Am I bitter because of what I have experienced? I was. For the longest time. But I struggled to understand that even though I have been subjected to inhumane and humiliating treatment, there are others who have suffered far worse. Some are even dying and our government is perfectly okay with it. As, recent events have shown. I have heard many people say the most racist and dehumanizing things about black people and Mexican people, especially during the Ferguson, MO. Michael Brown events and President Barack Obama’s Executive order on Immigration. These very same people become incensed and insulted when they are accused of being a racist. This confuses me. I become confused when someone harbors racist sentiment and mentality yet claims umbrage at being called a racist. I also admittedly find it infuriating. If you come for Mexican people and Black people almost exclusively, you are targeting a race of people. The tone of language, condescension, insults, slurs, derogatory innuendo, the justification of such by using laws, immigration, politics, law enforcement and excessive force to victimize and disenfranchise a race of people excluding other races and pardoning races that kill the unpopular ones by societal terms, is mother fucking racist to me. Sorry but that’s how I feel, deal with it.
Examples of racist mentalies.
I know some white people that are confused, and frustrated that, while they feel social prohibited from saying the word “nigger” or “nigga” they are positively puzzled as to why it is okay for an African-American or “Black” person or “Black” People, to say it. My question is? “Why would you want to say it in the fucking first place you fuck racist?!” Some white people would claim freedom of speech, That it’s the principle and that all people should be able to say it or none at all, others claim that the word hurts us all as a people, while others just want to say it because it would give them a big chubby just to say it. The word is a legacy word. It is a trigger word. What is triggered? Slavery, inequality, lynching, being forcefully taken away from your family, you women and daughters being raped and the offspring of that rape sold, being told that we are animals and treated like animals while being forced to pray to a white blue-eyed God with long blond hair subconsciously conditioning you that you are not equal with GOD’s white children. The word reminds people of the time we weren’t allowed to read or learn because we would be whipped or hanged. The word reminds people of the thousands of African Slaves that were killed, raped, murdered or sold by white people. This is a word that is still used daily in the south by white people, so white people stop complaining. You are using it already. This is why African-American people can say this word and you can’t you haven’t the fucking right. Period. We are still dying because of race, whether it be by our own hand or by racist white people, we are still dying because of race. I know some white people that ask “Why are black people so angry and don’t smile? Seriously, not even for a picture sometimes?!” This is why. Sometimes anger, hate, fear and frustration build up to a point where the “You going to treat me like an animal? Watch me act like an animal!” mentality ensues out of desperation fear and rage. The problem is even righteous rage can be just as destructive as rage itself, sometimes even more so.
I have met some white people who are avidly against the undocumented Mexican people, Mexican people that do not speak the language and Mexican people who obviously have not acclimated to this country sufficiently, to their liking. Notice the pattern? Mexican people. These white people make no mention of the thousands of immigrants from other countries that also come to the United States and remain here illegally. They don’t get assigned task forces, they aren’t harassed regularly, they aren’t hate bashed, they aren’t tormented by federal, State, City and County agencies and their children aren’t targeted. I have heard other white people say slurs like “Wet Back”, “Bronk” , “Bean-eater”, “beaner“, spick” and other more colorful epithets. Others are less conspicuous, and refer to the undocumented as illegal aliens (as if they came from some far off interstellar origin), field workers, migrant workers or vegetable pickers. These are the same white people that look down on Mexican people for not being American born, for not being white, for not coming to this country illegally and for doing the jobs that somehow would stain their social standing, as if they would deign to pick fruit or vegetables from the raw earth and soil their aristocratic sensibility. The truth is, those that believe and profess concern that the undocumented take jobs away from citizens, have never thought to do the jobs typically given to Mexicans, Latinos or the undocumented. Jobs like you know, picking fruit and vegetables? Stuff like that.
