January 3, 2008

THE LATINO GHOST WRITER

Happy New Year to all of you reading this blog.

This will be a new item and we are hoping that it’s stimulating and informative.

Well here we are, 2008.

We have made our resolutions and some of us have even managed to keep them for more than the first

few hours of the New Year :-}

My resolution is to get off the fence and “do the right thing." In my case, the ‘right thing’ is to help

educate people, make a few controversial statements (according to my universe), and help to get people

thinking for themselves instead of being good followers, sheep. I say we have been good followers b/c we

have had lots of practice and it’s up to us to keep following or to cause some civil disobedience.

Oops, someone take my soapbox away, the civil disobedience thing is a topic for another day.

Today I want to discuss just one word, Minority.

I was sitting among a group of very astute and worldly people. Of course the conversation led to

Institutional Discrimination, and how most of us just take that kind of discrimination on the chin b/c we

feel that we’re doing okay just to have a job.

Oh no, I can feel the soapbox under my feet, plzzzzz take it away!!!

Back to the Minority word, in the conversation they kept referring to themselves as Minorities. Of

course, being who I am I had ask the exact meaning of this debasing word that I personally take offence

at being referred to as.

According to Encarta ® World English Dictionary, minority means:

1. Small group: a group of people or things that is a small part of a much larger group

2. Group with insufficient votes to win: a group that has fewer votes in an organization than

another group or groups

3. Smaller socially defined group: a group of people, within a society, whose members have

different ethnic, racial, national, religious, sexual, political, linguistic, or other characteristics

from the rest of society

4. Offensive term: an offensive term for a member of a minority group

5. Law nonadulthood: the state or period of being younger than the legal age of adulthood

(I will talk about 1-4, but will leave 5 for the youngsters to take issue w/)

Thinking about the Latina/o population, this can’t possibly be describing us! We are NOT small in

numbers, we HAVE sufficient votes to change our world, number 3 is just another way of saying DIVIDE

AND CONQUER, and finally, I find being referred to as a Minority is offensive in the EXTREME!

My challenge to you is to change the language. ‘They’ want us to stay demoralized to keep us in line.

Maybe we should call ourselves NON-WHITE, NON-CAUCASION, or maybe something better, just

NOT Minorities.

To quote an oldie but goodie by the 70’s group, Funkadelic,

Free your mind and your ass will follow.