Diego Hernandez: My Minority is Better than Your “Minority”
Diego Hernandez, who we last saw losing the election for EMU Board Senate Seat 6, wrote a letter to the editor in yesterday’s Ol’ Dirty Emerald in response to Sean Jin’s criticism of Ty Schwoeffermann’s guest commentary from last Friday.
While Jin’s letter was critical of “people of color” who held contemptuous attitudes toward white people, it was written in a rather conciliatory tone:
As one that identifies as a minority, I feel that it is my responsibility to emphasize how important it is to practice what we preach, and that the true solution to racism and ethnic bigotry is to create positive connections amongst different cliques and groups on campus. While I cannot fully understand the hardships and frustrations that many people of color have endeavored through to be where they are now, I have come to the firm conviction that community connection and communication is the ultimate key to equalizing opportunities for people of color.
Now, let’s contrast Jin’s words with those of Hernandez:
Sean Jin said that he had never experienced racism before he came to the University and it was not until people of color started “expressing their hatred and contempt for whites” that he saw ethnic bigotry… To assume that people of color only have hatred toward white people is bigotry. If standing up to racism and if fighting for equality is hatred, then so be it.
All right! Throw an accusation of bigotry at your editorial opponent. Way to come out swinging!
I think that Sean Jin has a problem with people saying “white people.” I do not think there is anything wrong with saying “white students” or “white people,” because when I say it I do not mean their pale skin, but because white people are the majority in this country.
OK, that… that really didn’t make sense. I’m going to replace some words in the last sentence of that quote and see what I can make of it: I do not think there is anything wrong with saying “black students” or “black people,” because when I say it I do not mean their dark skin, but because black people are a minority in this country.
Hmm.. still not making sense. I’m pretty sure Hernandez calls white people “white people” because they are, in many people’s opinions, light skinned. (I prefer the adjective, “pinky,” however.)
Jin missed the point completely of Ty’s article; all I see is a person trying to defend a culture he has assimilated to. Jin repeatedly mentions that he is a student of color and a minority as if that gives him credibility to talk about race.
So assimilation equals… bad? I don’t believe that assimilation requires giving up one’s native culture, but I’m pretty sure that’s what Hernandez is insinuating here. Also, I believe anyone who is currently breathing has the credentials necessary to discuss issues related to race.
It is not our job to educate people about oppression. It is hard to understand what you have not lived. I am tired of seeing people suffer, people being cheated out of opportunities, and I am especially tired of people who think they know what they are talking about just because they identify as a “minority.”
Wow, nice scare quotes there. Does anyone else get the impression that Hernandez believes that there are only certain minorities that are qualified to speak about oppression and intolerance?
What Hernandez is really trying to say is that Jin doesn’t have the credentials to talk about racism because Jin isn’t a member of a minority that has “suffered” or been “cheated out of opportunities.” Of course, Hernandez doesn’t go straight out and state this because, well, wouldn’t that be bigotry?
I get criticized all the time for being “petty” about how I-Fee dollars get spent, in the face of much greater financial barriers to education. Incidentally, I get accused of this by people who see making every ASUO Senator publicly admit to holding racist views as the most important step towards racial equality.
Tim hit the nail on the head, by pointing out the self-serving nature of what’s going on here. The politics of empty gestures, self-reighteous anger and self-important posturing are highjacking political discourse on nearly every issue. It’s so much more fun to make yourself the thought/speech police than to actually do the tough, unglamorous work of real activism, and all the while guilting others for not doing enough.
I like how oppression has gone from “being beaten up and maybe lynched by cops and other organs of the state” to “having to read opinions you don’t like in a student publication.”
In a way that’s a mark of progress: that instead of having to fight, daily, the real injustices of Poll Taxes and Jim Crowe, student activists are reduced to whining about funding levels and whether or not there are enough minorities in student productions of awful plays. However, articles like Schwofferman’s distract from real issues in favor of complaining that people he doesn’t like have rights too.
Rather than use his time and, previously, his column inches to address things like the sentencing disparity for crack cocaine, unequal treatment by police, and myriad injustices that are a direct result of the profligate and immoral war on drugs, Schwofferman chooses to bitch about inconsequential garbage. Why? Well, my working hypothesis is that he’s more interested in getting attention for himself than in solving any real problems.