparently does. Then again it is her space to do as she wishes, but on a deeper level if we are committed to social change and changing attitudes our analytical content needs to be much stronger and less reactive.
(PS if someone can link the other article that would be great! I’d like to read it myself before forming a full opinion)
Te Cuidas,
temicamatl.