Hmm. On racism and media.

[kickaha]

So I ran across this... http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/01/21/chavez.ap/index.html

In it, Pres. Chavez of Venezuela apparently said "Go to hell, gringos!" in reference to the US in a radio address.

Okay. So he's unhappy, and he even probably has good reason to be.

So where's the outcry that would happen if a US politician said "Go to hell, wetbacks!" in reference to Mexico or any other Latin American state?

In case you couldn't notice, I'm not one that ascribes to the (to me, idiotic) idea that only whites can be racist, and only men can be sexist. Racism and sexism are endemic across races and genders, IMO, and equally stupid and moronic in whatever form they pop up.

Now, one could argue that gringo hasn't the punch that other racist names might have... but I'm not so sure, having grown up in a Hispanic-Anglo racially tense area. Gringo was spat with the same venom as wetback, in my personal experience, which makes this just...

*shakes head*

Idiots, idiots, everywhere, and not a brain to think.

Comments

[jason0x21.livejournal.com]

Because there's no such thing as Latino privilege, maybe?

I man, in exchange for all the breaks I get simply by being a white dude, I can take the occasional epithet because of simply being a white dude.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

I take it then, you've never been literally spat on by someone using the term. It's good that you can let it slide off of you, but that's an internal judgement call on your part, and in no way abrogates the speaker of their actions, does it? It doesn't bother you, but in the final analysis, it was a racist comment.

Racism is racism is racism, I don't care what political side of the fence the speaker is on, they're an idiot, and should be called on it.

When someone is given free license to perform a behavior based *solely* on the color of their skin is, fundamentally, and by definition, racism, whether that behavior is using the clean bathroom, or slinging a racial epithet. Various justifications can be made for allowing for it, depending on one's point of view, but I have yet to see one that didn't boil down to hypocrisy based on either condescending patronization of an oppressed racial group, or self-righteous belief in one's own racial superiority. Which really, when you get down to it, are pretty much the same thing.

Double-standards are wrong, no matter who benefits.

[jason0x21.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I almost got beat up at a Rodney King protest, just for being in the area, and white. That count?

I wasn't arguing that it wasn't racism, but you knew that. However, I'm drawing a distinction between racism as an epithet and racism as an institution.

When a brown guy and I get in a tussle, and hurl various epithets at each other and the cops show up, who has a greater likelyhood of being taking downtown? Even if the arresting officer is brown? Who gets the stronger sentence.

Unless the brown guy I'm tussling with is Hugo Chavez himself, I'm pretty sure it's not going to be me.

Now I'm not saying this excuses Hugo Chavez for what he said, but I am saying that, in my opinion, as a white dude, at the very least I can put up with it, and at the very most it ain't my place to make that call. I don't feel comfortable with that. Maybe I never will. Maybe when I do it means something has actually been fully overcome. Hope so.

And hey, he was Democratically elected, and he's using his current mandate to expand the powers of the executive arm of government. I don't know what Bush is complaining about.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

LOL True on the last point.

OTOH, I wasn't arguing that racism as an institution isn't present, I was *solely* talking about the words coming out of Chavez's mouth.

I don't believe that allowing anyone to get a bye for racism *based on their race* is appropriate or useful - in my opinion, by doing so, regardless if it is out of racism, or guilt, it *only perpetuates it*. (Well, really, any reason for allowing it eludes me, but...)

Letting someone get away with being racist doesn't make up for any oppression, lack of privilege, or previous or current societal inequities, it simple creates more racism, as I see it. If there are problems to be solved, then by all *means* solve them *directly*, but I don't see how allowing racism on the one hand makes things better on the other. It doesn't solve squat.

Racism, in all its insipid and insidious forms, needs to die a fast death. In my book, allowing it isn't a bargaining chip to be used as a form of, well, racial barter in place of actual equality. It's just a bad idea IMO that detracts attention and energy from actually creating a better world.

Let me ask you something, in all seriousness. If the folks who are having the insults thrown at them aren't in the position to 'make that call'... then who is? Now, you can easily take the stance that you're not going to let it affect you personally, and I think that's admirable, and the best long-term solution for a lot of this, to be honest. But. I don't see how that means that one cannot also call the racist comments what they are, at face value, and leave it at that. *shrug* I dunno. I'd rather have a world where skin color really, honestly, shockingly truly doesn't matter, and I don't see how allowing racism in any form gets us any closer to that... especially when it's so explicit. meh.