More fun:
An article on the incident from the San Francisco Chronicle.
This is looking more and more like a smear campaign.
Daniel
So far, despite all the noise, all I see is this:
-
Aztlan.net is a bunch of racist nutjobs.
1a. Aztlan.net likes MEChA. -
MEChA is a chicano/latino student group that promotes student group-type stuff.
2a. MEChA has used some phrases that could be misinterpreted as advocacy for a separate Hispanic state if you’re sloppy. -
Cruz Bustamonte was a member of MEChA in college.
Did I leave anything out? Because if not, it sounds to me like the only conclusion is -
Fox News took 1 + 1a + 2 + 2a + 3, jumped to the mistaken conclusion that Bustamonte is an anti-Semitic racist, and tried to smear him with it.
Crap – I’ve got a better article now.
Daniel
As I said before I’ve never heard of MEChA, I’ve looked on the internet for connections with Aztlan.net or accusations of antisemitism against them, but I haven’t found anything.
John: Thanks. He obviously can’t avoid addressing it forever, though.
You left out the fact that MEChA’s motto is clearly racist. If you don’t think so, I’d like to hire you as the spokesperson for this new group I’m forming. The new group’s motto is: “For Whites everything, for non-Whites nothing”. Your primary task will be to explain to the press that our group is not racist.
This is the only reference to Mecha I could find on ADL:
RJUNG: Oh yeah, you also left out that CB could clear the whole thing up by just answering a few simple questions and clearly stating that, although he was a member as a youth, he no longer supports MEChA because of the racist motto they continue to use.
Daisy Cutter, and how then is your conclusion of Aztlan.net then transferred over to Bustamante? How is what Aztlan.net says or does relevant to Bustamante?
Again, from the link provided by Dogface, here:
The above, in response to a homphobic e-mail sent by a member of Aztlan.net.
Do MEChA and Aztlan.net agree on everything? Perhaps in several areas the do (pride in one’s cultural heritage, importance of education, etc.), but obviously, the two depart when it comes to the more incindiary stuff like what happened above.
So, again, how does all this make Bustamante “a racist, jew-hating extremist?” (Nice, honest way to start off a healthy debate, btw :rolleyes: )
FYI, there’s a seperate thread regarding the n-word incident:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=207805
From the OP link Bustamante says:
I’d like an explanation from those who state the motto is racist, what exactly they think it means.
Sorry, blowero – I had both threads open at once, and realized belatedly that I was posting all my stuff in the less-relevant thread. I’ve crossposted the most interesting of my links over there.
Daniel
No, John Mace, YOU are making it the “racist motto they continue to use.”
El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan * was written up back in, 1969 (This link doesn’t even include the first paragraph nor the supposed “motto” so how important do you think that line is for this site to forget to include it?). Notice that MEChA is not mentioned anywhere in El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan? And notice the actual document that founded the MEChA organization, *El Plan de Santa Barbara, ends instead with the line, “Of the community, for the community.”? See how the line you originally claimed as its “racist motto” is more a call for community activism of Chicanos/Latinos?
If anything, the goals of MEChA seem more in line with the “pull yourselves up by your own bootstraps” thinking those on the right are always harping on.
And **errata, ** you are correct. As a former member of MEChA of UC Davis, I could not help but laugh after reading the claims by the OP and those made by others (especially the homophobia one by Dogface and those in the FOX story linked above. I mean, come on, Michelle Malkin?!? Ann Coulter’s evil journalistic little sister?!?).
I can assure you all, the Brown Berets, we were not.
“Raza” does not literally mean “Race”. It does not have the connotations as the word race in English. Any Mexican or Mexican-American with an education knows that there is no ‘pure race’ that would be inclusive of all Mexican people. If there is a Mexican/Chicano outside who does hold any racist views, then he or she is an utter idiot.
“Raza” would be best translated as “folk” or “people”. White Spaniards even use “Raza” to mean Spaniards and other Spanish Speakers “Dia De La Raza” is the Spanish name for Columbus Day for instance - because it was the day - in the Spanish viewpoint - that the “raza” went global. In Spanish “Raza” INCLUDES everyone from Italian man like Columbus to a mestizo in Tijuana or a black person from Havana - people who obviously belong to different “races” in the English sense. To plug in “race” every time “raza” is used is misleading.
All I can say is that the MEChA organization at Cal State San Jose has that motto on their web page. You can rationalize it all you want, but the fact is: it is there. And you can translate “raza” anyway you like (I did not translate it as “race”, BTW), but the second part of the Motto is racist and explicitly exclusionary.
Perhaps we should contact MEChA at SJSU and ask them to explain why that line is included in their web site. I’d be curious to hear their answer.
I predict this will be big trouble for Bustamante. You’re going to hear a lot about this until he renounces any current support for this organization and its aims. From one of MEChA’s national policy documents,
**
There is no way to slice it or dice it – MEChA is an avowedly separatist organization. There not the Hispanic NAACP, they’re the Chicano Nation of Islam.
They also use intentionally offensive racial slurs in their policy documents, making frequent use of the word “gringo.” Can you imagine the uproar if some candidate were to endorse a student organization that sought to drive out the “wetbacks” or “beaners?”
Now it’s true that they’re just a bunch of college students enjoying a bit of radical chic. I personally, think that no U.S. politician should have to defend anything they did or said before they were old enough to become president. So I certainly don’t hold Cruz’s college affilation with the group against him. However, it’s a whole 'nother thing to endorse such silliness as an adult. Cruz is going to get hit hard with this until he publicly disses MEChA’s stated goals.
Where does this “motto” appear, John Mace? On the home page of the web site you mention? Nope. Is it labeled as a motto anywhere? Nope. Is it repeated everywhere like a motto normally is? Nope.
Did you google the phrase, John Mace? Other than appearing wherever that specific document is reposted, do you see it repeated as a motto in any MEChA sites? Nope. Any quotes from MEChA members were they repeat this motto or use it as some chant or rallying cry? Nope.
Find any other sites which associate this one line appearing in a 1969 document as MEChA’s motto? Only at sites such as Newsmax, Fox, WorldWatchDaily and also the homepages of right-wing campus publications like The Austin Review. But that’s enough to make it their motto, right John Mace?
I sent an email to the SJSU chapter of MEChA to ask for their take on the use of that controversial slogan on their web site. I’ll post the reply here if I get one.
Truth You made some good points. The tone and the ideas in the Plan de Aztlan were so bizzar to me that I didn’t even notice the use of gringo therein. I’ll be pretty surprised if the press out here runs with this. Fankly, I don’t really care about what Bustamante says or doesn’t say. I’m not too afraid of him having any secret plans to unite CA with Mexico. But I’d like to see the student organization completely disavow any connection to the radical elements that seem to be there.
Go to the SJSU MEChA site and click on “El Plan de Aztlan” and you will find that “motto” right there with the SJSU MEChA logo at the top of the page. There is nothing to indicate that the “Plan” page is not an integral part of their web site. It has the look and feel of every other page on their site and, as I said, has their logo on the top. This is not a link to some other site.
From the Berkeley MEChA web site, my bolding:
I’m having a hard time believing that “El Plan de Aztlan” is some obsolete document from the 60s. It appears to be an integral part of MEChA today.