3 posts tagged “latino”
Annie posted a comment made by lofty editors at Draft Mag (reposted by Jeff Hammett ) about the Festival of Beers,
annie then insightfully points out,"Occasionally, we consider moving to San Diego. It’s warm. All the time. It’s beautiful. All the time. The people are attractive. All the time. Honestly, what’s not to like? Then you visit, however, and realize it’s essentially a city devoid of culture, unless you consider being a stop on the way to Tijuana an important cultural experience. We don’t."
I am really glad that Annie posted her response. When I read Jeff's comments I became very upset but I couldn't articulate it at first. Because one, I am not a fan of San Diego and often find myself talking about why I am uncomfortable when I am in SD, and two I agreed with parts of what Jeff wrote - that sure it is warm and sure most people consider a visit to Tijuana a "cultural experience.""We just have to look harder… I know there are some pockets of culture here and there (music! delicious food! lotsa museums!), but definitely not in La Jolla."
After a few minutes of Tricia the Wolf personality where I wanted to bite off Jeff's head and the heads of every tourist who make comments about "culture" and san diego I decided that a more constructive approach was better than nurturing cannibalistic thoughts.
What is culture? I define it as beliefs, practices and values.
Many of time tourists want to have a "cultural experience" when they visit a town - but this usually means they want to eat food that interesting enough but not so authentic that their taste buds would have to be challenged into liking it and go to museums that are artsy enough so that they feel good about learning about "others."
The problem is that most tourists come to SD and they visit just a few miles - between 30 to 40 miles I would conjecture - they will go south on the 5 to Coronado but no farther, and then up north on the 5 to La Jolla. The brave ones will say I want to go to Mexico so they will bypass everything between downtown SD and Tijuana. Tourists then say they either LOVE SD or they HATE it. LOve it because great weather and people. HAte it because no culture. So Jeff here sits on the latter. Actually this dichotomy is one that is most often reified by those who live within the 30 mile swatch.
so what's my beef with the lofty editors at DRaft Mag? From here on, I will refer to the Editors of Draft Mag as "Crocodile Face."
- culture is more than a beer festival and a 30 mile swath of predesignated tourist stops. So if you don't leave the 30 mile swatch that I have circled in orange, then you will feel that there is "no culture" in San Diego
- Actually that feeling that Crocodile Face has of "no culture" points to the the dominance of white, elite, culture. So what's is beef with white culture? I don't like it when people claim that white people don't have culture - especially it sounds most lame when white people go to places where the white population forms the majority in demographics and they walk away screaming, "there was no culture!"
- if one defines culture as the experience of lots of public events with people of color all around you smiling and talking, then Crocodile Face is right - there is a lack of public cultural events in SD that brings together a diversity of people. So yes the beer festival that Crocodile Face attended probably didn't have all the blacks and latinos out of ther neighborhoods. Oh and probably not a lot of asians either huh? That's cuz we like to have private tea festvals with dragons (just kiiidddding)
- so you don't want to live in SD cuz there's no culture here huh? Let me explain to you the position that you are in to EVEN make that statement in the first place. The author, Crocodile Face, is in a position of luxury to even say that he could pick up and leave his city and move to another just because it might be more cool than where he is living now - - now I am in his position also - I am the person who is in position of priviledge to say that I can pick up and move. I picked up and left california to move to NYC solely based on the reason because I wanted to - I didn't know anyone - I had never been there - but it sure looked great from the movies and NYC has this feeling of cultural greatness that I wanted to understand. But I knew that for me to experience culture in NYC, it had to be beyond just eating authentic food and going to museums - I knew that I wanted the experience of being adopted into a community, to work with a community, to share common values and goals and to work towards similar missions. But tight communities have tight ties. Neighborhoods that are seem to have a strong sense culture tend to have strong social ties and networks - that means people know each other, they hang out together, and they watch out for each other. But it's hard to get into these networks So I knew that I had to work extra hard to become involved and to gain the trust of the community that I wanted to work in. I also knew that I wouldn't be able to join the communities that I wanted to work in (mainly lower-income, black and latino) by living in Manhattan. So I made the choice to live in areas where I wanted to invest my time to getting to know my neighbors. So if the author, Jeff, makes the decision to not move based on his perception of lack of cultures other than dominant, white, middle-upper class san diego culture ---perhaps that decision can be re-evaluated once he stops through Chula Vista and see those cultures.
