Immigration & Racial Profiling

Disclaimer: I started this post at the peak of my anger. I couldn't go on upset, I couldn't write upset, I didn't want to. Today, extremely fatigued I complete this work because I want to move forward and put this entry behind me. I have to say what is on my mind or it will fester. This is my outlet, thank you for reading.

I was born in the Bronx of Dominican parents. My sister and I were the FIRST generation born in the US in our (mother's) family. We take pride in the fact that we have acquired, for the most part, the "American Dream" that my grandmother painstakingly sought: the house, the children, better employment and most importantly, shoes on our feet (in my case many, many shoes). If we go back far enough, we'd find the Mexican who went to DR and made us the only Dominican Trejo family (yes, from Puerto Plata), or the Brazilian who contributed to my [very] curly hair and the last name Ferreira (pronounced feh-rai-rra in Spanish or in Portuguese feh-jay-ra, just not Ferrara). The point being that, I am offended by the law in Arizona as a brown person.


Friends who Wish me Harm?

My friend posted something to the effect that the new law in Arizona allowing people of Latin (Mexican) origin to be questioned and asked for ID is a wake up call for Latinos because as a Black man, and all other blacks they have been racially profiled for a long time. Other people chimed in agreeing that it was a wake up call for Latinos and the rest of the US. But how do they, as black Americans, know what we as Latinos go through on a daily basis? What you meant was that basically inequality is bad when it is only happening to you, you don't mind when it happens to someone else? How backwards is that? As Latinos - "somos una raza encendida, Negra, Blanca Y Taina" (Juan Luis Guerra) - we are mixed, but no one has ever mistaken us for white.

I once looked up Dominican in the dictionary and it said "Mullato" as in black and white. Mexicans in general are probably more "Metizo" because they are more Indio and white European - but in the end, we are not white. Or did you forget? One thing I have not forgotten, "Americans" love what we as Latinos do for them. American's love that we are not afraid of hard work and most of all YARD WORK, we are not afraid of dangerous conditions, construction jobs and venturing out to neighborhoods where we are not only the minority but we risk our lives living there (Suffolk County and many areas of Nassau County). We are not afraid of responsibility. Okay a lot of us do not speak English well, so the f**k what! When the explorer's "discovered" the Americas, the "Americans" DID NOT SPEAK ENGLISH either!

So the dumb-a** phrase "we are in America, speak English" really doesn't apply. It means nothing. Are the politicians from the US so self-involved that they think America is just theirs? The term "American" means nothing in any other part of the world because in other parts of the world, Mexicans are Americans, Brazilians are Americans, Costa Ricans are Americans, Colombians, Guatemantecos, and Canadians are Americans so you must declare the country you are from. In Spanish I am estadounidense, but it is a sad moment.

The United States prides itself in equality, being a melting pot, solidarity and all that other BS but only when it is convenient. You know what the difference between the Latino man being racially profiled and the black man? The Latino moves on! As Latinos, we endure just as much crap from the rest of world as the black man does; but you know what, we move on! We do not live with a huge chip on our shoulder that the world is against us. Whether it is or it isn't, hechamos pa' lante. I suggest you do the same: get a grip and get over it.

In preparation for this very personal rant, I came across this little poem. The New Colossus has a VERY FAMOUS excerpt...

The New Colossus , Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"





If it all means nothing, then it means nothing, but don't expect me to sit idly by and say nothing because I will not. I will not sacrifice the sacrifice my grandmother made many decades ago in the hopes that she will be able to provide for her family. I will not have my grandmother think that her sacrifice was in vain.

I have calmed down.

We, the Latino community never wished anyone harm, we just want to make some money to send to our family that couldn't be here with us. To us, the dream has nothing to do with being American, the dream is providing for a better life here, there or anywhere in between. My goal is not to offend, but to give another point of view.

Be Well & God Bless us all

~Charisse