Race/Ethnicity – Page 2

Hi, Hollywood. Not all Latinas are Maids.

I feel like I am back here again. Almost two years ago I wrote an blog about Latina Magazine and how they were glorifying maids in one of their articles. This was around the time that “The Help” became big at the box office. I was annoyed that a magazine that supposed to be for women can help stereotype them, but of course, this is how the media works.

Then I saw the trailer for the new show on Lifetime called “Devious Maids” about five Latinas who are (you guessed it) maids. I shake my head because this is the type of shit that getsd on my nerves. Five successful actresses playing into these roles because quite frankly, there are probably not many opportunities to play much else. However, to top it all off the executive producer is Eva Longoria (who obviously defends her show). What in the blue Django is going on here? I wont even get into Oprah’s new project called The Butler either because I’m just through with these people giving us stories that they feel we need to hear when the real stories that we should hear go untold.

So I’m going to go on record and say that 95% of all the Latinas I know are not maids, at least no in the traditional “let’s serve master” kind of way. I will say that the 5% is an uncertainty. It could’ve been completely possible that either one of my grandmother’s could have been maids, but I think they worked at a factory. I can run down a quick list of women in my family and their occupations.

I have a cousin in Harvard working on a PHD, her sister is a lawyer, my mother and two of my aunts were nurses and got their masters in Nursing Administration, my aunt from my father’s side is a retired teacher with a PHD in Education, another aunt who was a stock trader, and several others who have a college degree working in offices.

I could talk about the women who have have graduated from SU with me, or the graduate students that I worked with when I worked there. I could talk about the women that my alumni association (LANSU) has profiled. So why is there this insistent need to show Latinas in servant role? Have we not move passed this business? The true reason lies behind the fact that society, as a whole, is not willing to except the fact that a woman of color can, in fact, be strong and step out of the mold that is set in place for her.

Case in point, people LOVE Scandal. A big time attorney that has an affair with the President of the United States. You know what it sounds like to me? It sounds like society telling us that no matter how big a black woman gets, she will always a side piece. But it’s just TV right? It means nothing right? Wake up mi gente, this is how people view you through the media, but I’m quite sure that you will love this show.

Not all Latinas are Consuela from Family Guy.

P.S. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a maid, but there a may other professions that Latina actresses could play.

barack obama, conservatives, Democrats, elections, librals, Mitt Romney, politics, Race/Ethnicity, racism, Republicans, United States, vote

The Political Jokes are on US.

Maybe this is what we need…

You know, I laugh because we are indeed at a pinnacle point in our history. Well, at least in the time I have been alive. I can say that because this election is that important. I laugh because it seems like politics have become so extreme. You are either on one side or the other and those sides are so far apart that it makes it hard to really have a critical debate on things. I laugh because people can be married to the lies that are told and are not willing to hear the truth…not matter what that is.

No politician is perfect. No US President has been perfect. Each one of them had chinks in their armor. You can look at Lincoln, Kennedy, Reagan, FDR, Bush(s), Clinton, and Nixon as just a few examples of what can be good or bad depending on history or party affiliation. For every good thing they do, the opposing party will give you a list of things they did horribly. In many cases, each party will talk about some of these eras being dark ones and there was a need for America “to get back on track.” Yet, for the most part, the rich remain the rich, the poor are still poor, and the middle class just remains in the middle.

I laugh because there is a joke somewhere in there. A joke that not many of us get and one I may not fully understand myself. Maybe the joke is that nothing really ever gets better perhaps everything is an ebbs and flows. Maybe the joke is that no matter how much we fight, one class of people with get taxed; the middle class or the rich and yet the poor will remain largely ignored. What is almost funny is how the liberals want to help the unfortunate and the conservatives find it unfortunate that people can’t help themselves.

The fact is most people are like sheep because no one really thinks critically anymore. They just assume that if something is said by someone in government then it must be true. If things are in History books than it must be true. There was a time when a politician lied and was proven wrong by a fact checker that this individual would lose points in the polls but we live in a bizaro world where the President is Black and his stature is always questioned. Sure, we all called George W dumb and Bill Clinton a womanizer, but there was a level of respect you gave to the position. Yet, Obama seems to get less respect than either and he is smart and a happily married man!

