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Posts Tagged ‘race’

Counting Afr@-Latin@s On US Census

7:33 pm By BiancaLaureano · Politics|race · 12 Comments

9 Mar 2010

This marketing campaign came into my inbox earlier today and I wanted to know what others thought about the efforts. There are a series of videos by the AfroLatin@ Forum that encourage Afr@-Latin@s to check both “Latino” and “Black” boxes for the US Census this year. They have provided the following statement along with the films they have created:

Afro-Latin@ facts addresses the undercounted of Afro-Latin@s in previous census drives. Such an undercount not only denies the African aspect of Latin@ identity. It deprives organizations of resources they need to improve the lives of this community.

By proclaiming Check Both!/¡Chequea las dos! the bilingual spots highlight the importance for Latin@s of African descent to self-identify as such on the Census.

The implications of the count are far-reaching, determining how $400 billion in federal funds are distributed to local governments each year. Over 10 years, a community could lose a projected $1.2 million of federal funding for housing, health and education programs for every 100 persons that are not counted, according to the NAACP. Studies have established that despite a higher educational level Black Latin@s have the highest rate of unemployment and are more likely to live below the poverty level than other Latin@s.

Below are the other videos that are uploaded. What do you think, convinced? Good arguments? How will this data be used for/against/with us? Take a look at the various ways Latinos identified in the 2000 Census in this article Criollo, Mestizo, Mulato, LatiNegro, Indígena, White, or Black? The US Hispanic/Latino Population and Multiple Responses in the 2000 Census

Obama Attempts to Allay Racial Debate Over Beers

31 Jul 2009

Responding to the steady drumbeat of criticism for calling the Cambridge Police Department “stupid” for arresting Professor Henry Louis Gates for “coming home while black”, President Obama and his PR team rigged an event designed to position him as a mediator for a debate on racial differences (read racial profiling). The intimate encounter was sort of a summit — over beers — yesterday afternoon in the White House’s Rose Garden. Check out the above video.

ABC News has a good rundown of the content of that encounter, but a standout for me is this poignant statement by Gates:

Sergeant Crowley and I, through an accident of time and place, have been cast together, inextricably, as characters – as metaphors, really – in a thousand narratives about race over which he and I have absolutely no control.“

It isn’t about Crowley and Gates. It’s about how American society continues to deny that racial profiling even exists.

But back to this specific incident, Crowley doesn’t seem to have seen how profoundly wrong his actions were, that is, if we are to be guided by his statements at the Beer Summit:

Crowley was asked if the controversy was a “teachable moment” for the sergeant, as President Obama said he’d hoped this would become?

He said it was.

And the lesson?

“The media can find you, no matter where you live,” he said.

Wow, glad you learned something there Sergeant Crowley!

Via / ABC News Political Punch Blog

Latinos Told to Choose One Race Please

7:12 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · race · 2 Comments

24 Apr 2009

If we had racial identity issues before, one Florida school district wants to make sure Latinos have more, by forcing them to choose black or white when wanting to join a biracial committee.

Hispanics might be able to join an Orange County schools biracial committee, but they would have to call themselves “white” or “black,” a district spokesman said Thursday.

A 1964 court order creating the committee requires its members to be one of the two races, the district explained.

But Hispanic activists who staged a protest Thursday called that compromise ridiculous and an insult to their multiracial culture.

“What color do I get to pick because I’m more like copper-toned?” asked Emilio Pérez, president of the Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida. “And how would we include an Asian person in this debate?”

It’s important to note that the court order from back in the day came at a time when “Latino” wasn’t even a category (it still isn’t a race) and at a time when racial segregation was rampant in the school system. Pero that said, doesn’t it seem odd that in order to join a biracial committee you have to choose one race?

Props to LatinoPundit via Twitter for this story.

Via / Orlando Sentinel

Why Obama Proves A.G. Eric Holder’s Point of Cowardice in the Face of Racism

11:02 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|Politics|race · 3 Comments

4 Mar 2009

Post-racial my Rican culo. It’s disturbing enough that the only time we have heard the Obama administration speak of immigration reform it has been in the Spanish language media, where it is perceived that English speaking eyes aren’t watching or in reaction to an ICE raid. Then the Obama administration announces that it is boycotting the second World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

The Administration will boycott the conference to protest what it deems the unfair equation of Zionism with racism in the outcome documents of the first conference held in Durban, South Africa, and now the second conference, also known as “Durban II, as well .” Other concerns cited by Administration officials, some of whom recently attended preparatory meetings in Geneva,in their justification of the boycott include a proposal to place restrictions on the defamation of religions and any language calling for reparations for slavery.

Looking at it from the perspective of a Latina whose community has seen an increase of hate crimes, I want to ask Obama, where is the change? As more and more communities of color live in dire economic conditions, not just because of the current economic crisis but because of pre-existing conditions of inequality built into the economic system, where the hell is the change? While the Department of Homeland Security is all too willing to send more militarized police to the U.S. Mexico border to help fight a drug war that the U.S. helped to create and whose enforcement is racist (not to mention imperialist) the U.S. is not going to talk about race?

Roberto Lovato:

Rather than join the rest of the world in Durban and in condemning the killing and discrimination on the part of the Israeli and other governments-including our own-, Obama’s boycott reflects his choice to pursue the more dangerous path to dealing with race, racism and discrimination: symbolism at the expense of real changes to very devastating policies. Such are the perils of our increasingly post-racial presidency in a racially-troubled world.

