Barbeque Throw Down Block Party at 1600 Pennsylvania!

We not only have a black man running for President of the United States, we have a black man running for President who might actually WIN tonight! It is possible that tomorrow, we could be declaring, for the first time in our prestigious history, that a black American is the President Elect of the United States of America, unless of course you count the real first black President, Bill Clinton. I will be the first to admit that I didn’t think this was possible. Like all of you who are fans of the show 24, the first time I saw “President Palmer” appear, my initial reaction was, “great, now that’s going to ruin the potential realism of the show! A black President, yea right!” I want to make sure you understand my perspective here. I am a super urban minority New York City ghetto raised tattoo having broadminded freethinking hoodlum Latin liberal! Besides being all those things, I am also optimistic and hopeful, almost to a fault some friends would say. So why didn’t I think we would ever have a black President? Well, it’s not that I didn’t think we would EVER have one, I just didn’t think it would be now, and I certainly didn’t think “they” would allow it, without putting up a good fight anyway. Who am I referring to you ask? Well, that’s a hard question to answer. There are various groups of “they.”

First, there is the hard-core “they,” the ones who belong to the KKK, Nazi Hate groups, and other such extreme organizations. They are easy to spot. You know when you see one. I’m shocked they haven’t taken at least a shot at him. Especially after they realized that he actually had a legitimate chance of winning! I don’t want to spend any time talking about this group; they don’t deserve my attention. We just need to know they exist.

The second group of “they” is the group who don’t necessarily join the Klan but they are definitely haters. They don’t like “non whites” and certainly have no problem letting anyone in their social life know how they feel. They know all the jokes and perk up when a friend has a new one, “what do you call a black…” or “what do you get when you cross a Jew with a Mexican…” They don’t have people of color in their life, and like it that way. They believe minorities are at the core of our social collapse (along with the Liberals who support them, the ones who live in New York City and California). We all know these folks. If you are white, there is a 100% chance that you are related to one. “Ah, good old grandpa, he’s just stuck in the old world and doesn’t mean anything when he calls you a wetback or asks you to fetch him an apple,” you tell me. As a Latino, I have always found it entertaining to have these folks in my life through association with a best friend or a girl I was seeing. I can say with 100% accuracy that there hasn’t been one “relationship” I’ve been in where I didn’t run into one of these folks. What’s entertaining about this group is that they can develop justification as to why I was “OK” and “different” as they “accepted” me into their family, often times, including me in the new hot racist joke they heard in their local bar. The justification, which usually sounds like, “you know Jaime, you aren’t like I expected, you are different than most Hispanics,” leads to the third kind of “they,” and I believe the most dangerous group of them all.

The third group truly believes they are not racist at all and often times go out of their way to prove it. The problem is that they don’t recognize the damage they do when they say things like, “well first of all, not only do you speak English, you speak it so well, I’m so impressed” or they’ll ask, “so what’s your nationality, I can’t figure it out.” By the way, if you are “white” when was the last time a Latino or Black person ever came up to you and asked, “you know Biff, I can’t figure out your nationality, are you German, Polish, what? It’s killing me, I just have to know!” Why doesn’t that happen? Because we just don’t care and I have no idea why you do! Is there some rule somewhere where you need to put people in a cultural category as soon as possible? Do you get a prize if you report this information somewhere? Please help me understand this obsession with knowing what minority group I belong to in the first five minutes you know me. “Really, he’s Latin? I though he was Arab! I’m going to have to call the Just Met New Stranger Cultural Identification Association (JMNSCIA) number back and resubmit my information.” I am proud of my nationality and my culture and I talk about it all the time. Give me a few social meetings and I’m sure I will annoy you with stories about my ethnicity. Ask anyone I know. Unless you’re doing the Census, there is no reason why you need to know what my “nationality” is in the first five minutes of meeting me. Please try to be more interesting than that. Showing me an interest in the color of my skin only makes me put you in that third category of “them.”

