El Otro Mexico

This weeks readings offered a new perspective on the recent discussions amongst politicians, media, and voters in regards to immigration, illegal immigrants and all that is involved with the border control of Mexico.

Although I hate to admit it, for the risk of sounding ignorant, when thinking of the immigration, illegal immigrant, and other laws that relate to the control of the Mexican border, I failed to realize, understand,or remember that this land, U.S., was Mexico’s land first.

How dare America have such angst and hate towards these people for crossing the border into a territory that was taken away from them, just as many exagerrating Americans feel this land is being taken away from them.

Mexico hasn’t threatened the U.S. of war for this land, there has simply been women, men, children, and families crossing the border into a land of appearingly more opportunity. As Anzaldua stated in, The Homeland, Aztlan, “Today we are witnessing la migracion de los pueblos mexicanos, the return odyssey to the historical/mythological Aztlan. This time, the traffic is from the south to north.

I really enjoyed Anzaldua using language in a way that most American readers are not use to with such terms as “Anglo terrorist”, and the phrase “Anglo’s migrated illegally into Texas”. This reveals how the telling of history is controlled by the speaker. Often the speaker for history is the dominant culture, and in the case of America, the speaker was the main culprit in oppresion against every type of diverse group or minority one can think of existing in America, so the history of these people, if not lost, has been maniplated and falsified into a  more favorable telling for America’s dominant culture.

Redefining Difference

I found the guest speaker from the YWCA domestic violence intervention and prevention program some what eye-opening due to the fact that there are thousands of women, in the greater- area alone, experiencing so many different types of abuse everyday and I feel like I am oblivious to it. Before having the speaker point out that there is a range of races that come in to the program and the Crenshaw article’s mention of how immigrant women experience such programs, I never really ever considered how women from different cultures deal with abuse, all while living in America.

Between the language barrier, different cultural norms, and other varying factors that exist amongst different cultures, there are so many variables to be considered in order to have these programs to not only exist but also better serve women as a whole, despite cultural or racial differences. Audre Lorde’s -Sister Outsider, stressed the importance of discussing and recognizing the differences that exist amongst women and at first, I have to admit, I was not sure that pointing out the differences of women was an  important step nor as necessary as simply helping the abused women. Now I understand that in order to help these women the differences need to be recognized and methods of helping and serving these women need to be adjusted accordingly in order to better serve.

Other points of Audre Lorde’s – Sister Outsider that I found interesting were her comments about the economic influence on our understanding of differences in America. How this country is set up and how success is determined in America undoubtedly affects how differences are categorized and economics, wealth, and the concept of a capitalistic society are just as important in the study of gender and/or race as any other more obvious concept, however I had not realized this nor truly understood this before reading this article.

Based on this weeks readings I better understand how differences need to be noted and considered when trying to right the wrongs society.

“…placed in pages of people’s history.”

One of the individuals in support of properly handling the bones of the Native Americans said, in context of the bones being studied and overall loss of the Native American identity in America, that it will be placed in pages of people’s history. This too me was the most powerful quote within the movie. This quote alone suggests the loss of the Native Americans history, for their history is in the history books of others, the others that likely mistreated the Native Americans and will re-write their history in support of their sense of patriotism.

This quote also points out that the use of science has been used to de-humanize these people and has succeeded in categorizing them as subjects to be studied.

The movie Bones of Contention presented complex feelings and issues for me. On one hand I believe it should be obvious what not to do with the bones of deceased Native Americans, but then on another hand, after hearing the arguments for studying I felt I may actually be able to be swayed in support of both arguments; however, I did not feel the arguments in support of studying the bones were very strong or presented as effectively as they could be.

Due to the not-so convincing arguments in support of studying the bones, I continue to believe that the idea of automatically wanting to study the bones is implicitly racist.

Why were the bones of the white individuals instantly looked over and put in a proper burial location? Is it because the bones of the Native Americans are so obviously “othered”, abnormal, less human…?

An interesting point brought up in the movie was that in America there is not just archeaology, but instead, colonial archealogy. This points out the importance of colonialism in the history of this country. The colonization that took place de-humanized these people decades ago, but to this day these people are seen as archealogical artifacts and still less human, although this may never be admitted.

