Reading this story on the horrific incident in Cleveland, TX, reminded me of this:
As much as the racism we hear about the most is white v. black, around here what I see at least as often (well, more often, given the racial makeup of the city) is black v. Mexican racism.
I first became aware of this in about 7th grade, sitting in the auditorium at the middle school I attended. As I've mentioned before, this school was about 80% black. I don't even remember why we were there, but there were no teachers present, and so for whatever reason one of the other students started going off about those "Damn dirty Mexicans" and how horrible Mexicans were, and I just kind of sat there in a low level of shock. (I'd never heard such a thing before, but this gal was a real bitch, and the chick who, in high school, would loudly and repeatedly declare that she'd never let any of her kids marry a white person.)
It wasn't that I bought into the Leonard Pitts-promoted nonsense that blacks can't be racist, having been on the receiving end of it myself. It was just that it had never occurred to me that members of one minority group would be bigoted against members of another minority group. Wasn't everybody oppressed?
Decades later, only a couple of years ago in fact, I went to the bathroom at the Randolph Park & Ride, closed my stall door, and was confronted by Sharpied anti-Mexican graffiti. (No, I don't know it was done by a black person, but the racial make-up of the folks who caught the bus there makes the likelihood it was pretty overwhelming.)
So now we have this horrific gang-rape of an eleven-year-old child (and believe me, I'mma be talking more about this in a bit), and Quanell X has to head East and deliver his own brand of race-baiting, saying "We do not want someone with a malicious racist motive to rid your community of an entire generation of black men." Up until yesterday afternoon when my husband mentioned Quanell X, I had no clue of the ethnicity of anyone involved in the sordid mess, mostly because it hadn't been mentioned in any of the news stories I read but also because it doesn't freaking matter, and to be quite honest I tend to assume all criminals are white until I learn otherwise. My own narrowness, I guess.
So Quanell has to go into this and make sure the litany of blame laid on this eleven-year-old, barely (if at all) into puberty CHILD doesn't let up.
Men who will fuck an 11-year-old girl, forcible rape or not, are disgusting creatures. Men who will look at the crime and see an opportunity to put forth their own agenda are at least as disgusting. All dicks are gray in the dark. Or something.
(Also: Are there some Mexicans who hate black people? I don't doubt it. But I've never come across any.)
5 comments:
"to be quite honest I tend to assume all criminals are white until I learn otherwise. My own narrowness, I guess."
A naive view, if you're not being ironic. If you're not, then you need to spend some time studying crime statistics broken down demographically. Blacks disproportionately commit murders, rapes and robberies in the US. It's not racist to point this out, unless you conclude that race was the reason that these crimes occurred.
Mexicans do indeed hate blacks with as much intensity as blacks hate Mexicans. In places such as California the two races war constantly against each other, and they self-segregate into racially pure gangs in prisons.
Racism is an accepted outlet for sociopathy in many, many groups. It's okay to hate THEM, whoever THEY are. Never mind that the hate eventually turns on the hater.
Are there some Mexicans who hate black people?
Yes, some. I've known a couple. Every ethnic group has certain individuals that find "others" to be detestable, and for no good reason. We all share in that particular ugliness.
If you're not, then you need to spend some time studying crime statistics broken down demographically.
See, I know the statistics. But for some reason it never occurs to me that this particular crime wasn't committed by a white person. I have no idea why; it clearly makes no sense. Unless the name is clearly ethnic, it honestly rarely occurs to me to wonder about race anyway.
Most people tend to imagine, for lack of a better term someone else may know, "Generic" people as their own ethnicity. Sort of like how you when you were tiny if you envisioned a man it was usually based off of your father. Just your brain filling in the blanks with what it's most familiar with.
Now if you said "I always imagine criminals to be Chinese" or something I might suggest you have a racial bias problem, even if you aren't in the "overt hatred" category.
I personally imagine all criminals to be Xena Warrior Princess if I don't know what they look like. It just makes the police blotter more interesting that way.
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