I watched this special on CNN last week and I can't say I was all that surprised by what I saw. I thought it was well done and it took a look at things that are issues for us in this country. I was born and raised in the U.S. and grew up in a barrio in a two bedroom house with my grandma, mom, aunt, uncles and cousins and siblings. The neighborhood was no good and there were shootings across the street and three blocks up when I was a kid. There were police helicopters one night chasing down two guys involved in a drug bust. But I can't say I was ever really afraid to live in that neighborhood. When that's all you know and you grow up in the midst of it everyday, I don't think you can be afraid of it. I had a wonderful childhood. We could ride our bikes around the block without incident and stay up late in the backyard without worrying about being kidnapped or hurt. (Isn't it a shame that kids can't do such simple things anymore in ANY neighborhood?)
A year into high school we were forced to move and though I still attended the same school, I now lived in a predominately white neighborhood. And I mean WHITE. Seeing other Latinos was like seeing Bigfoot in this area. When I started working at a store in this city, probably about 97% of my co-workers were white. We all got along pretty well until one of the guys I would stop and chat with on a regular basis went off on a tirade about Mexicans (although I'm pretty sure he was equally biased against all Latinos) and how they should send every single one back to Mexico, citizen or not, because they're all useless and filthy. He threw in a few racial slurs for good measure. You can imagine how immediately upset I was but I did not rip into this dude because I knew there would be no changing his mind about it. He apparently had no clue that I was Latino and thought I would be a sympathetic ear for his racism. We didn't use last names at this particular workplace. He definitely woulda known I was Latino if he had. A few days later, I hear he asked a co-worker if I was Latino and said he didn't think I was because I have green eyes (seriously dude?).
I don't know where this notion of Latinos all having dark skin, hair and eyes comes from but it is ridiculously off. Having been discriminated against myself on more than one occasion, I could never discriminate against anyone else. And, to me, it doesn't matter if it's racial discrimination or sexual discrimination or whatever else. I just cannot do it. A huge part of it is how I was raised. I grew up in a totally color blind household and it didn't occur to me that not everyone else did until I was probably 8 or 9 years old. I had a parent/teacher conference and my mom, who is light skinned, walked into my classroom with me and my sister and my teacher asked where my parent was. It's a no brainer for me; 'this is my mom, how can everyone not tell?' Whereas now, I'm used to hearing surprise when I introduce her as my mother (until they hear us interact and crack smart ass comments, then everyone actually believes we're related). Part of CNN's special focused on a town that is 98% white and made headlines last year because a Latino man was beaten to death by a bunch of white teenagers. Doctors said this poor guy's brain literally was falling out of his skull. Despite the obvious violence involved in the attack and the witness (and former cop) who saw a great deal of it, it took the police force two weeks to investigate fully and bring charges. The charges that were brought were complete crap. Two were charged with manslaughter and all were charged with assault and underage drinking. None were charged with a hate crime even though the witness heard them yelling racial slurs during the beating and the victim was known to face issues with race on a daily basis because he was engaged to a white woman and they had two children together. The murderers all went to trial and all were acquitted of all charges and people watching the trial actually cheered when the verdicts were read. The whole story just made me sick. It still does. CNN interviewed residents of the town about whether they thought it was a hate crime and one woman was saying she believed it was. She was doing her interview in her front yard and after she said she believed the crime was racially motivated another young woman came from around the corner and started yelling at her for saying anyone in that town was racist and for "misleading" the public into thinking those boys were guilty. It almost turned into a fight.
