THIS MARCH, I’ll be presenting at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity’s Transforming Race Conference. This article provides the backstory for why I began the Unapologetic Mexican blog as well as prefaces my talk at the conference.
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…
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?
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.
Let’s visit CNN, where talking about the “diverse experiences and challenging issues facing Latinos” today is about everything Latino except the very most pressing issues, such as the climate of hate that is giving white supremacists a wink and a nod as they bring violence upon us.
I NURTURE A SUDDEN AND UNREASONABLE HOPE that we can institute behavior incompatible with the larger and more destructive behaviors of our culture as well as cast off the illusion that makes so many give up before they might have a chance to start.
A PROBLEM IN TODAY’S DIALOGUE is a blatant abuse of pronouns. WE don’t use them as WE should. Words as cloaks, words as shields, words as masks—Television language on full blast from the mouths of well-paid shillers, in-absentia killers, supergroomed elitists faker pill-popper death makers.
THE CULTURAL DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE NATION ARE CHANGING. Black President, Hispanic Supreme Court Justices, Black Attorney Generals, and lest we forget, Kumar in the White House. This is throwing some people off-stride and just a bit out of their minds.
A ‘STARTLING,’ ‘RARE’, ‘MYSTERIOUS’ flu with components from bird flu and human flu and swine flu is turning up in the South West US and México. No one is sure yet why or how this is happening.
IN 2009, I will be traveling to a few different events and speaking on panels or presenting/appearing in one way or another. The second event scheduled, though first to be announced, is a panel on New Media at the Annual NCLR Conference in Chicago in late July.
THE TELESCREENS WORK ONLY IN ONE DIRECTION. The conversations are filtered, edited, neutered for your own protection. Even when we discuss such pivotal and worldshaking events as this economic malfunction we are rarely talking without misdirection. So much dialogue spat out in the service of maintaining so much division. It’s time to look to the building blocks of these quaking towers and reconfigure the entire equation.
IN THIS DAY we can claim that electing a black man as POTUS means we are enlightened. At the same time, cartoonists and political commentators act as if their thinking process exists back in the 1950s or some place they can speak and write with impunity without considering racial context, oppression, or histories of violence. This inconsistency exists in the service of reinforcing and continuing racism.
PSYOPS is the phrase of the decade. From Fake Iraq news to fake US news and now in the form of secretly produced corridos meant to slip into Mexican society and deter border crossings. La Migra fancy themselves clever with a new jazzy form of deception.
THE XOLAGRAFIK THEATER is open and this week we take a look at the Conservative, pro-war, anti-protest, anti-abortion messaging in Battlestar Galactica, as well as how race plays into the portrayal of the Cylon characters. Film production is also discussed, in terms of cinematography choices.
HERE IS A TEXTUAL TREAT for those who love Sci-Fi, Mister Spock, Battlestar Galactica, film analysis using a socio-cultural/racial/feminist lens, or some combination of all of these. Oh, and pass the popcorn already. Bogart.
House of Nezua
the XOLAGRAFIK theater!
