Elenamary

“White people say things in front of that they never would if they knew.”

A friend of mine coined the term “the racist elbow” for this phenomenon. It’s such a perfect summary of what happens with bigots when you as a white person are alone with them.

“Elena you aren’t passing; you are white.” my mom, today.

Hay Elenita, no te aguites. just think of Cherrie Moraga, her father is white, she looks white, yet she’s one of the most radical xicanas i know. no one will dare question she’s xicana. not only that, but she claims shes indigena. remember that a lot of native folks do look totally white, yet, they identify and are accepted by other indigenous people as native. you are raza, not just part, but fully. you are a full human being. y pues, it’s true, your friend should know better.

you do not need validation homegirl.

i have two book i want to share with you by Roberto Rodriguez, he’s a journalist and an old time activist. look him up, he writes together with his wife Column of the Americas. i have them in .doc format if you want to check it out.

by the way, you are a woman and it sounds like he’s a man, so there’s another form of privilege at work. plus, anyone has a right to be listened to, not just white folks.

“If he sees me as white that means that he doesn’t see me as his raza, doesn’t see me as an active participant in the struggle.”

umm.. I am white and I hope people of color DO see me as an active participant in the struggle. I am well aware that its not MY struggle, as it were, but in as much as racism hurts everyone, it is my struggle. Plus, since when can people only care about things that directly effect them?

So what if you are viewed as white? Being an activist should not be determined first by your skin color (isn’t that what this is all about anyway- not being judged by your physical characteristics?) and second, by what other people think of you.

I think you are almost lucky to be able to have people relate to you both ways. Use your heritage for good, not evil

Also, since I have decided to make this my own mini-blog…what about people who pass as hetero/homosexual every day. Try being gay in the legal world, or straight in a women’s studies writing class.

If your sense of identity is more tied up in what others think, than what is real to you, you will always face this struggle.

Damn, everything looks so small from on top of this soap box.

a thoughtful and thought-provoking post. it’s not up to me to tell you how to define yourself, but I was confused a little by what you meant by ignoring a part of who you are? “Mexican” or “Latino” aren’t really racial categories so there is not really a contradiction in saying “white Mexican”.

*maybe* there is a contradiction between saying “white Chicano” but I I’m not convinced. Why wouldn’t a white Mexican-American who identifies as “la raza” and fights against racism be considered Chicana?

There would be more tension and contradiction in saying “Anglo Chican@” than in saying “white Chican@”

This is why I decided that the whole concept of categorizing people according to race, origin, ethnicity, skin color, height, nose shape, number of brows is an anachronism. These things are pre-modern, and in the coming decades will lose the last of their meaning.

When people ask me what I am, or where I’m from, I do my best to politely let them know the question is meaningless. I wrote my bio (click on the link) 7 years ago, and stand by it.

Ask me what I believe. Ask me how and when I act. Ask me how I spend my free time, what I think about the future, how much I love my children.

These are meaningful questions.

carlos, hmmm… i’m not sure if i would say they will be meaningless. but they might morph into new forms. I mean, even in Latin American societies where there has historically been alot of miscegenation, attributes tend to mix with a certain amount of variety. But the labels are still there. Just more complex.

OK, they’re not meaningless. Due to human nature, they never will be. But that do make it right.

Take PR, a more racially mixed bunch of people you’ll never find. Interracial marriage has been going on for 500 hundreds there. Puertoricans come in every tonality. Racial labels must be dead by now, right?

Wrong.

When a kid is born, the first friends and family ask will be “el pelo, le salio malo?”, or “y la nariz, le salio mala?”. Labels are stupid.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” – MLK

It sure goes both ways, doesn’t it?

Believe me, your character shouts out to everyone that you are a unique individual who is proud of all the cultures that make up her heritage.

Be proud and walk tall!