Subject: Re: On interracial relationships, or anything
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 11:38:39 GMT
Paco Valiente (sweetf@pcfl.net) wrote:
: choose between Black and white. And rather than face that choice, you
: retreat into rhetoric about the non-existence of race, hoping that that
: would make the problem go away.
: sweetf@pcfl.net (Paco Valiente): Not quite. This thread started when
: Chris Thompson implied that his girlfriend's "full lips, smooth dark
: skin, and thick curly hair" were uniquely African American.
I was responding to what you said, which I repeat:
" Must each Hispanic produce a numeric
estimate of his African percentage so you can judge him as either Black
traitor or White enemy? Would you line us against a wall and sort us
into two races by eye, dragging husbands from their weeping families,
dragging crying children from their mothers? Be reasonable."
This prompted my comment which you snipped out of context above.
: I pointed
: out that my niece has those features but does not consider herself AA.
: Hence, such self-designation is voluntary, not genetic.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Why didn't I think of that? Why don't all the non-whites
*volunteer* to *designate* themselves "white". Just think,
that way we can end racism (white supremacy), since no one
would be non-white anymore.
: Everything you
: have said confirms this. You cannot insist that AA-ness is an
: involuntary genetic trait, so long as bi-racial people like me (or your
: Brazilian junta, for that matter), who obviously have visible African
: heritage, refuse to join the club. John Clarke brought the word "race"
: into it by asking my race. I explained why I refuse to join any race.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Good for you. I suppose that makes you exempt from racism (white
supremacy).
: with the civil rights struggle in the US.
: Paco Valiente: Permiteme observar humildemente, que seria mejor no usar
: palabras castellanas si no conoce la differencia entre: guero, moreno,
: trigue~no, mulato, meztizo, criollo, cuadron y marrano. [(Very formal)
: Permit me to humbly observe that it would be best to avoid Spanish
: words unless you know the difference among: (string of
: color-designating words).]
All "voluntary" I suppose, and "self-designating" too besides.
Look, all this string of color-designating words accomplishes
is to reinforce what we both know, which is that Puerto Rico
is not the happy mixture that you make it out to be, and with
the fine gradations that you here trot out to rebuke me for
using "moreno" with too broad a brush, you also damn your
beautiful Puerto Rico as still being hopelessly color-struck.
Is it still the case that the question "Y su abuela, donde esta'?"
[And your grandmother, where is she?] is actually a form of
put-down for "uppity" morenos/meztizos/cuadrones/etc. who
seek too hard or obviously to distance themselves from their
African or Indian ancestry?
: wrong question. Sometimes, going down heroically is exactly what one
: must do if one is to save one's soul. There *are* some things worth
: dying for. Conversely, "getting the job done" can be a snare and a
: delusion if in the process you compromise your spiritual integrity.
: Paco Valiente: Thank you. You brilliantly show that it was precisely
: the right question. You, sir, want to save your soul and avoid
: compromising your spiritual integrity. I admire and respect this. As
: for me, I don't give a damn about spirituality. I want to kill racism
: dead-dead-dead and drive a stake through its accursed heart.
I am not impressed by this declaration. It rings hollow.
You cannot kill racism "dead-dead-dead" if you distance yourself
from its victims, and from that part of you that is the marker
for victim-hood in a white supremacist world.
: Second, I
: want to protect my people from ever becoming poisoned with the hatred
: that polarizes so many of you English-speaking North Americans.
If you do not hate injustice, then you cannot protect
"your" people from injustice. This stance that you take is
just a morally fraudulent way of attempting to protect
the status-quo. If you want to preach against hatred,
go preach to the oppressor.
: Would I
: give my soul to see both goals met? In a heartbeat.
Facile. And hollow.
: to the original Tainos?
: Paco Valiente: My Spanish g-g-g-grandparents brutally slaughtered my
: Taino/Arawak g-g-g-grandparents, just before kidnapping and enslaving
: my African g-g-g-grandparents. You knew that. What's your point?
My point is that your statement, to which I was responding, namely
"I believe that Puerto Ricans (black, brown, tan,
and pink) are the most civilized and compassionate people on earth."
is self-serving nonsense, contrary to historical fact.
: would spend the end of white supremacy is the liberation of the African
: mind. (It might explain the apparent fascination of white folk for this
: newsgroup: they consider it in their vital interest to know what Black
: folk are thinking, and to attempt to control it if they can.)
: Paco Valiente: I wouldn't know.
That about sums it up. It must be tough being mixed. When not
sucking up to the oppressor, being bought off with privilege,
and actively collaborating in the racist (white supremacist)
global system of oppression (eg. South Africa, Brazil, PR)
they collaborate passively, by preaching sweetness and light
to the oppressed, while being careful to keep a distance from
them. As you do here. I am not impressed by the high-minded
moral claims that accompany this distancing. It smacks of the
deceit that remains one of the oppressor's chief weapons in his
program of domination and control. Deceit has always been the
precursor tactic to divide-and-conquer.
: Paco Valiente
: sweetf@pcfl.net
"Adopt ye not the ways of the oppressor."
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