You know, there's a specific method mainstream types use to discredit minorities. I ran across an example when I stopped past Orcinus to get an update on the progress of his media manifesto. A couple of posts below the responses to the manifesto he writes about MEChA's latest problems at Stanford:
Stanford University students have voted to stop funding the Chicano group MEChA after a series of articles in the conservative Stanford Review accused the organization of racism.In what is believed to be the first such vote on any college campus, Stanford students voted 1,357 to 1,329 to withhold MEChA's special fees, which amount to more than $40,000. The students voted about five months after articles in the Review cited anti-white statements in MEChA documents and compared the group to the Ku Klux Klan.
A difference of 28 student. That means if 15 out of the 2,686 student can thought otherwise MEChA would still be funded.That's almost a random fluctuation.
Notice the accusations: racism; being "like the Klan." And of course, their slogan, which the Washington Times reports as:
"Por la Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada," means, "For the race, everything. For those outside the race, nothing."
But as David notes:
A more accurate translation of the slogan would recognize that though "Por" translates to the English "For," it is used in a very specific sense of the word -- namely, "On behalf of" or "In the service of". "Fuera" is not "for those outside" but rather refers to the speaker, and means "Apart from." So what the slogan actually says is this:
In the service of the race, everything
Apart from the race, nothing
There is nothing remotely racist, particularly in the sense of being exclusionist or derogatory, about this, of course. The second line clearly only refers to the need to maintain one's ethnic and cultural identity. It is only racist if you deliberately mistranslate it: "For those outside the race, nothing."
Real.
Familiar;
And you know us, minority folks (I'm going out on a limb generalizing about so nebulous a group, but I'm confident about this one), we ain't stupid…we know where the power is. We'll work with it, get out of it's way or do stuff behind it's back, but the idea of setting up a public anti-white organization that's actually standing still and getting public funds would only even occur to a very, very few. That's why the whole accusation just struck me as absurd from the beginning.
Still, folks tend to believe that which is repeated often enough. If you can't shut down the lie quickly this "Your just a <color> Klan" technique is almost guaranteed to work.
Because white people don't like to be associated with the Klan. And they don't want to be reminded of it. Most of them because they hate the thought of being seen as a racist roughly as much as the equivalent social class of Black person hates being thought of as a nigger. Most decent white folks would really rather not deal in race at all at this point.
The problem is, we minorities keep on being Black, and Oriental, and Mexican, you know? And ALL our moms were like taking that toy from you and your little brother, saying "If you can't share, neither of you can have it." So a significant chunk of white folks have decided since we can't play nice with race no one should have it. And though they've promised to be nicer than they were in the past (yes, they're nicer; no nicer is not the same as treated as a equal in the social commons), nobody ever forgets where he buried the hatchet.
So as I see it there's this underlying tension in all transactions where race is an element.That tension, like any emotion, tells you there's something you need to deal with…and provides the energy to deal with the situation if you do more than sit there and vibrate. What you have to do at that point is get real conscious and determine whet the problem lies. Slow down and perceive for a while.Make no assumptions and only react when you're clear.
Except if you do that you usually can't see a problem anymore.
I started writing something for OSPolitics. By the end I was like, nnnnaaahhh, I better put this one on P6.
Posted by P6 at May 17, 2004 07:26 PM
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Comments
Hmmmm...you might want to do some research before you hang your hat on defending this particular organization. I'm not saying they're comparable to the Klan but I'd be leery of describing them as unfairly maligned either.
Posted by mark safranski at May 18, 2004 10:58 AMTell me, Mark, what would you say was the central thought I was expressing?
In fact, anyone can answer that.
Posted by P6 at May 18, 2004 11:21 AMActually, Mark, quite a bit has been written about MEChA, and many links provided for further reading. Perhaps you're not familiar with what the history of the KKK really is? If you were, I can't imagine that you would think there's any merit to this specious comparison.
Posted by Al-Muhajabah at May 19, 2004 12:45 AM