13. "Latinos=White Supremacist Spanish Hodge-Podge" In response to In response to 11
Hotep
I am Latino. I am Black. I am African. No I am not mixed but I am all of these things based on the categorization of European languages. Latino refers to anyone from "Latin America." My family is from Panama and are all dark as night. This term is used to loosely refer to who would be considered white Latinos in LAtin America. I prefer not to use the term along with Hispanic because it throws eveyone from Latin America under one blanket term. Mexican/Puerto Rican/Cuban/Panamanian, etc. cultures are all very diverse among themselves alone. Then the skin color issue within each country is VERY real. 70% of Cuban is Black but the majority of Cubans in America are "white." Cuba is generally portrayed as one big badland that everyone wants to leave. BUt why do so many Africans from the entire Diaspora (especially America) gravitate towards it? Why don't Balck Cubans try to leave? Why does every Black Cuban I know LIKE Cuba and CASTRO? These are questions that need to be asked when considering the issues of Black/White LAtinos. This also needs to be understood when considering African-American/White Latinos relations in America.
I grew up in Dallas in a lower-income Black/Mexican community. My first best friend was Mexican but as we grew older we began to associate more with our own "ethnic" groups. There is definitely a division between the these groups in Dallas because of the contrasting differences between culture. Among Mexicans, the "White" ones (in color but also America/Europeanized mind) eventually try to identify with the white mainstream culture. They have historically done so especially considering the presence of the dark Black presence. Historically many Mexicans were classed as white. However the newer generation of Mexicans are darker and considered "inferior." Especially considering that many of them have more indigenous "Indian" features and don't speak English, they are placed at the bottom of the totem pole. Their initial view of Blacks based on mainstream-based stereotypes due to a lack of communication. Then they realize (under the white supremacist regime of America) that they have better chances of assimilating than the Black because they can identify with the white.
Gross negroes who fall prey to the white supremacist notion that they are "superior" to Mexicans because they are more familiar with European/white Mainstream culture. "LEarn some damn English!" is a common epithet that I hear reverberated by lost negroes. Then mentality then conceives falso notions that becomes stereotypes of those "damn wetbacks."
So to understand the relationships between American Blacks and Latinos one must look at the "Latino" culture itself first and then the socio-historical situations of their presence in the given part of America and how they relate to American whites and Blacks. MExican culture is very different from Panamanian and Cuban culture. The main connection between Latinos is Spanish language and culture. Only white supremacy benefits by viewing all as the same and then uplifting the "normative" image of white LAtinos.
Peace Solarus
____________________________ "the real pyramids were built with such precision that you can't slide a piece of paper between two 4,000 lb stones, and have shafts perfectly aligned so that you can see a tiny aperture through dozens of these mammoth blocks