Political choices like the Durban decision or the blind eye turned to the indiscriminate killing of and discrimination against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank make one wonder if the Obama Administration has also chosen to become the black face of empire.

Check please and keep the change.

Young Afro-Latinas Speak Out

5:18 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Culture|Latin America|race|Women|youth · Comments Off

23 Feb 2009

In honor of Black History Month, another video selection for your viewing pleasure. In this clip, young Afro-Latinas living in the U.S. speak up about race, their roots and identity. It’s interesting to hear these girls talk about this complex topic and how different their opinions on some aspects of their shared identity are so different.

The comments on the video are mostly atrocious, but highlight how sensitive a topic this is to some people. What do you think?

Via /YouTube

Afro- Latinos : Reflections on Obama Win and Expectations

1:03 pm By Maegan La Mala · Blogs|Colombia|Politics|race|US Presidential Race 2008 · 1 Comment

12 Nov 2008

Earlier this week, VivirLatino published a letter from an Indigenous community in Colombia to President Elect Obama.

One point that we, and other blogfriends have been trying to make ever since the start of the very long road to the White House, was that the way race and racial politics are talked about and analyzed needs to change. There was a clear reason why being Black and Latino was viewed as two mutually exclusive realms of being. One Afro Colombiano writes about his own hopes, expectations and thoughts post the Obama win.

Aiden Salgado writes:

I believe that the triumph of this African American man needs to be looked at very carefully because there is a risk of falling into Obama-itis and into thinking that Obama is superman and that he can solve all of our problems overnight. Ladies and Gentlemen, if Obama has any urgent task, it is to sweep up the mess that Bush has left throughout the world. In order to do so, he can start with the war in Iraq, with supporting a peace process in the Middle East that doesn’t involve backing the aggressions of Israel against their neighbors, and he should pull the U.S. government’s unconditional support for policies of the Colombian government and President Álvaro Uribe Vélez which have been violating human rights.

Related is a series of posts up at The Unapologetic Mexican, featuring the words of African-Americans, specifically their perspectives on Obama. Today’s featured post is from an Afro-Latino educator and blogger Jose Vilson. Jose writes:

My biggest reason for voting came in the form of 30 or so students in a classroom in Washington Heights of New York City. All of them are considered English language learners, all of Latin@ descent, and all from immigrant populations. Their engagement in this political race has surprised and inspired me. Their worst and best ideas about politics comes to the fore, and while some of the ideas are certainly prejudice (”White people vote for McCain” won’t stand the test of time), I also see a great opportunity to help develop better-informed citizens and participants in a still-exclusive fraternity.

You can Jose’s entire post over at UMX.

You can read the entire letter from Aiden Salgado after the jump.

New Black Guilt=Oppressed Hispanic

11:18 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · US Presidential Race 2008 · Comments Off

11 Nov 2008

Leave it to the Daily show to be real about our new ‘post-racial’ world.

It’s amusing to me to think of how many of the white liberals in the audience probably have no idea what thehy’re laughing at.

Let them pay taxes!

12:30 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia|Politics|race · Comments Off

10 Nov 2008

It’s interesting to see the Republicans struggle through the reasoning behind their losses. It seems to be the common wisdom among Republicans that they simply weren’t “Republican” enough–that they weren’t conservative enough–and thus we have the ass smacking the Democrats gave to them at the polls. I tend to disagree–there’s been nothing ‘liberal’ about the past eight years, after all.

But it’s even more interesting to me to see how hating on Latin@s becomes a strategy of recruitment of Latin@s:

via VLatin@ commenter, Lalo

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been paying taxes for decades and I still don’t vote for Republican. And honestly, of all the ‘hispanics’ I know, this little quip would be the one thing that would drive most of them away from the Republican party rather than to it–if there’s one thing those who identify as hispanics are proud of, it’s being law-abiding and paying their taxes.

Random Moment of Joy

7:00 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Movies · 1 Comment

21 Oct 2008

In an effort to get the disturbing lows humans will fall to out of my brain, I surfed youtube for some random joy, and found the following video of Mandy Patinkin singing a traditional queer Latina favorita with the supa hawt Audra McDonald:

The part I found interesting was how Audra stated that she didn’t “look the part.” But what is a Puerto Rican *supposed* to look like? And knowing Latin America’s historical roots of mestizaje, why on earth would there ever be an assumption that a black woman could not be Latina?

Besides, I think she makes a more convincing Maria than Natalie Wood.

VivirLatino at the DNC 08 : Riding the Back of the Ghetto Bus in Denver

11:22 am By Maegan La Mala · Colorado|denver|DNC|DNC08|Politics · 10 Comments

27 Aug 2008

One blogger has criticized this website, with a personal attack on me and the use language and identity. Normally, I would unleash a stream of Spanish curses at my screen and move on, pero the reality of the Democratic National Convention against the reality of Denver ties it all together.

It’s all in the representation. Carlos attempted to do an incomplete post about the Latino (he puts the word in quotes) bloggers covering the convention. I say incomplete because he misses many Latino bloggers and other POC bloggers here covering not the speeches, that can be followed from a hotel room as well as from the “privileged” space of the credentialed blogger area, a room with a tv, but rather the extreme space between those spaces and the real, physical reality of Denver residents, especially residents of color.

VivirLatino