WE BELONG TO A PROUD LEGACY. We are tied to this land, we are descended from warriors, and Indian kings, and beautiful traditions y cultura that cannot be washed or stolen away by the dominant culture—though it surely tries…
WHERE LIES OUR TRUE FIGHT? With people of different skin tones? With people who use different word sounds to express their dreams, their pain, their hope, their hunger? Or with those who move hugely and cloaked over with flag and legal document, drawing blood worldwide?
ULTIMATELY, who benefits from these well-practiced fables? Who makes gain from the false lessons instilled? Who are the myths of Thanksgiving designed to benefit? What are the truths they are meant to obscure?
CRIMES IN LINE WITH THE DOMINANT PARADIGM are not seen as criminal. Others rouse fury and command milkbox galore. As Noam Chomsky said about terrorism being a simple distinction on which direction the guns were pointed in, so goes the justice system and media in the USA when it comes to people of color and whites.
THIS IS AND HAS BEEN a long, long war. This foul spirit that rises and repeats and seeks to make mi gente retreat has been tearing at the land and the skin of the face and the hands of my people for hundreds of years.
EVERY DAY IT BECOMES CLEARER that the current form of “Enforcement First” immigration tactics boil down to a War on Latinos with all the measures in place lending themselves enabling, requiring, or encouraging the illegal practice of racial profiling. The data and evidence grows, and here is another addition.
INADVERTENTLY OR PURPOSEFULLY, intention matters not: On the matter of immigration in this land of immigrants, the “Left” and the “Right” perversely both adopt (to differing degrees) a conservative scarcity-model frame punctuated with the barbs of xenophobia and/or racism.
WHAT USGOV is now doing to México by way of NAFTA and the overwhelming of México’s market by US-subsidized Agribusiness it does directly in other nations through coups and forced legislation. The Empire, in yet another shape, sprawls and burps and bleeds and chews up humans as it moves into its final phases.
THREE THINGS immediately shock the conscious soul upon learning about the murder of Luis Ramirez. The simple manner in which he died is the first of those. His death was a gruesome and violent one, and inarguably racially motivated. And yet, that is not the most horrific part of the killing.
QUESTIONS OF APPROPRIATION and Tokenism are areas one must approach carefully. Human beings are involved and there is nuance, to be sure. Good can be done with methods that are not optimally beneficial to all parties involved. Furthermore, that cost must be weighed by each person. And yet, shapes of Whiteness move behind and around us, often invisible. They must be named.
A COALITION OF VOICES claiming to be acting in the interest of the undocumented are suggesting that they not be counted by the Census. This idea is so wrongheaded that it is a kindness to call it only an honest mistake.
IT’S NOT DIFFICULT TO FIND A MOVIE that portrays the indigenous of this land as heartless brutal savages. Be the people called Apache or Mayan, be the portryal be by John Wayne or Mel Gibson. We enlist words to mask the truth of history. And then, sometimes, we use art to tear that mask away. This is why Art is considered powerful and dangerous by some.
THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA DELIGHTS IN TELLING THE HOSTAGE TALE wherein the mighty snipers from the powerful US NAVY took down the wicked scourge of the seas and President Obama is a) Weak or b) Virile. But not even the Green Liberal faction is using the moment to talk about the oppression and poisoning of the Somalis.
LA SANTA MUERTE is threatening Jesus Christ. Those who champion Mister Christ are lashing back. Or perhaps we might say the Mexican Oligarchy is acting like terrorists and destroying symbols that are dear to groups of people who frustrate them. However you word it, the People are under seige on more than one front.
THE WAR ON DRUGS HAS RETURNED even though under increased militarization, drug production actually goes up, as does the body count, while the seizure of drugs decreases. All the facts in hand show, inarguably, that the Drug War model is a failed method of dealing with immigration—even though President Obama seems intent to resurrect it.
House of Nezua
the XOLAGRAFIK theater!