I have heard comments from white people that become offended if they hear Mexican or Latino people speaking Spanish to each other in a public place. I’ve heard them say “Why are they talking Spanish? They’re in America now!” I have seen white people react differently when they see German people talk, French people talk or Swedish people talk however. They just whisper to themselves, “Isn’t that just a wonderful language?” Some white people have even said to me “It’s not that I hate Mexican’s! I love Mexican food! I just don’t like them coming here illegally and taking our jobs!” In point of fact, it is impossible for any undocumented person to take high paying job because of the language barriers, educational and work history barriers, experience barriers and that the whole social security background check barriers. It is fallacy to say that the undocumented are taking jobs from the American born citizens because it is not only logistically impossible but they are not qualified for specialized fields by U.S. standards. The jobs they do land are the jobs very few if any white United States citizen will ever perform, seeing those employment positions as low paying, degrading and shameful. So, all of these examples I have shared are forms of covert racism. People don’t have a problem with Mexicans personally, the problem is racial and it is morally repugnant.
I hate it when I hear a white person say “OH MY GOD!! Not the fucking race card again!!! Why is everything about race with you people?!?!” Yeah, you people. My answer is, because YOU apparently make it about race every mother fucking time you don’t get your way, you feel another race has more than you, because you are afraid of losing what you have, because you are afraid your women might want some ethnic penis, because you may want some ethnic penis, because you are afraid your children may want to date outside of their race, because deep down inside you feel, even just a little bit, that you’re better than other races and you resent having to act like you don’t, because you are more apt to hire people from your own race rather than a qualified person of another, because you create your social and professional circles with those that look , act and share commonality with you as to not damage the delicate framework of your beliefs and points of view and cannot allow for differences of perceptions and challenges to your antiquated way of seeing the world. We make it about race because everything in this blood soaked earth is about race, money, class, survival and the oppression of anything that is different. When I hear people say “What happened to African-American people over 200 years ago has nothing to do with African-American people now in this day and age!” It is another, racist bitch slap in the face because what happened to my ancestors DOES in fact have a direct affect on me now in this day and age. I wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t survived. It’s like saying the horrific and genocidal events the Jewish people suffered at the hands of Nazi Germany did not affect the Jewish people of today. What an awful, grossly inaccurate and hateful thing to say. We are a product of our history, our heritage, our ancestors and everything that they endured to get us here. In this day and age.
I’m not trying to blast white people either. Let’s keep this shit one hundred. I have received more kindness, acceptance and love from white people than form my own Mexican, African-American and Gay people during the bumpy road of my life. The Mexican American attorney I worked for a long time ago, paid me 3.00 an hour when the minimum wage was $5 per hour or more. For 5 years until I got enough nerve to ask for a raise. My Uncle on my Father’s side (African-American) took what was supposed to be my inheritance from my great Aunts who had a sizable fortune in land and money and made no attempt to share but willfully stole from his own family. Even when my Mother, brother and I were living in a garage, he knew about our state of affairs but stayed silent. I have seen people of the same race, degrade and humiliate others of their same race seemingly devoid of any type of solidarity. So, make no mistake, I’m not hating on white people because racists no longer can be distinguished by white sheets, they come in all colors now. Even in the Gay community, some masculine gay men feel the need to identify as straight and degrade, beat and ostracize effeminate gay men, feeling that effeminate gay men cater to a stereotype that they have fought hard to distance themselves from. They forgot that no matter how much distance they put between themselves and the stereotype of the effeminate homosexual, they will never be able to distance themselves from the homosexuality that they are, in actuality, running from.
Acceptance, tolerance and respect. Why are these human qualities so difficult to muster? Why are they fast becoming a thing of myth and fable? Is this really the world we are living in? I chose to believe that these qualities are inherent in all of us. Even the ones that choose not to exhibit them. But, then again, considering my dual ethnicity, socioeconomic status and sexual orientation, I probably don’t have much of a choice. Or do I?
My homosexuality, my Mexican heritage, My African-American Heritage, my effeminate nature, my tax bracket, these things do not make me a victim. They do not make me less of a human or more of a human. They are aspects of the sum total of who I am and the total person that I am, is equal to all of the people who read this and all of the people that don’t.
So, yes, let’s make things about race in the sense that it’s okay to be different. It’s okay to do things and learn differently. Just because we are not the same in terms of culture, tradition, ethnicity and socioeconomic backgrounds should never suggest that we are not equals because we are all equally human and deserve the respect, dignity, and civility that every single human being should expect from another human being.
