Letters to the Editor
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Who Are We? I Am Me... And You Are You.
I am a Columbia University, Ivy League educated person. I founded and Chair the largest Hispanic membership organization in Pennsylvania today.
Do you want to know what I read in this article?
"Behave, or White people will not like you or take care of you."
I also read a strong push for the eradication of culture for some far off 'utopian goal' of some 'unified and ideal American'.
Based on what... maybe its an Anglo/Protestant ethic like Sam Huntington [a borderline white supremist they let hang out at Harvard for the last 30+ years] would have us believe?
He wrote a book that help inspire much of the anti-Hispanic sentiment [currently in vogue] back in 2003 titled "Who Are We?" where he warns of impending doom from growing hordes of multicultural invaders. :)
Gary's opinion here of the NPR study is nonsense masked as pseudo-intellectual dribble from a person that obviously does not realize how easily they are being lead around by their nose... like sheep or cattle.
This is nothing more than an insecure attempt at convincing people that by whitening their actions and therefore themselves [like you maybe would do to your teeth] that you stand a better chance of reaching the universally sought middle class. [By the way, I would skip Middle Class and jump right over into upper class, or else you are going to be stuck paying a lot of taxes for wars against people that didn't do anything to us and to pay for retired people that may not think very highly of you.]
Gary even goes to the point of idealising the mixing of races as a way to improve; poorly using really good people like Obama and Woods as examples of what one can become by doing so.
But do you really want to live a life where you have to deny yourself of your identity or roots, or whereby attacking and denying your economically depressed brother [ultimately yourself] you can move up a bit on the economic ladder... to Middle Class? Do you even realize the deep seated insecurity that this proposed denial and notion breeds into a people?
This article creates an ideal out of insecurity. It is a "conformist" view and arguement for Blacks and Latinos [regardless of your shade] to stop acting like the dumb sp*cs or n*gg*rs that the white people see you as, as a way to get ahead. A statistically proven confirmation of "self-hate" as the fast track for getting ahead in America.
Well let's give the benefit of the doubt for one second [and i mean that... one second and no more] and also play devil's advocate; Shouldn't it be then the white people that stop acting like dumb rascists and xenophobes? When did their racism become our fault?
Or a clarification of that question is, when did we begin to believe [and convinced ourselves] that racism in America is our fault and not the racists fault?
Or is it like Gary here would have us believe; that the problem is all Black and Latino folks' fault.
I do not believe that we are anywhere near the racial utopia that Gary Kamiya aspires to and believes achievable. I am not sure that it is even possible, but that is not the point. Wheteher it is achievable or not is not our problem in a democratic society. The numerical statistics are tipping our way and we will be able to mold society accordingly soon enough.
As an educated Latino that sees how people are being rounded up on the basis of their color, beaten in Parks in L.A. with little more than a slap on the hand to condemn it and a strong current of anti Latino sentiment and tension all around country... I am not afraid or insecure to call it what it is - white insecurity and white fear of the inevitable growth and majoritizing [if that is a word] of minority populations. This article is just another attempt to change us into something more palatable and ultimately change their fate.
Well... I believe that this fear is unfounded, because ultimately we are just Americans; just not wholly Anglo ones. The point of being an American is that I can be and like whomever I want regardless of their culture or race; [and by the way I am married to an Anglo for all those who may want to conveniently pigeon hole me as a White hater.]
That is freedom people. To be who you are without fear of repercussion. Don't try to convince me that I have to be like you to make it... because I don't.
When you read calls for alarm from Professors at Harvard like Sam Huntington and listen to Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck on CNN spewing hate and then couple it with hate legislation being conjured by elected officials at State and Federal levels it should give you pause as Americans, but it should also give you hope.
I say hope, because the fear and insecurity aimed at you is rooted in an attempt to stem or slow the growth of minority population influence that will come to dominate politics, the economy and culture in America very soon. Over the next 5, 10, 25 and 50 years the landscape will be ireevocably altered.
Could it be that they simply fear that we may just ignore them and focus on fixing the problems of the country like its schools, the lack of healthcare and the social security system when we someday become the majority?
So, fear not... this is nothing more than PROJECTED INSECURITY by those that fear the sweeping changes afoot in the future of this country.
In the same way that Ben Franklin stated that "those that trade liberty for security deserve neither," those that trade their color or their culture for economic security also deserve neither.
So, who are we? Whomever we feel like being, not what anyone else wants us to be.
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We all feel discriminated against sometimes
Almost all black people will say that at some time they have been discriminated against in the US because they were black. I can hardly argue with this since I am not black, though I was married to a black woman for several years.
Now that I am no longer married to her I do notice that white people who do not know of my marital history are subtly more friendly towards me than they would have been back in the days of my interracial marriage.
Of course this does not necessarily translate into legal, commercial, or workplace discrimination.
I am a white male and I grew up outside the US and have lived in countries other than my original country and the US.
You can say that I moved to the US to pursue economic opportunity and I would say that I now have a larger, nicer house, a posher car, more CDs and more disposably income than I might have had if I had stayed in my country of origin. The trade-off is that the food is worse.
In one country I lived in I eventually left because opportunities for advancement were denied to people of my ethnicity.
I came to the US and within a few years I got to a very high point in the corporate structure, was accepted into a Master's Degree program and was doing very well. Then I inherited a bit of money, and did not need to strive so hard, so I eased off on my efforts, though I still work in an easy lower level job.
Now, one of my supervisors has become severely ill, terminally I believe, and has quit work. I could apply for his job, and in fact others have prompted me to do so, though I am not interested in promotion. I have done this job before and it is just a headache, but I could do it and do it well.
However, if I did apply for the job and another applicant who was black also applied for it, I have no confidence whatsoever that I, even with more experience, more skills, and more ability, would necessarily get the job.
Management might well argue that although candidate X has less experience, that it would benefit the workforce, especially black workers, to see someone who looked more like themselves in a position of authority.
They might be right. And as far as I am concerned my next boss is welcome to the headaches that go with the job--provided that they don't exercise their frustrations at my expense.
The details of my particular situation are not important, and as I have said, I don't want that job anyway, but isn't it interesting that even a well situated white male like myself has no confidence that jobs are allocated impartially. It is even less likely that any black person would believe so, even when the system may well work in their favor.
In most organizations I believe that white managers actually WANT to see talented blacks promoted even at the expense of more talented nonblacks, because the feel-good factor of having their organization seen as impartial is stronger than the desire to promote fellow whites.
One more point. On a number of occasions in my field I have seen African Americans express resentment when a black person of West Indian origin has been promoted. They will typically say that person was favored because of they posh way they talk, dress, kiss ass, hold their knife and fork, or something.
You would expect the promotion of a West Indian to be a cause for celebration because it showed that skin color was no bar to promotion if one had the skills, but of course the politics of race never work that way.