With it being colonial archeaology the fact that the bones of whites were not of importance in regards to studying supports the idea that the Native Americans “otherness” was what led to them being subjects of study. Because if the claim is that they are being studied because they were alive in a different period, then why wouldn’t all bones of that period be studied? The colonial mindset that exsisted then is still present amongst some of the researchers today.

Something I was curious about was how the bones of the Native Americans was determined to have defects, was this in comparison to the bones of whites? If so, this is another representation of how white is the standard and all else is “othered”.

I believe, as much as the remains being researched may provide helpful information, due to this country’s history of “othering” certain races and then using this as a method of control, power and cruelty, one can not help but wonder the true intent of these researchers. Furthermore, the normalcy of quickly wanting to study the remains of these people is disturbing. To me it suggests that the ideas that existed amongst those colonists that mistreated these people in the past, is still prevalent, even if not outwardly stated.

Is Race Real…?

This unit was interesting due to the questioning it forced readers to consider.
It would be very easy for individuals to believe the notion of race is real, and several people do.
This unit forces individuals to realize or at-least consider that race is made up.
I remember when I my sociology professor discussed the fact that there are more variations within one “race” than there are when a “race” is compared to another “race”. I had heard the ideas that go with races so much that I had not ever questioned the idea of race, but just accepted what I was being told.

I think that not only myself, but others as well, are guilty of doing what I just mentioned. We go along with what we continue to be told and never question what we assume to be real.

The PBS website, The Power of Illusion: What is Race?, was an intriguing website and offered helpful tools in aiding with causing one to question the notion of race.

The website made the claim “The concept of race helped explain why some people could be denied the rights and freedoms that others take for granted.” This too me suggest that race was a completely made up concept that supported the ignorant mindset of the times, but for some reason this concept was able to hold on and is still around decades later.

I wonder if the idea of race being made up will ever be understood to be false amongst all of society in America…I highly doubt it, not because I am a realist or pessimist, but because what we know as race coincides with what we see immediately when we look at someone. Black, white, red or whatever color is one of the first, if not the first, thing anyone sees when looking at any person. If our eyes tell us that someone is a certain color, it’s easy to judge them base on what we already assume to be true of the others with the same skin tone.

America would somehow have to become blind to the color differences that exist in this country in order to move pass the notion of race.

Bell Hooks…Ain’t I Woman: Black Women and Feminism

Right away when I started reading this article I found myself having questions in response to Hooks’ arguments. For example, I failed to understand how Hooks could repeatedly suggest that only American women are experiencing an unknown ignorance in regards to racism. I would argue that this ignorance can be applied to both sexes. I am curious as to whether or not Hooks is making the claim that women are suffering from this ignorance more, or if she is simply just discussing this issue in regards to American women. The first line of her chapter four reads “American women of all races are socialized to think of racism solely in the context of race hatred”. I could not help but wonder if the exclusion of American men of all races is left out for a reason, because I, as an American woman, undoubtedly remember sitting in class, filled with young boys and girls, and learning of racism being basically race hatred. This was not only taught to the girls in class, it’s a similarity that I would say goes across gender, sex, race, or class lines amongst Americans.Hooks brought up the issue of how and what is taught to American children in favor of maintaining a perfect image of America. This issue has always been intriguing to me and I use to try to give the benefit of the doubt to teachers, I guess society as well. I figured since American history is taught early on the reality of this country’s history would be too complex for grade children to really grasp, and once these children are older, discovering the truth may cause more harm than good, in regards to inbreeding the sense of patriotism that this country maintains.

An issue we discussed in class that I found interesting and had never truly thought of was the fact that American women, although history of the women’s movement suggest otherwise, have always been divided due to slavery and all that took place in the molding years of this country. Due to this country’s early obsession with race, women have not really shared in a feeling of connectedness even when there was a movement that was thought to be for the benefit of all women.

In class we mentioned that ignorance has power because it can derail movements. I wonder if the separation amongst women during the first wave of the women’s movement ultimately shaped the future of how women exist in this country, I can’t imagine that this separation did not have a lasting effect.

We now are forced to live in a world in which the women were divided during their own movement, imagine the untapped potential this country will miss out on because of this division that existed during such an important movement for not only the women in this country, but for the country as a whole.