What is the GOP Code Word for America?

These are the “word clouds” of President Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention and Governor Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.  These images represent the words they emphasized in stating their vision for the nation’s future.  Each reflects not only the difference between the candidates but the difference in what has now become Blue and Red America.  President Obama’s speech looked at the wide range of issues facing a nation in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  It is not surprising that the key word in his speech is “new”.  President Obama has made the case that we must address challenges we face in health care, alternative energy use, job creation and nothing short of restoring hope in the nation’s future.   

Governor Romney’s speech centered on the words “America”, “Americans”, “American”, and “President”.  For some the image drawn from this speech is one of fierce patriotism and loyalty to the nation.   I was not inspired, however.  Each time he referred to Americans I kept seeing the faces of the people at the convention who were cheering him on and I did not see a whole lot of people like me.    When Governor Romney said, “Now is the time to restore the promise of America”, I had to ask which America he wants to restore.  My view of America today is that it is finally getting to a place where the promise of opportunity has reached the diverse communities of color that make up the nation.

Is America a code word here for the GOP?  I think so. The America that the GOP seeks is a trip down memory lane when women and minorities were less visible in society and certainly less outspoken.  It’s an America that lets 1% of the population have their way with few restrictions.   It’s an America that didn’t need to worry about partisan politics because the work of protecting special interests was easier to hide without the transparency that new media has brought to us today.  It’s an America that was comfortable keeping gays and lesbians in the closet where they didn’t need to be heard or seen.

Governor Romney, what America are you talking about?

I Can’t Decide What’s More Upsetting-The Supreme Court Giving Partial Approval to Arizona’s Immigration Law or Governor Jan Brewer Claiming Total Victory!

Let me start by affirming that the Supreme Court struck down 3 of the 4 elements of Arizona SB1070.  The specifics of this are:

• The Supreme court said it is not a crime for undocumented immigrants not to carry an alien registration document.
• The Supreme Court said it is not a crime for undocumented immigrants to look for a job or perform work in Arizona.
• The Supreme Court said it would not be legal for a state or local police officer to conduct an arrest without a warrant when police have probable cause to believe an individual committed a felony, a misdemeanor or a crime that would make them removable from the United States.

The Supreme Court did uphold  that state and local law enforcement officers in Arizona are authorized to determine the immigration status of anyone they reasonably suspect might be in the United States illegally. Law enforcement can ask for an Arizona driver’s license, Arizona ID card, tribal enrollment card or other official ID issued by a US federal, state or local government.

On the surface, this seems to say that when an undocumented person follows the law and stays out of trouble, there is not likely to be any reason for an officer to stop and ask to see identification.  Since the majority of immigrants are not drug dealers, thieves, or murderers we can only hope that they will avoid this situation entirely.   Of course I crossed my fingers when I said (wrote) “hope”.  An officer with time on their hands can profile a person who j-walks and ask for documentation when on any other day or for any other person that would be ignored.  So much for the 4^th Amendment!

Then there’s Jan Brewer: The woman who had no problem pointing her finger at the President of the United States as if she were scolding him for eating cookies before dinner.  Not only is she claiming victory, she claims this is vindication of her state’s active position against undocumented immigrants to safeguard Arizona.  The 10^th Amendment is written on her bathroom mirror.  I suppose in true political fashion the Governor knows how to make lemonade out of lemons.  Unfortunately all her bravado is giving rise to more anti-immigrant activists who join her in her delusion that one State in the union can preempt the laws of the United States.  

I say let’s see how this works in about 2 years when Arizona’s economic ecosystem starts to suffer because all that inexpensive labor has gone missing. --M

The Ultimate Price of Unconscious Bias



This week the picture of Mohamed Ali in a black hoodie has gone viral—a sense that even The Greatest must feel lucky, “there but for the grace of God…”  

The death of Trayvon Martin in Florida last month is every mother’s worst nightmare. It is not the cause of African American, Latino, Asian, or any one ethnicity or race of children. This child’s death is every child’s death at the hands of conscious and unconscious bias.  For George Zimmerman it meant something to see a young, black man wearing a hoodie, walking in an upscale neighborhood.  In a month or two it will be another person’s bias about a young Asian man wearing a leather jacket at a mall, later it will be a Latino youth carrying a back pack outside a fast-food shop or a white teenager wearing all black clothes.  We will grieve again. We will hold rallies. We will write essays.   

Every mother has argued at one time or another with their child, “are you wearing THAT to school?” We have pleaded, “please get home before dark”.  We have all said, “it is not you that I’m worried about, it’s the others out there that I don’t trust”.  And now we can add another: “take that hoodie off”. 

 It’s pointless of course. It is just a false sense of security that the life of our children can be protected from a deadly equation of motive and opportunity.  Murder is motivated by a myriad of emotions that are triggered by an equally broad range of factors.  We cannot possibly give warnings to our children about every combination of emotion and triggers to avoid among strangers.  Some of Zimmerman’s friends have said he was not a racist.  And I would suggest that he might successfully argue he was not aware of how much he was motivated by hate or racial prejudice—this is the true challenge of unconscious bias.  Everyone one of us has a range of unconscious bias--beliefs and assumptions--that we act on in an instant. We see an African American walking toward us and without thinking clutch our handbag, clench a fist.  We see a group of Latino young men together and assume they are gang members. For Zimmerman, his unconscious bias met up with a deadly opportunistic accomplice—a lethal weapon.

