Some indigenous girls in Mexico once asked me why there is racism in the United States. I stammered around awkwardly about fear and suspicion of other.
"Are you racist?" they asked. I told them sure, everyone's a little bit racist. "We're not," they all agreed. "There's no racism in Mexico." Awkward.
Take a stroll around Mexico and ask people about racism, and you'll find that it's true: there's no racism. I mean, you'll be called "guero" as you walk by (or "negro" if you're black, "chino" if you're any kind of Asian, and so forth). Oh, and you can only get into clubs if you have light skin. And all of the actors are pretty much white. And "indio," the word for American Indian, is a degrading thing to call someone. And if your baby has light skin your friends tell you you're "improving the race." Come to think of it, I think I've heard Mexico called a "pigmentocracy." But other than that, there's no racism.
Note: I hella think there's racism in the US, but it tends to be the subtler, more systematic, insidious kind of racism. The kind where we flip shit over language, overt stereotyping, and even using light/dark as synonyms for good/evil (no, really, this is the new thing), but then we drop an incinerator in a black neighborhood and call it a day.
Anyway, being one of these politically correct North Americans, imagine my reaction when I saw this on the Daily Show:
That's "for more security." It's an ad from a Swiss political party that wants to get tough on foreigners committing crimes, and I think it's a very insightful look on how race plays no part whatsoever in immigration issues. Right, Dobbs? Article here. And no, I don't know why this one is in French.
By the way, the tangentially related story during which this was shown is at least six times as infuriating as that ad.
If you've decided that the Swiss are a bit ridiculous, you haven't seen anything yet. I found this while researching this story. Cheers.
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