The New York Times ran an article last week that really disturbed me but highlighted this problem. The article talked about volunteers for the Obama campaign who were going door to door talking to potential voters. Apparently, when the volunteers were greeted with, “well I’m not sure I can vote for a black man for President, how do I know he won’t “turn black” after he gets into office.” Instead of laughing out loud and saying, “OK you idiot, why don’t you close the door and go back to watching the Jerry show and eating your hot pockets, you pinhead,” the volunteers were offering an explanation. The explanation went something like, “well you should know that Obama is only half black and he was raised by his white mother so his perspective is mostly white.” They were also saying, “he grew up in a “white” house, so the chances of him “turning black” are small, he really doesn’t know how to be black.”

So what we have here is a group of the third kind of “they” talking to the second and third kind of ‘they.” They are all justifying either speaking for, supporting, or voting for Obama as long as Obama doesn’t turn on the black once he is in office. Instead of looking at Obama the person and making decisions based on his ideas, his vision, his policies, his character, they are making decisions based on how much black Obama will turn on once in office. What exactly do these folks think is going to happen once Obama takes office? Can you imagine what they are thinking?

So on inauguration day instead of throwing the traditional Inauguration Ball, the Obama Team will throw down a barbeque? Are all the cousins going to show up uninvited? Instead of an orchestra, will there be a big block party set up with Dr. Dre, Dead Prez, and The Roots? The day after Obama takes office, is he going to stop wearing a suit and walk around the White House in a Viking helmet and a big ass favor flav clock around his neck, greeting everyone with, “yea, boyyy?” He’s going to start every press conference with, “what up dogs” wearing a fuzzy Kangol on his head and big Kayne West Sunglasses on his face? Is he planning to put rims, complete with spinners, on the presidential limo? Are the dancers from In Living Color going to replace his Secret Service detail? Seriously, what do they think is going to happen?

That’s why that third group is so dangerous. They are Ok with you being a minority, as long as you don’t act like one. They are teachers and service providers and don’t even realize the damage they are doing. They are either setting low expectations for students of color (no Jose, being a Doctor is a great dream but you should be more realistic and think about a good trade job) or are crushing the culture of the minority student by suggesting and encouraging the child to be more “American” (Tyrone, you know, you will be taken more serious if you didn’t wear that Yankee’s cap). They process financial services and there are hundreds of studies that show that people of color are treated differently in ALL segments of service, even when both the minority group and white group have the EXACT economic and education level. The minority groups are shown homes in lower income areas, etc. Minority groups are offered different loan options, often times with much much higher interest rates. Minority groups are shown different investment strategies, and so on. There is hope however, a fourth group.

The last group is the group we should all belong to, or at least strive to be part of. It is the group that recognizes that we all have some “ism” in us, no matter what skin color or nationality we are. They know that even within minority groups, there is plenty of “ism” going on. They recognize that a “dark skin” black person has stereotypes of “light skin” black people and vies versa. They recognize in the Latino culture, Argentines think they are better than Mexicans or that odds are high that a Mexican father will forbid his daughter from dating a guy from Columbia. They recognize that we are humans and have to have a little bit of it. They understand that it’s human nature. It’s human nature to like and associate with people who look and act like we do. It’s also human nature to categorize, label, and stereotype those who don’t look and act like we do.

The difference with this group however is that they also recognize that it is critical to be conscience and aware of these thoughts and assumptions and they work hard to separate the stereotypes from the actual person. It is hard work to actually pay attention to and make conclusions about a person based on their character or intellect rather than the color of their skin. It’s much easier to look at Jose and assume that he should be looking at trade schools, because people like Jose, who are Mexican and live in South Phoenix, usually don’t go to medical school. A person in this category tells Jose that they should look at trade school because they know Jose the person and recognize that Jose just isn’t that bright. People in the pervious group, who claim they don’t have a racist bone in their body, do more damage to Jose when they either make assumptions about who they are and what “people like Jose” do for a living, or worse, overcompensate for their “I’m so not a racist” mentality and tell Jose that he “can be whatever he wants,” even a doctor, when clearly, Jose is just an idiot.

Happy Election Day! We live in a great country and I look forward to the day we all are part of that last group!