We should all worry about the hate speech that crowds the airwaves and blogosphere but the real work in an increasingly diverse world is to call attention to the unconscious bias we harbor that places us all in jeopardy. 

Arizona: Ground Zero for Latino Bashing?

Arizona appears to have opted to once again become ground zero on the status of Latinos in the US.  It was first to claim that anyone who looks Latino can be asked by local police officers to prove their residency status.  Now it is trying to control how the history of indigenous people, Mexico’s fight for independence and the experience of racism among Latinos can be taught. Tucson Unified School District claims that Mexican American Studies Courses offered in high school promotes resentment towards whites and is now banning the program.  A separate group Tucsonans United for Sound Districts has published an overview of the problem curriculum which features some not so traditional explanations of Thanksgiving, a summary of Mexico’s fight for independence as a threat to US Manifest Destiny and an example of the questions on a final exam for a class.   

The reality is that Mexican-American studies offer students an opportunity to understand their own history and heritage absent the bias of Eurocentric interpretation.  The unique lens through which we all learn about major events in US history is so ingrained in the curriculum of our textbook industry that it is indeed shocking to imagine how those same events may be seen from the viewpoint of other people.  The indigenous civilizations of the Americas—like the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacano, Zapotec, Mixtec, and Aztec—are estimated by some scholars to number upwards of 30 million in 1492 when Columbus came and pointed the way for other European immigrants.  Through my own Chicano studies course in my first year of college I came to understand that these societies were governed through traditions, language, and beliefs that still influence the lives of their descendants today.  It was the first time I had a chance to discuss my heritage outside my family dinner table conversations or family trips to Mexico.  

I must admit that these courses did indeed make me angry—how is it possible to go through 12 years of public education and not know these historical facts?  Why is the history of US relations with Mexico defined by events surrounding The Alamo and not the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?  What keeps us from discussing the core economics of immigration?  Fortunately my pride in my heritage also grew and my resolve to finish my education was even greater.  It is not surprising that Arizona Unified School District has also documented that students in its Mexican American Studies have a higher graduation rate than those who do not take the course. The confidence gained by knowing your history and celebrating the achievements of your heritage is an amazing break from the subtle and not so subtle messages that Latinos are somehow a “population problem”, an “education problem, or a “crime problem.   For some, it is possible the one time they can see that they have made a contribution.

No student should be deprived of learning more about their heritage regardless of how much discomfort it creates for others.  We have overcome the price of denying the history of slavery and segregation and today it has become much easier to recognize the role African Americans played in the US. The growing number of Latinos in the US represents an opportunity to fully embrace the true history of US-Mexico relations and to honor and value Latino contributions to the US.  Arizona should be embarrassed that it may set a precedent others will follow to the demise of Latinos throughout the Americas.

I Will Remember 9/11 with America the Beautiful

Ten years ago on 9/11, my husband, my then six year old son and I were starting the 8^th day of a cruise in the Cayman Islands.  We had made arrangements to visit Boatswain Beach the day before and I was stepping into the shower when the Today Show interrupted its broadcast to say a plane had hit the World Trade Center.  Like the rest of the world watching, it first seemed to be an accident.  By the time I had stepped out of the shower, the second plane had hit the south tower and there was no question what was happening.  At breakfast, the passengers who had been restful and amiable travelers the day were quiet and tense with worry. The entire ship seemed engulfed in the panic of trying to get more information or trying to go home to loved ones in New York.  The ship’s lounges with TVs were full and some were wailing for all the uncertainty of their family and loved ones back home. We decided it was best to get our son off the boat and try to make the best of the day.

Our tour arrived at the Boatswain Beach two hours later and for a moment it seemed we had managed to leave behind a horror that would keep developing regardless of our watching it unfold.  But at the park, there was a small restaurant and inside a radio was broadcasting what was happening in the US.  There were Canadians, Americans and Brits listening and struggling to understand.  At first I thought I was misunderstanding the Spanish broadcast.  The buildings had fallen? Air traffic was grounded and some still unaccounted for?  The Pentagon had been hit, too?  The White House evacuated? I translated as fast as I could but I realized the newscaster was starting to infuse some political views about why the US had been attacked and how the US had been caught off guard.  I didn’t translate those remarks and the restaurant workers knew I was keeping those remarks to myself.  I couldn’t bring myself to start assigning blame or to begin looking at conspiracies.  Perhaps it was one small act of loyalty to my country or just one way to spare the travelers huddled around the radio from more grief.  I wanted to stay focused on the human anguish—not the politics behind the horror.  There would be plenty of time for that much later.

At dinner that night back on the ship the distress of the day was visible everywhere.  But amid all the effort to serve passengers a meal the crew and staff came into the dining hall and with little fanfare began singing America the Beautiful and giving small American flags to everyone.  This was an international crew of young Pakistani, Italian, Swede, Pilipino, Nigerian, Japanese, Jamaican staff—a rainbow of faces once again looking at the humanity of the moment, all sharing that same thought: what if that had happened to me or my family? How do we live to honor those who died?  I’ve never forgotten that moment and how connected strangers can become in the face of .  It made me think of ways in which people are more alike than they are different. People can and do come together regardless of ethnicity, gender, creed and age to seek solace and comfort in the face of unspeakable horror.  The 9/11 memorials and survivor stories that surfaced in the days that followed magnified this common humanity and this is how I choose to remember 9/11.