Job Discussion Forums

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[Samantha]

Excellent observation and a good reminder for all of us.

[junkyak]

[Samantha]

There are light skinned and dark skinned Mexicans throughout the country; they don't just congregate in big cities. The people of Guadalajara may be more reserved until they get to know you, as is common in some areas. We have family and friends living there but haven't noticed "coolness" from strangers either, in fact a complete stranger approached me on the street and warned me to be careful of my purse in the big market nearby. That was a nice gesture.

[MO39]

[Phil_K]

The oriental "fresas" want to look western. The Europeans want a tan and the Mexicans want to be blond like the Europeans.

�As� es la vida!

[chola]

on a blonde note, an entertaining read:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2284783.stm

[El Gallo]

My adopted nephew calls his little son "negro". I was shocked at first until I realized this is not considered racist here.

[MO39]

[Guy Courchesne]

[MO39]

[thelmadatter]

OK, if as Freddy says, racism is a social contruct, then one can conclude that an individual person cannot be racist, as Guy alludes to. Honestly, Im not sure if that is true, because there are people who truly believe that their "race" (which I agree is a socially-constructed thing) is somehow superior. However, I do take exception to the whole idea of "its not racism unless someone has "power" bit. Why? Because violence has been perpetrated by members of just about every race against every race (For example, attacks against Asian shopkeepers in Los Angeles during the riots in 92) which happen when someone of a group feels they DO have that power in that situation... its a kind of bullying, even if they dont have power in the wider social system.

What drives me crazy really is the use of "racism" politically, esp. to shut up dissenting opinion. If you are white and you say something non-PC (or Goddess-forbid conservative!), you are racist. If you are non-while and you dont tow the liberal line, you are somehow a traitor. Ask Condolezza Rice and Michelle Malkin about this. And while Freddy's social science definition of racism has merit, I noticed how he stated prominently that it was how he was taught. Unfortunately, my stint in graduate school left me with a bitter taste for academia. Too many professors, esp. in the humanities, do NOT know the difference between education and political indoctrination. See FIRE's website for a myriad of cases. Or even better look up the case of Ward Churchill, who just got fired from the U of Colorado after 3 years. It was proven that he faked his "Indian" heritage to get a job he was clearly unqualified for, and plaguarized consistently... and yet he is still defended. Why? Because he espouses the "correct" political philosophy of villifying whites.

On a more personal level, I was branded a "racist" by a professor in my grad program and basically ostracized. My crime? Challenging her assertion that Spanish was in danger of disappearing from the U.S. in 3 generations and needed to be protected. Her argument (a valid one) was that immigrant languages tend to disappear in 3 generations. Certainly happened in my family. But my rebuttal was that Spanish has some advantages that languages like German, Norwegian and Polish (my family's roots) did not have. Nationwide media, large numbers of English speakers learning it (55% of those who take a "foriegn" langauge in the US take Spanish), and Spanish-speaking communities spread nation-wide, not just regional. I did not argue that Spanish would necessarily survive, just that it might survive better than other immigrant language did. She stared at me (this was in class) and her only response was an ad hominem "Well, obviously you have a problem with Spanish being spoken in the US." Honestly, I was shocked. I thought I was having an intellectual discussion. I didnt realize that I was not suppose to contradict my professor's political views. By the time I graduated, it got back to me several times by several of my classmates how this prof had bad-mouthed me to them (they were Asian BTW).

Where is the social power of being white in this instance?

I do not deny Freddy's assertion that being light-skinned can and probably often does lead unfair advantages like the one he mentions at his school. But as soon as the tables are turned, being white can be just as much of a disadvantage as advantage. That means that being "racist" is a sadly human quality ... whites really do not have a corner on that market, but you seem to have to believe that somehow whites are more inherently racist than anyone else -- meaning they are inferior? Would that belief be racist in itself?

[MELEE]

Okay, this is going off topic, but

OMG!thema, that women obviously has no idea what it means for a language to be in danger! Which is exactly what I would have told her if I'd been there.

[thelmadatter]

*snicker* and said woman is a professor in linguistics!

[MELEE]

Thema and others,
The BBC recently ran a feature in which a pair of their correspondants traveled from coast to coast (across the south) and Speaking only Spanish

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/spanish/hablas_espanol/

to get a feel for the state of Spanish in the US.

A language that is truely in danger has little or no media. People generally are ashamed to be heard speaking it. The realms in which is it used are reduced. The language begins to show features of the dominate contact language, not just loan words, but gramatical features. It's people may be in physical danger. If you ever see that Professor of Linguistics again, you should recommend that she reads up on the subject. David Crystal has a nice little book, called Language Death, that summerizes most of the work on Endangered Languaes.