As Puerto Ricans were glued to their TV's watching not only unimaginable death and destruction from Katrina, they were also living the American race and class issue. In America, the poor and black are to be neither seen nor heard. Race and racism are "messy" so we talk about other things-we play the "who's to blame game". Money talks, also. In America, those at the bottom of the totem pole get the shortest shrift. In America being black and poor is a deadly combination.
Some voices are saying that it was no accident that the thousands of human beings crammed into a filthy, flooded, and perilous Louisiana Superdome were the poor black citizens of New Orleans. Poor and black citizens of New Orleans were left to bake and perhaps die on their own roof.
Still, Puerto Ricans are in denial. To quote my mother in Ponce, PR (Republican and pro Statehood for Puerto Rico): "There 'you' go again. You're getting emotional. This is not the time. They have bureaucracies to tend to, people to save, lives to reconstruct, and cities to rebuild. Stop trying to blame the President."
She refused to acknowledge New Orleans's Mayor Ray Nagin cries of desperation and cussing to get help for his people. She condemned Hip hop artist Kanye West when he went off script during a live NBC-TV concert for Katrina relief and said that President Bush did not care for blacks. She joined other Puerto Ricans and Republicans' voices and agreed that West was politicizing the issue and should stick to singing.
That may be why some news labeled African Americans taking food and water from groceries stores as "refugees", "rioters", and "looters". Is that what Puerto Ricans were thinking: What's wrong with these people? Why didn't these people just leave?
That's why America's first Mother pronounced after meeting with the evacuees at the Houston Astrodome, that things were just peachy there. "What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality," Barbara Bush was quoted by National Public Radio (NPR)'s Marketplace. "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."
Puerto Ricans are in denial. What would be a real tragedy is if we miss this rare watershed moment to honestly and fervently address the race-and-class divide as we search for a permanent solution for the status issue in our island. The Pro Statehood movement has dismissed them as irrelevant-emotional-political. As a Puerto Rican who has lived 25 years in the US, I think it would be a big mistake to ignore this very important issue.
I wish I had a penny for every time I've been asked where is my green card-or what kind of currency Puerto Ricans use-I would be a millionaire today. As a physician, I have had patients request another of my partners because I "Spik" funny and can't "splain" things. And some of my friends with darker skin fare worse-they are rejected by the African American culture, at the same time that they are rejected by the "whites."
America's race and class divide is real and deep and it is not going anywhere. America has never confronted the race/poverty conundrum. Have Puerto Ricans ever asked why is it that even though we pay the same payroll taxes (FICA) as the rest of the USA, our comparative social security benefits are lower? The same goes for Medicare and Medicaid. In America, the poor and black are to be neither seen nor heard.
If Puerto Rico joined the USA as the 51st state, we would be the poorest and darkest state. Before we debate status for our island again, lets reflect on how America treats its poor and non-whites.
www.carlostmock.com
Travel website: The Pink Agenda. Several Blogs. Weekly newsletter, available upon request. Publications - Fiction: Borrowing Time: A Latino Sexual Odyssey - Floricanto Press 2003. Poetry: The Refined Savage Poetry Review - Refined Savage (more...)
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While I agree with the fact that Puerto Ricans should not be blind by race and class divide, as you put it, I must disagree with the assumption one could make that Puerto Rico doesn't have the same problem within the island.
Puerto Ricans can be just as bad with race relations and not to mention, class relations than most mainland Americans! It is a problem to be thought about in both sides, not just for the mainland. It would be unfair and naive to think than darker skinned Puerto Ricans could suffer in the mainland but not in Puerto Rico.
The United States is not a perfect society or country, but, who is? Our choices on status should be based on our collective well being as well as our cultural health, but to disregard our own prejudices would be more than a big mistake.
by
Nikki Ruiz (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments) on Sunday, Aug 27, 2006 at 10:52:58 AM
My first encounter with racism was here in the mainland United States when I left the Island to come to get my medical degreed (age 17). While it is true that Puerto Ricans can be racists, we do not segregate like you norteamericanos do. There are too many mulattoes, so we live with each other and racism is much more subtle.
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Carlos T Mock (63 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 8 comments) on Sunday, Aug 27, 2006 at 1:22:08 PM
I'm Puerto Rican, born and raised. I've never lived in the States, but I've visited since I was very young. I have to admit, I've never been discriminated against or felt like it. I'm a darker skinned Puerto Rican, but since I come from a very mixed family I'm often asked "what I am" since my looks 'confuse' people.
My brother, lighter than me, but clearly Latino has been the subject of hurtful discrimination in the mainland (he was born in New York). I'm not insensitive to the problem (that could never happen), but I do not wish to let it bother me to the point where it restricts my freedom of travel, thought, my choices, etc.
That said, you have a valid point which is not only incredibly important to our future (and present) as a country, state or whatever, but it is important for our individual decision making as Puerto Ricans.
I read the article and it hit me because I fear being thought of as a minority, which I am, but only because that idea, if internalized, could mean I'd be seeing myself as the people that are prejudiced against me see me. I can't let that happen, neither can Puerto Rico.
We, as a people and as individuals must be proud of what we are and be strong enough to decide once and for all what is better for us, because independence or statehood will affect us and nobody else. That said, the article is precious in that it reminds us where we stand, we just can't let racism dominate us, but neither can we forget its there and that it hurts and dwarfs what we are and where we come from.
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Nikki Ruiz (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments) on Sunday, Aug 27, 2006 at 3:56:19 PM
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