Sure, one can say that Bush had shoes thrown at him and we giggled, but that was not in America. I can guarantee that all us had at least seen one picture of Barak Obama as a monkey or in a noose. I dare anyone to try to defend that. Yet, that is another joke that conservatives do not get. No matter how hard you work, the color of your skin will always be a factor. I mean, I am sure you can point to Oprah Winfrey and say that she is a success, however she is just one “nigger” slur away from the rest of us.

We are indeed at an interesting time. Am I the only one who has noticed that being poor has been deemed as a burden to the rest of society? Apparently, coming across hard times quickly turns to an unwillingness to work so the they can get free healthcare and food stamps. The best part of this joke is that socialism is constantly being shouted out by people because taxing the rich (plus giving a break to the middle class) and using that money to help others is wrong. But if you use the conservative model of taxing the middle class while giving breaks to the rich to use that money to help others is the correct model!

I am quite sure there conservatives will say that the wealthy getting breaks helps big business create jobs, but the thing is I do not buy that idea because people who have money love to keep money. Yet, governmental programs have to be paid for…who is gonna pay for it? (Hint: You) Either that, or the deficit increases. Notice one really says who we owe money to (besides China).

Finally, I laugh because the joke is really on us. Most of us go through life not paying attention to the things that are happening around us. Most of us are distracted by the house/basketball wise, the jersey shores, the dancing stars, the iphone/ipads, facebook, and fantasy sports to realize that our society is getting dumber, fatter, and sicker. And while all that is happening, you have a political party that trying its hardest to restrict the elderly and the minorities the right to vote in battle ground states. Democrat and Republicans must agree that is wrong.

Maybe…just maybe, the real joke is that we are no longer a society in which race matter maybe it is all about class; about the haves and the have nots.

Latinos, Race/Ethnicity, US Census

Latinos & the Census: Race isn’t Real.

Oh, the Census. I always find this to be a good time to think about how race is viewed by the government. If you are simply white or black the US Census form is of no real issue. This is proof that we live within the black and white binary. Sure, if you are Asian, American Indian, or (my personal favorite) “Some other race”, you can pretty much fill out this form with no family discussion. With Latinos…not so much.

As I have been saying all along on this blog, most Latinos do not understand their origin. Of course they can tell you that they are either Puerto Rican, Cuban, or Mexican, but they will not all agree if they are black or white. Personally and with no surprise, I selected black. I mean, just look at me. I think I would be lying to myself if I put down anything else. But, some people with my skin tone will have a very hard time selecting black. So what to do? American Indian will not fit the so that would mean you have to write in “some other race”? Perhaps Caribbean Indian (for lack of a better term)?

Thus, one of the issues with Latinos: the fact that we as a people have to choose within the binary. I made a joke that if you make brown a selectable category, then a large part of Latinos will indeed check that off. This maybe a cop out but, there are many Latinos that will only put white because they do not feel they are black.

First, lets break this down. Race is nothing more than a social construct that was created to separate all people. We all feed into this with racial stereotypes. The process of counting people the way the Census does feeds into the idea of the black and white binary. Back in the day, when people filled out a census form, you could check off mulatto or negro. Last time I checked, these were not considered races. Yet, Latino is not considered a race, but an identity. So we can identify as Latino, but we can be black or white. To me this is crazy because we all know what white means in this country. Unless you are from Spain (and even then), most White Latinos do not feel as Euro-centric as what average white American is. The same applies with black in America. While black in this country is not Afro-centric, it is still not what Afro Latinos fall into in terms of culture.

So, race is not real. In the words of Clara E. Rodriguez who wrote, Changing Race: Latinos. The Census and the History of Ethnicity in the United States: “…‘race’ is not fixed, is imperfectly measured, is at variance with scientific principles, is often conflated with the concept of ‘ethnicity’, and is under increasing scientific criticism and popular interrogation.” The idea that race is ever changing brings a new concept to how race is socially constructed. Rodriguez suggests that because traditionally oppressed groups of people are able to claim or in some cases reclaim their ancestral identity and change their race into more of a political identity that the idea of race is ever changing. Because the ancestry of Latinos are so widespread in the amount of countries groups of people are from, certain groups within the Latino/Hispanic category have had the ability to take on a political identity, such as Chicano or Nuyerican.

If know you anything about science, then you will know that there are no such thing as multiple races. There is only one race: the human race. So everything is just a popularity contest. The questions on these forms makes very little sense to Latinos because we are what we are.