- Now if an outsider (this includes me), goes to Chula Vista or National City or parts of Escondido - it may still feel that the most culturally diverse place is Walmart! So where are all the people of color on the streets in these areas south and north of the 30 mile SD dominant culture swatch? One of the issues with SD that Crocodile Face picked up on is the lack of visible diversity - and Annie says that we must look harder- Annie is right. We do have to look harder. But i think SD is particularly hard city to "Look in" if one doesn't understand the culture of migration and fear in San Diego and as two cultures that are inextricably linked. Even though SD has one of the highest populations of Latinos - why is it so hard to see see Latinos? Why isn't it like other cities where you can step out in certain neighborhoods and feel culture dripping from the clouds? It's because SD, with help from the federal government's ICT unit and leftover autocratic, facist Bush administration policies, has done a wonderful job at creating one of the most hostile city environments for Latinos in the USA. SD sits at one of busiest border border crossings in the world and the busiest in the USA - it is also the site where undocumented Mexican migrants come to support our economies. What's been happening lately is that the immigration officials have been rounding up anyone who has dark skin, detaining them, and questioning them. What they are doing is illegal and the ACLU San Diego Chapter is doing a lot to fight this. With all the immigrant raids on Mexican families - many who are citizens and unevenly documented Mexican families (e.g. in some families the parents will have citizenship but one of their kids may be undocumented), the ICE officals along with the silent compliance of local and county police officials, have created a widespead fear among neighborhoods with high numbers of Mexicans. The levels of fear are so high that families are scared to leave their houses. Undocumented people are scared to walk around on the streets. Even those with documentation are getting harrassed. All of this has created a culture of fear among the Latino community in SD - So tourists of SAn Diego - if you wonder why you don't see more Latinos on the street - it's because they are not comfortable walking around like you or I - like someone who is a citizen.
- In the context of the culture of fear and an understanding of the culture of migration, SD doesn't lack "culture," it just has a lot of "hidden culture." A lot of cultural practices, celebrations and etc are taking place indoors. The kind of public celebrations that could possibly bring lots of different cultures together aren't as frequent - with the exception of JOB's annual fiesta - which is an organization that is doing some of the most exciting coalition building and community organizing work in SD. It's hard to get people out of their houses when they are afraid to come out! JOB, lead by Norma Chávez- Peterson, is organized by people of color who work within and with Mexican and black communities - so there is a higher level of trust to attend their annual Fiesta - which you should be attending in August if you want to find evidence of vibrant culture in SD. Last year my girl norma rodriguez organized the festival.
** for an example of the unbalanced representation of Latinos in SD, read my post on what happened in the 2008 San Diego Wildfires,
San Diego Fires - How Race and Class are Covered by the Media - We have no "refugees" here, and how I and others created a roundtable to discuss these issues
The media is not helping obama by referring to him as the "First Black President." Even John Stewart referred to him as America's First Black President and I rely on him for the real news. The media is also not helping Obama if they ONLY show working-class blacks as identifying with Obama - because guess what - OBAMA ISn't ONLY BLACK and It WASN't JUST BLACKS WHO VOTED OBAMA INTO OFFICE!
What about all the working class white people who voted for Obama? And what about middle-upper class whites? And all the Latinos who voted Obama? The Asians - well the asians we are totally absent from the story. What about all the other minorities who together formed a large bloc of voters?
My point is that the media needs to give a more balanced coverage of voters who support Obama. Obama won because he is a unifier - he didn't JUST appeal to blacks. ANd in his speech on Nov. 4th - he ackonowledged all the people from diff classes, ethniciteis and races who helped get him into office.
So please, call him bi-racial, post-racial, multi-culti, multi-ethnic, human, mixed - whatever- just stop calling him black - that's not helping him and it's alienating all the whites, latinos, asians and other minorities who worked hard to get him into office.
