Posted by: emagineitall on: January 29, 2008
Posted by: emagineitall on: August 14, 2007
Via no snow here I found a fascinating article that helps me illustrate the importance of context to race, ethnicity and discrimination. It is also a good opportunity to introduce the black-white continuum* and the importance of recognizing (shades of) diversity on a greater scale.
In Arabs and the Racial Lessons of 9/11 Carol Chehade discusses the relationship between Arab Americans and African Americans in the U.S.
Profiled, feared, detained, assaulted, accused, interrogated, harassed, hated, and collectivized since 9-11, Arab Americans have suddenly known what it feels like to be temporarily Black.
This is no secret to Black people who already know that Arab Americans have the same type of superiority complex that European Americans do. This superiority complex is not only evident in the way we act toward Black people but in the way we choose to disassociate ourselves from their community.
Posted by: emagineitall on: August 8, 2007
“Yo, you white, girl!”
On a hot June day in a Colombian fast food joint in Queens, I expressed my preference for a mocha over a cafesito colombiano con leche.
“You a little bit kinda white.”
On another occasion, I explained I was doing research for my masters degree and what cultural anthropology was all about.
“Now Colombia has everything. Cause there’s some niggers*, charcoal niggers. … And then there’s white girls. I know some Colombian white girls. And then there’s us, tanned.”
A youth explains to me the diversity that developed in Colombia since the slaves were brought over, resulting in a mixed Colombian culture.
I recently watched a program on Aljazeera International about Marseilles, France (available on youtube). This southern French port has a large immigrant population. In fact, the minorities outnumber the ethnic French. Marseilles is France’s New York: an immigrant port city that has undergone the majority minority transition.
Marseilles’s largest immigrant group is Muslim. The program explains that “Muslim” is used as a cultural category rather than a religious category and many French Muslims in Marseilles don’t practice. Muslim, Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern: such pan-ethnic categories are growing in multicultural societies. Does this support what many see as the end of the reign of nationalism and nation-states?
Equal rights was the first step. Now it's time to change the standards by which we are judged. It's time to create new standards that value our differences rather than degrading and stereotyping them.
We define ourselves in dialogue with the Other. So dialogue already!
This is a space and place for exploring the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity and class.
latin american princesa {LAP}