Recently, I wrote about America’s love affair with guns. One argument that Second Amendment proponents use, to great effect, is that an armed citizenry prevents government tyranny.
Indeed, there are many Americans who believe that a “disarmed society is an obedient society…in which, at the extreme, people obey their own government’s orders to follow the line into the gas chambers.”
Well, that certainly is an unpleasant image.
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A year ago, I wrote about how the Great Recession hit Latinos hard. At the time, I was hopeful that the worst was behind us. Perhaps that was my natural Hispanic tendency to be optimistic.
After all, Latinos “are worse off, but they are still more positive about where the country is going” compared to most Americans. In particular, “Latino small-business owners are among the fastest growing and most upbeat [groups] in the nation,” and they “worry less about job security and are more positive and humble.”
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Perhaps it’s appropriate in a week in which the state of Arizona is revving up its police force to shout, “Show us your papers.” And they do mean anyone.
I’m talking about identity and the issues that erupt when we apply that word to ethnicity and or politics.
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Many Americans insist that prejudice is extinct in our post-racial society, where we have a black president and everything. Of course, the officially sanctioned use of racism (ala Jim Crow laws) is a distant relic of the past, and no governmental or academic institution still exhibits racist behavior.
Nope.
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I was in the first generation of kids who grew up with Sesame Street. Even at a young age, I recognized how rare it was to see fellow Latinos on television, much less a happily married, well-adjusted couple like Maria and Luis.
I wasn’t even traumatized when Grover would get all quiet, lean in to whisper to a little Hispanic child, and then start shouting and waving his spindly arms around. Seriously, he did that a lot.
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Congratulations to Deacon Nick, who won this week’s contest for the Expendables 2 prize pack. I hope he enjoys the movie and the swag.
And to the makers of the action-movie franchise, let me just ask, “Would it kill you to have a Latino member of the squad in Expendables 3?”
Just a thought.
Here at Hispanic Fanatic world headquarters (which is basically me and my computer), we’re wilting under the summer heat. So we’re going to lighten the mood with another contest. This one is a little different. Rather than give you free passes to a movie, I’m going to send out what the Hollywood studios call a “premium prize pack” tied to the release of The Expendables 2.
The premium prize pack includes the following items:
1 t-shirt
1 temporary tattoo
1 DVD of The Expendables
1 dog tag
1 poster
All you have to do is comment on one of my posts (including this one) and you’ll be entered for the chance to win. Once again, your comment can be about anything, and if you’re stumped, just tell us why you would want to be a member of this multiracial crew of mercenaries.
If you win, I’ll send you an email requesting your name, address, and phone number so I can send the items. By the way, I won’t make your contact info public, so don’t worry about that.
I’ll announce the contest winners in the next week or so. Until then, keep working on your flippant one-liners to taunt the bad guys.
There’s a new horrifying sign that America is on the decline.
I’m not talking about the chaotic state of our politics, or the struggling economy, or even the fact that half of us refuse to acknowledge basic scientific facts.
I’m referring to the recent implication that white conservative guys can’t casually throw around racial slurs anymore. Truly, it’s a sign of the apocalypse.
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A few weeks ago, the head of the NYPD criticized Latinos and blacks for tolerating gun violence. Commissioner Ray Kelly’s timing could not have been more exquisite, for as we all know, some nut in Colorado has decided to take part in that most American of activities: the mass shooting of strangers.
Although it’s true that “America’s Hispanic population suffers from firearm violence at rates far greater than the U.S. population overall,” the idea that Latinos are more accepting of violence is darkly hilarious. After all, most of the mass shootings that grab headlines have taken place in predominately white small towns and suburbs.
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According to many sources, Dr. Carlos do Amaral Freire can speak more languages — 115 — than anyone alive. But before you feel too intimidated, keep in mind that the professor is fluent in a mere 30 or so.
One has to wonder how balancing all those verb tenses and irregular conjugations has affected his mind (although as we know, people who speak multiple languages have more agile brains). In fact, there is some evidence that the languages we speak influence the very way we think.
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