The media discourse needs to do a better job of reflecting reality and the kind of reality we want to achieve - one that is open to all backgrounds.
addendum: I posted on twitter 2 days ago: "today is one of those days I truly feel my country's joyful soul - we finally have our first CONSCIOUSLY bi-racial pres" so I said "consciously" because there is such thing as only black or only white - especially in the US with america's history of slavery.
addendum #2 of a comment from facebook:
my friend wrote this comment to my post:
ME:FRIEND:
'm not sure what to think about this. I see your point, but allow me to play devil's advocate: it also seems to me like insisting on identifying him as multi-racial advances a sort of biological-essentialist, where race is determined exclusively by parentage. What seems more important is that he fits the prevailing social conception of blackness, and to some extent embraces it. I doubt his white mother makes racists like him any more. In that sense, I think he's overcome just about all the obstacles he would have faced if she had been black, and to take note of his blackness is to acknowledge the magnitude of his accomplishments in overcoming them.
well and you knowI am the first person to agree with you that "race' is a very freaking problematic category - yes. but I was just giving some alternative "words' for the press to use- it's all problematic no matter what. obama himself insists that he is post-racial. i am simply echoing what obama himself has asked of us = which is to not refer to him as ONLY black, and to keep in mind everyone who voted for him
FRIEND:
Right. I do have a major problem with the fact that seemingly few people, even people within the media, have even stopped to give any thought to this.ME
yah you're right.
I mean either way -if we talk about 'race itself" or of "social conceptions of blackness"- well its' just that - it's socially constructed - historically constituted - orally created - blah blah - I mean what is the "black experience" - to even single out one black experience ignores the diversity of blacks - like not all blacks are working class and etc . so even to say "black" does not refer to a singular experience. this is not to say that people can't say he's black - or that someone can't just say "I'm black." What is going on is that it's all complicated, socially constructed and messy - and when the media is as powerful as it is- it should be more concsious of how it frames a "person" as powerful as obama now - even Obama is conscious of it - he has asked us not to call him black - this is not to say that he doesn't think he's black or that he's not black or denying the a "black experience."This is simply a matter of trying to figure out what is the best way to unite a country that has had and continues to have a diffcult time with race - so that is why I think he's asked us to consider him as "post-racial." in no way am I denying the whatever kind of life experience obama has had - or what other blacks have had . I just want the media to be more critical of how it frames obama and what kind of implications it has when it ONLY focuses on the happiness of black voters who can now identify with the president. i think the media should also focus on how iraqis can now have hope this war will end, how soldiers can know that they were will be an end to this terrorism we have waged on the middle east, on all the undocumented migrants who can have a chance to become documented, on all the gays who can now have hope that on a federal level there can be more openess to equality - for latinos who have also worked their asses off to become citizens and many who just voted for the first time - also highlight those stories ALONGSIDE the 106 year old black woman who just voted for obama - a diversity of voices is reflective of our diverse country.
Differences, borders, lines, surfaces and boundaries do not really divide things from each other at all, they join them together. All boundaries are held in common.” Alan Watts
My thoughts: Asians, Virgina Tech, Condolescences, Racism and etc
Originally uploaded by triciawang 王 圣 㨗.
The Virginia Tech Massacre just unfolded. I was walking to teach my section today when a student approached me and asked if I would like to sign a banner that would be sent to the students at Virginia Tech. I looked over - and it was organized by the KOREAN AMERICAN STUDENTS ASSOCIATION at UC San Diego.I asked the student why I should sign it and how the signatures would support Virginia Tech, and he said “well I'm Asian and you're Asian - and we need to support the students. “
I asked “what does that have to do with being Asian” and he said he said “ we also need to fight racism against Asians - since the shooter was Korean. ”
When I glanced at the banner again, I realized the 20 students signing this Korean Association Banner for Virginia Tech were all Asian. I took a picture and walked away. Then one of the Korean Student Assoc. girls yelled out – “instead of taking a picture you should sign our banner."
As I watched from afar, I noticed that the student who was asking students to sign the banner was only approaching Asian students for signing their banner. Although Asians are the ethno-racial majority on campus, there were plenty of white students around and he didn't ask any of them within the 5 minutes of my observation.
