Back in February, Bustamante slipped and said the n-word in front black trade unionists. That’s pretty bad, but I don’t think it necessarily means anything by itself; you hear the word in movies and rap music and thus it’s going to be in your subconcious. God knows that sometimes when running into my friends, I’ve had the urge to say, “How’s my niggas do’n?” but, even though that might be funny, I always nix that one.
Then I hear about this MEChA and their “Por la raza todo. Fuera de la Raza Nada.” motto and I start to wonder did he accidentally say publicly a word he likes to use privately. “For the race, everything. For those outside the Race, nothing.” is how I’ve usually seen that phrase translated, and it makes it seem like MEChA is some racial supremacist group. Actually, it’s so blatantly racist that it’s almost quaint. There are many organizations out there I would consider racist, but they at least use code language. I decided to do a little follow up myself and see if MEChA is really as bad as I’ve been hearing.
So I do a Google search for MEChA, and, among hits about robots and anime, I find this page with links about MEChA and links to campus webpages. MEChA seems to be reacting to charges of racism with charging racism. One interesting article states how “Por la raza todo. Fuera de la Raza Nada.” is not their motto, but “La union hace la fuerza” (Unity creates power) is. So I go to one example MEChA webpage, and there is there symbol a bird with what looks like dynamite and some other object and indeed that slogan about unity. Also linked to by this page, though, is El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, in which the statement “Por la raza todo. Fuera de la Raza Nada.” does appear. I find this document on a lot (but not all) MEChA pages. The statement in question happens to be the only part on it in Spanish, the rest of it plain for us to read who haven’t gotten to ordering our learn to speak Spanish tapes yet (I’m going to do it one of these days). It’s a bit creepy, especially the parts about self-defense (defense against whom?).
I’ve been unable to find anyone from MEChA explain the “Por la raza todo. Fuera de la Raza Nada.” (I have sent e-mails just now), so I sent the statement to IMAO’s official translator, Margarita. Here is what she said it means:
Por la raza todo – For the Race, everything
Fuera de la Raza Nada – Outside of the Race, nothing
That’s pretty similar to what I’ve been hearing, but her interpretation of it was a bit different (emphasis hers):
I look at the second part of the slogan as just being nationalistic. It is not saying that the outside race (non-chicano/hispanic) will not get anything from the MEChA group, it is much more that the chicanos need to look out for themselves first and above all. I don’t see it being racist as they are not empowering themselves over anyone else, just empowering themselves first before anyone else since no one else does.
It would seem the controversy would go away if Bustamante would just denounce the group, but he won’t. Defenders say that El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán is read to literally by most people, and that MEChA is mainly about helping Hispanics get an education (Hispanics having a very high drop out race). I don’t know, still, and am stuck between believing Bustamante won’t denounce MEChA because he feels real affinity towards the group or because he doesn’t want to offend racist Hispanics. I hope the media explores the issue more, because I don’t like the idea of racist groups occupying so many college campuses and a racist man being elected governor of California… but perhaps I’m just wrongheaded on the issue.
Pejman, at Pejmanesque, has an excellent roundup of the information on MECHA.
Follow the link, for information.
There’s little reason to believe that Bustamante is racist, but asking him about the racist aspects of the organization is a very legitimate question.
And he should have an answer.
And that answer should be clear.
This is not a difficult question, in this day and age.
It makes me wonder why he’s taken so long to denounce the racist aspects. (ethnicists?)
(thought: If Bustamante wins, do we get to call his term “Busta Times”?)
Frank J. — typo in line “Hispanics have a very high…”
Frank, what if we are white, but we tan well? Then, would MEChA like us?
So where is it written that only Caucasians can be ‘racist’?
Probably in the same book that came up with “reverse discrimination”.
It’s another fine mess the media has gotten us into.
“For the race, everything. For those outside the Race, nothing.” That would be a good slogan for a pit crew. Maybe they’re just huge NASCAR fans.
Even assuming too much is being read into it, if he had been a white man in a white-only club, and even if they said “We don’t have anything against other races, we’re just trying to help ourselves” he’d be run out of town so fast his head would spin – justifiably so, in my opinion.
And while he profusely apologized for tne “N” word, white people that correctly use the word “niggardly” are pronounced racist.