The attitudes in this country on this issue are many and varied. But, as it stands right now, this is a civil rights battle. You have millions of illegal immigrants who were all but encouraged to come here for years by the government turning the other cheek when the wealthy hired undocumented workers on the cheap. Now, those same workers want to become citizens and chase their version of the American Dream and people want to discourage that why?? Illegal immigrants are here and a great deal of them have built families here and they want to keep those families together and contribute to this country and this economy. I don't know why so many people are on board with trying to keep someone else down. That doesn't help anything. It seems like so many people have forgotten that, unless you're Native American, you are not a native of America either. Nearly everyone came here from somewhere else, including the white folks (Columbus didn't discover America, the Native Americans were already here and he enslaved and killed them). And I'm so sick of hearing people talk about how "wrong" it is that people don't speak perfect English or have accents that no one can understand. As if speaking without an accent makes you more American or something. Spanish is my first language, I didn't learn English until I was 5-years-old, does that make me less American? Of course not. Bilingual is better down the line. My daughter will be bilingual and she's curently learning in spanglish in our household and I'm proud of it. This is a battle that's gonna rage on for quite some time. And that's a shame because the longer it goes on, the more some people will suffer.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Grey Matter
Last week I found a grey hair in my beard and I shaved immediately. Like, could not shave fast enough. It was small and most people probably wouldn't have noticed it but I wanted nothing to do with it. This isn't the first time it's happened. About a year ago I found one on my chin and, again, shaved as soon as I saw it. Four years ago was when I saw my first grey hair and it was on my head. I was 24 years old and I was not in a good place at the time so my hair had grown out more than usual. I woke up and stared at myself in the mirror and noticed the grey and I cut my hair on the spot. (Do we notice a pattern here??)
I'm concerned about the length of time between grey hairs. It's shrinking with every birthday I celebrate. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for every birthday I see after my car accident. I just don't think I'm on board with the aging that they bring (especially as 30 looms on the horizon). People tell me all the time that I shouldn't worry about it, I'm 28 and I still look like I'm about 16. I've yet to buy alcohol without being carded, which is nice actually. None of my aunts or uncles or even my mother look their age, all are in their 50's and you'd never know it just by looking at them. But you can't control going grey. Since most of what determines going grey comes from the mother's side, I've started paying attention to my three uncles and what they've gone through so far.
Uncle A is pushing 60 and still has all of his hair and has no receding hairline. He's about 20% grey and the rest is still brown-ish. He's had a very slow greying process that started when he was about 35. I like this. However, Uncle B is in his mid-50's and his first grey hair surfaced when he was 27. By the time he was 35 his hair was almost all salt and pepper but his beard was still completely black. In the last three years all of his hair has gone white. I don't know about his beard yet, he hasn't grown one since his hair lost all coloring. Uncle C is the one that poses the most interesting scenario. He's 51 and his hair was the same shade of dark brown as mine until he turned 50. Four months after he turned 50, his hair turned grey in the span of one month. It remains the quickest time I have ever seen someone go grey. He's never dyed it and he actually looks pretty good with grey hair. I have looked exactly like this man my entire life. Our baby pictures are identical, except that his is in black and white. We both have the same eyes as my grandfather. So, in all likelihood, it seems like this is the scenario that will happen to me in 20 some odd years. What about grandpa, you ask? He never got the chance to age past 29 so we don't know what would have happened there. I guess it's nothing to worry about now, just something to think about. I do very much appreciate the good genetics, all things considered.
I'm concerned about the length of time between grey hairs. It's shrinking with every birthday I celebrate. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for every birthday I see after my car accident. I just don't think I'm on board with the aging that they bring (especially as 30 looms on the horizon). People tell me all the time that I shouldn't worry about it, I'm 28 and I still look like I'm about 16. I've yet to buy alcohol without being carded, which is nice actually. None of my aunts or uncles or even my mother look their age, all are in their 50's and you'd never know it just by looking at them. But you can't control going grey. Since most of what determines going grey comes from the mother's side, I've started paying attention to my three uncles and what they've gone through so far.
Uncle A is pushing 60 and still has all of his hair and has no receding hairline. He's about 20% grey and the rest is still brown-ish. He's had a very slow greying process that started when he was about 35. I like this. However, Uncle B is in his mid-50's and his first grey hair surfaced when he was 27. By the time he was 35 his hair was almost all salt and pepper but his beard was still completely black. In the last three years all of his hair has gone white. I don't know about his beard yet, he hasn't grown one since his hair lost all coloring. Uncle C is the one that poses the most interesting scenario. He's 51 and his hair was the same shade of dark brown as mine until he turned 50. Four months after he turned 50, his hair turned grey in the span of one month. It remains the quickest time I have ever seen someone go grey. He's never dyed it and he actually looks pretty good with grey hair. I have looked exactly like this man my entire life. Our baby pictures are identical, except that his is in black and white. We both have the same eyes as my grandfather. So, in all likelihood, it seems like this is the scenario that will happen to me in 20 some odd years. What about grandpa, you ask? He never got the chance to age past 29 so we don't know what would have happened there. I guess it's nothing to worry about now, just something to think about. I do very much appreciate the good genetics, all things considered.
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