I walked away very upset at what just happened. I felt it was so petty to worry about Asian racism (they did it by cloaking it in "we're concerned for students at Virginia Tech" when this horrific tragedy just happened!
Why is it that this Virginia Tech shooting prompted this Asian Club to address racism – when really there are more immediate issues that this shooting has brought up – like gun control policy, identifying psychological maniacs on the verge of massacring others, emergency planning, effective campus security, and emotional reverberations around other college campuses?
And then immediately I thought of the e-mail that Liane just sent me – it was a press release post from the Asian American Journalists Association, urging the media to refrain from using racial identifiers of “Asian” or “Korean” in reference to the shooter. “There is no evidence at this early point that the race or ethnicity of the suspected gunman has anything to do with the incident, and to include such mention serves only to unfairly portray an entire people. The effect of mentioning race can be powerfully harmful. It can subject people to unfair treatment based simply on skin color and heritage,” said the release.
This press release made me very upset, not because of what they are urging (which is a great idea but a bit too late). First of all racism is not the immediate concern in this situation. What I am most upset about is that the Asian American Journalists are only expressing concern for this specific situation because they fear that they themselves
will face epiphenomenonic racism. The wouldn't have spoken up if the shooter were white or Black. Although there is nothing wrong with being concerned about the potential racism one will face, as it will also upset me when the stereotype of “Angry Asian Man Gone Wild” developing (which my friend Christian sent me this link to show that it already has developed) – what's wrong is that many pro-race equality Asian groups only choose to speak up when it became a fear that Asians will face discrimination themselves. In this case the Korean student group at UCSD was concerned that Koreans would begin to face discrimination.
This is one of the reasons why I find it difficult to work with many Asian-American non-profit, organizations, or collectives that create spaces for equality and community – because ultimately it is too often that Asian activists who fight against discrimination and for representation, are only fighting for Asians. They forget that their are other minorities that are fighting for the same causes and that building coalitions and solidarity with Blacks, Latinos, Queers, Jews and other minorities is a more powerful strategy to fight for equality.
Jewish, Black and Latino organizations are always fighting discrimination when it happens to an individual or group other than themselves. They really take on Martin Luther King’s quote,
"injustice anywhere is is a threat to justice everywhere."
Last summer in NYC, when Miss Jones made the racist comment in their parody about "Chinks" drowning in the Tsunami, there was tremendous support from Black, Jewish and Latino based groups. They organized protests, press conferences and press releases alongside and with Asian activists to admonish Miss Jone's racist comments about Asians. But when a racially motivated attack or injustice happens to someone who is not Asian – who may be white, queer or black - Asian organizations are not there for them.
What Asian groups need to realize, is that if they are really fighting racism/discrimination, then they need to fight equally for all races/ethnicities - otherwise they’re just favoring one race/group when they are fighting – themselves. They speak up when they become worried that they, as Asians, may face similar forms of discrimination that other minorities have faced - especially in the aftermath of a highly public shooting/massacres/murders. Where were Asian groups during post 9-11 Muslim/anyone-wearing-a-turban/dark colored person discrimination period? Where were they when Matthew Shepard was killed for being gay? Or for the Amadou Dialo shooting?
This is not the case for ALL Asian individuals or organization in America – I am reflecting on what I have noticed as a community organizer. I am sure there are individuals and organizations who do speak up, but nationally Asian groups have not made a great media impact when fighting for others – at least nothing comparable to the effort they are now putting into fighting potential racism against Asians in the face of Virginia Tech Massacre
On this last note – I think one of the best Asian American role models I admire is New York City Councilman – John Liu. He is the councilmember for a predominantly Asian population in Queens, NYC. He is a great example of a councilperson who stands up and fights for issues that cut across all income stratas and ethno-racial groups. He always speaks up publicly in the media for any person of color who experiences racism in NYC. He fights for policy changes on issues that effect people in different boroughs, neighborhoods, and classes. He is one of my favorite Councilperson in NYC. He honors his Asian roots while serving his all his constituents of NYC equally.