Anyway, this guy either doesn’t understand basic economics (as with Davis) or panders to those who don’t. He wants to add $8 billion in taxes on a weak economy AND wants to put price controls on gasoline. Price controls = shortages/rationing. Always. I remember what gasoline shortages were like. You idle so long waiting for one of the few open pumps that you eat up any possible savings there might have been. And it isn’t fun.
Oh, I should have said “wasp” instead of “white” I suppose. I used to think of hispanic as white, but apparently I’m wrong. Well, at least that’s what I hear from people like this fellow.
sounds communist to me, lets nuke their asses
If someone wants to give MEChA the benefit of the doubt that their organization is just a cultural heritage club, then they need to shut up about the Confederate flag…
VR, I always thought of most Hispanics as white people too. A lot of them have Indian blood, but so do lots of other people who call themjselves White. Like me. Or my half Apache wife.
interesting that they want to help correct their race’s high dropout rate by…
Action #2: September 16, on the birthdate of Mexican Independence, a national walk-out by all Chicanos of all colleges and schools to be sustained until the complete revision of the educational system: its policy makers, administration, its curriculum, and its personnel to meet the needs of our community.
…dropping out?
White man isn’t keeping you down, you’re keeping yourself down.
Frank:
Re that “Plan Espiritual”:
Look at Item 7: “Where we are a majority, we will control; where we are a minority, we will represent a pressure group; nationally, we will represent one party: La Familia de La Raza!” Certainly not nonpartisan or multipartisan. And that “one party” remark gets me. Can you hear Hitler saying this in the mid-30s: “Where we are a majority, we will control; where we are a minority, we will represent a pressure group; nationally, we will represent one party: Die Familie der Rasse!” (emphasis added) or, “Die Familie des Volk!”?
And under the plan of action, what does “Self-Defense against the occupying forces of the oppressors at every school, every available man, woman, and child” mean? And who are the oppressors? Surely they don’t include the Chicanos. They must be people other than the “bronze” peoples. And this: “A nation autonomous and free – culturally, socially, economically, and politically” (emphasis added); what is this but separatism?
If ever Aztlan were to be created out of the southwestern United States, what would happen to all of the non-Hispanics living there?
How can this be described as anything but revolutionary, separatist (and Marxist) rhetoric? If MEChA were really about promoting education for Hispanics, and other benign things, then that’s what we would be reading about on their web sites, like one does at the United Negro College Fund, for example, or at the NAACP.
And here’s another thing that gets me about MEChA: they denounce Europeans as the “evil interlopers,” and they praise themselves as the “noble natives,” but even a cursory glance at the history of Mexico would show that these Chicanos also have European blood in them! They are descendants of natives, yes, but also of Spanish colonists! They speak Spanish, a European language, for Heaven’s sake! Now, if having European blood cannot be a criterion for being an “oppressor,” then something else must be. Might it be not being a Chicano? Might it be being white?
And if the United States, as having been formed out of the colony of an invading European power, has no right to exist, then neither does Mexico, which was formed out of a colony of an invading European power. (And, for that matter, neither would Canada or any other modern state in the Americas, since they are all states that have been formed from European colonies.)
Aztlan, like Arab Palestine, is a fictional state which never existed.
Frank, you’re “pretty fly for a white guy”.
or rabbi. whichever.
If nobody else but Latinos will empower Latinos, what am I doing teaching them English every week?
An interesting story, BTW… one of mi estudiantes told me that when he came to Los EEUU, he was astonished by the people who volunteered their time to do things for other people. He is extremely grateful for the teachers because “… in México, nobody would ever do this. They’re too busy looking out for themselves.”
Weird.
Uhh Huhh …
Bustamante (D) says that this is ok …
For the race everything. For those outside the race nothing.
Hmmm … Trent Lott (R) said —
“When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years either.”
Davis (D) said that “you shouldn’t be governor unless you can pronounce the name of the state.”
Okay … now who has paid the price for their asinine comment?
Which part ostracizes the members who make bigoted and racially divisive comments?
Oh, yeah – the party that actually pays a price for them.
I suggest they change their motto to
“For those who took it first, everything.
For those who took it second, nothing.”