So i heard Arnold Schwarzenegger on the news tonight. He was making a speech attempting to refute allegations that he is anti-Latino. Now, personally, i really don’t think that Ahnold is a racist or a xenophobe, but when are people going to learn that you don’t convince someone of your tolerance and acceptance by saying something like:
“I filmed four of my movies in Mexico.”
:rolleyes:
[Disclaimer: quote is as close as i can remember from the snippet they had on the news. Arnold may well have gone on to outline other pro-Latino policies he has supported, but i couldn’t yet find a transcript on the web.]
Regarding Bustamante: The vast majority of people that were offended by Bustamante’s statement, believed him when he apologized.
What is true now is that people who are bringing that up, are not the black activists, but I see many on the right being condescending on minorities for not continuing having a beef for that.
As for Schwarzenegger, he did vote for Prop 187 and Latinos do remember how hateful where those political TV ads (many by Pete Wilson) that featured scary footage of Mexicans sneaking across the border or that portrayed Latino (yes, not Mexican only) schoolchildren as a threat to California. And Ahnold just followed then. Now muscle man made a big deal of getting Pete Wilson’s support in his current run… well, allow me to say he is not trying very hard to get the Latino vote.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak17.html
“Speaking in Oakland in January 2001 to an African-American audience, Bustamante stumbled in reading a long list of historic black organizations bearing the word ‘‘Negro’’ and said ‘‘nigger.’’ Some black leaders criticized the lieutenant governor even though he apologized profusely.”
The point i was trying to make in my OP is not that Arnold is anti-Latino, or that his comment makes him a worse gubernatorial candidate. Of course, Brutus devotes five minutes and all three of his brain cells to turning the thread into a partisan political rant.
As i said in the OP, i don’t believe that Schwarzenegger is a racist, or that he is biased against Latinos in any way. Also, despite my own opposition to Prop. 187, i don’t believe that a vote for the Proposition is necessarily indicative of racism, although as GIGObuster pointed out the anti-Latino scare tactics of the advertising at the time did make many Latinos understandably angry.
The general point i was trying to make was more about people still seeming to have an idea that notions of racism can be refuted by simplistic references like the one made by Arnold.
If someone says you are anti-Latino, simply referring to the four movies you filmed in Mexico does not demonstrate otherwise.
If someone accuses you of being racist towards African-Americans, pointing out that a black woman cleans your house will not make a very strong case in your defence.
If someone alleges that you are an anti-semite, saying that some of your best friends are Jews will not do it either.
etc., etc.
Disclaimer to make Brutus happy: i think Bustamante’s use of the word "nigger’ was highly problematic also, even if it was just an accident. However, if as radical a black activist as Al Sharpton can forgive him, i probably can too.
Same goes for Arnold. This comment doesn’t really make me think any more or any less of him as a politician. He’s simply another example of a politician who puts his foot in his mouth when he’s not speaking from a prepared script.
One of my brain cells thanks you. Another wishes for some saganaki.
The third? What of the third brain cell you ask?
It wrote you this limmerick:
There once was a Dem from Sacramento,
Who at a speech uttered a no-no,
Quick to back-track,
Dems went on the Arnold-attack!
And pandered to voters, Latino.
This thread wasn’t started in an attempt to make a point about the California gubernatorial race. I’ve had my say on that issue in at least one other thread. I happen to agree with you that the Democrats are pandering to emotionalism by accusing Arnold of anti-Latino sentiment. That’s nothing new for Gray Davis and his ilk–he’s a master of negative politics.
I’ll say it again for the third and last time–i was making a more general point about the ignorance of some people when it comes to demonstrating their tolerance and acceptance of other racial/ethnic groups. But hey, if that concept’s a bit hard for you to grasp, i understand.
I don’t understand why the “Some of my best friends are…” line is so widely criticized.
I understand that for politicians, their policy actions speak louder than their personal friendships. But for the average person, how is this not a statement about your own lack of racism? Basically it’s saying “Not only am I politically okay with members of this race/creed/whatever, but some of the people I have chosen to be my nearest and dearest belong to this group, implying that I am emotionally okay with members of this group as well.”
I know there are a few people out there who are racist and will generally abuse and/or politically attack whatever group they dislike, but will make exceptions for people of the same group if they happen to become friends. However, it seems to me that having friends of a variety of races/persuasions/whatever is the best indicator that you are not especially biased.
The saying is quite an old one, and while it was first used about Jews, recently it have also been heard in reference to African Americans and other minority groups.
There are a couple of issues here. Firstly, and least relevantly, is that some people who use the expression do not, in fact, have many (or any) friends from the maligned group. They simply say they do in order to deflect criticism. But this is simply lying, and is not the most important manifestation of the phenomenon.
The key reason that this saying has been ridiculed is that the context in which it is used tends to reinforce group stereotypes. That is, while the bigot in question might have friends from the minority group, he or she tends to emphasize that those friends lack the characteristics that the rest of their racial or ethnic group possess. So, a bigot might believe that African-Americans as a group are lazy, shiftless and criminal, but might also have a few black friends who the bigot sees as being exceptions to the rule. The very presence of those few exceptions can even reinforce, in the bigot’s mind, the group stereotype.
I was reading an article on TomPaine.com a little while ago that explained the situation quite well:
So there you have my reasoning.
Now, i concede that Arnold’s reference to filming his movies in Mexico is not a perfect analogy. Schwarzenegger did not make any disparaging commments about Hispanics, and i have already said that i don’t think he’s a bigot.
But if he expects us (or me, anyway) to swallow his argument that filming a few movies in Mexico is evidence of his respect for Latinos, then he’s dreaming. If he were more honest, he would say that the movies were filmed in Mexico because the good climate, appropriate settings, strong US dollar, and low wages made Mexico an attractive location for certain types of movies.
I’ll reiterate: i don’t think Arnie’s a bigot; i just think he used specious reasoning in an attempt to convince us of the fact.
In addition to the points mhendo made, “Some of my best friends are…” is in the same class as “I’m not a racist, but…” It almost always seems to be used in order to justify a bigoted statement.
