Y’all, I feel for you, for this dumpster fire of an election year y’all are having, I really do. But I’m sort of laughing too.
Mexico and the U.S. are inexplicably linked. We will always be bound together, in one way or another; land stolen in the name of Manifest Destiny, the land you “bought” from courtesy of Santa Ana, the Mexican American war, the NAFTA agreement, and so on, decades and centuries and ever.
I grew up hearing white people benevolently telling me that my country was a mess because we weren’t smart, or we weren’t good at gaining God’s favor, or we were unlucky, and for a time I believed that. I didn’t get to vote until after I was deported, my 28 year old ass optimistic as ever, because in the States I had learned that voting was important and made a difference and because even though I could not stand Manuel Lopez Obrador, he was better than Enrique Peña Nieto, the buffon who could not even name three books he had read that he loved, who could not tell you the reason why his wife had died under suspicion circumstances, the man who had proved he was an idiot, a misogynist, and unfit for office.
I cast my vote with all the hope in the world, a person fully formed in two countries, and woke up to find that this buffon was now my head of state. In the years that followed, feminicide has increased- Mexico state (notcountry, there is a difference) boasts one of the highest rates in the country with 6 women murdered every day. We have 43 missing students, the peso continues to lose value, inflation has gone up, gas prices have increased, and recently, Peña Nieto -a man I did not vote for, and who #NoEsMiPresidente- invited Donald Trump, and did not challenge him for shit, did not allow the press to ask any questions and spoke of a misunderstanding, inciting the rage of Mexicans everywhere and the lowest approval rate in the history of a Mexican presidency (between 17%-22% depending on the outlet).
The Mexican people have weathered enormous tragedy, tyranny, and opposition, much at the hands of foreigners (the U.S. for the most part), and much at the hands of our leaders, and we overcome. They try to kill us, but like seeds, we grow.
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I don’t know how grabbing someone by the pussy works. I can deduce so much from that sentence- poor grammar for starters, lack of general knowledge of genitalia (pussies are not mugs, afterall), hideous bedside manners, shoddy skills. In the context of a 60 year old, rich, straight white dude who is running for president and bantering along with a guy he sees himself reflected in (Billy Bush is, afterall, a rich white dude who is famous, straight, blonde, blue eyed) there is a lot to pick apart.
We know that Donald Trump only deems a small percentage of women worthy- white women, under 35, thin, able bodied, straight, European or of European descent, who can add to his wealth in some perceived fashion. Women who can be trophies for men like him. This narrows down who gets to be a woman.
There is now a long list of Republicans who are now denouncing him, Republicans who, for the most part, towed the party line and decided that supporting Trump was better than supporting Hillary, because, their humanity wasn’t questioned, and they were, for the most part, people who fell either under the Billy bush category of humans or the people-Trump-considers-women humans. And so, the chest beating, and lines in the sand, and distance came from people who mostly wanted to talk about their wives, and daughters and children. Let’s pick a little at this.
Donald Trump went after the last line of defense for a lot of these folks- the people in their own family. In a few short words, this large group of people saw the verbal manifestation of the waters flooding their own home, because now it was personal. Yes, people were outraged and have been outraged by Trump since the beginning. But now, the large contingency of white folks who have the luxury of vacillating between a Trump and Clinton presidency have had their fence removed; if Trump comes for their family, they realize they may very well be next.
Trump is your mirror. These new outspoken folks only see women who are their wives and daughters and mothers as women- all other women are conditional apparently.
Trump started his candidacy by being violent towards Mexican women, declaring them all a problem. See, you thought it was just men, because he said rapists, and forgot that he didn’t even see Mexican women as existing, their bodies invisible, their deaths nothing more than a shrug for him. His Wall and his mass deportations would undoubtedly include millions of Latinas and Hispanic women.
He’s continued being violent towards Muslim women by deeming the Muslim community as terrorists, by saying they cheered during 9/11, by saying they are not allowed a voice and denying them autonomy in their grief. He continued to fire the flames of the Ground Zero Mosque bullshittery, and asked for a ban on all Muslims entering, which would consist of large numbers of women.
He’s been violent towards black women, describing black folks as living in inner cities. Trump apparently doesn’t know that they live outside of that very racist stereotype. He’s been violent in denying black tenants and violating the Fair Housing Act, in asking all black employees off the floor in his casino, in continuing to criminalize black bodies even after they have been proven innocent (Central Park 5), and telling black voters- huge amounts of these being black women- that they were living in poverty, had bad schools, no jobs and had youth that was 58% unemployed (facts, who needs them?).
He has been violent towards Native women, calling Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas for her Cherokee ancestors, and saying that some tribes had a “record of criminal activity [that] is well documented”.
He has been violent towards disabled women, mocking disabled people, and asking terminally ill folks to “hold on until November” and vote for him.
He has been slow to denounce the leaders of the KKK and white supremacy groups who support him.
All of these communities are composed, in large, by women. He has been violent towards women all along. We just haven’t been considered women. You don’t see us.
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I am troubled by this perception of the lesser of two evils, for a lot of reasons, but the main one is this: Trump is only one of the heads of this particular hydra. There are still large numbers of people voting for him- his retweets and likes on Twitter and Facebook number in the thousands, his followers, in the millions. The only conversations I see are pushing just until November, like somehow, a Hillary vote will just be better, ignoring the fact that 1)The Clintons were fine with Trump, until he tried to crush them for getting in his way and 2) these millions of Trump supporters will go home and be angry, and will go back to jobs where they serve black and brown and Asian and Native and disabled folks and Muslims. The big picture here is that this problem goes past November, and you need to fix it. White Americans know very little about fixing shit among themselves.
They can fix it when it comes to taking things away from other people, like land, or autonomy or personhood because they can’t even see things in context (i.e. Trump has been violent towards women since he started his candidacy, but somehow Mexican and woman don’t go together to a large contingency of folks, etc.), but what happens when it creeps up on them? This is a white man who cares for no other white folks, except a very few number. He has made this clear. That is the outrage. That his priority is not on whiteness, but rather on the Billy Bush´s of the world. The Nancy O’Dell’s felt themselves included, until he declared their body his plaything, and this disrespect for a significant portion whiteness suddenly was crossing a line.
This is new territory- whiteness destroying itself. Centuries of oppression and violence have made resilience an almost genetic thing for our communities. I see the corruption of my country and the growing pains in the complicated histories of my people and find hope: We have over come this. We have got this.
But you, white U.S. voters- I don’t know that you do. Because while one tiny handed man treats genitals like coffee cups, you think this all ends in November. This is a castle to be taken apart, brick by brick. It’s not just Trump, afterall, most people have not been seeing women where they have been all along.
Pride may come before the fall- but blindness is right behind it.
Azul Uribe
Azul is a binational (culturally) girl who currently resides in Merida, Mexico with her cat Chloe. Her work has been published in numerous other blogs, including Young Mormon Feminists, and she writes about re-assimilating , immigration and life in general over at www.happycosmopolite.wordpress.com. Her favorite Beatle is George Harrison and she hopes to someday be able to own a puppy.
All posts by Azul Uribe
VERY WELL WRITTEN!!!!
GO GIRL!!!
You are very welcome to visit me in Utah if you wish. I would love to talk to you. I am from Spain and live here now, and I am working in a project with our Hispanic community. If you are interested to know more about it you can email me at aco4spain@hotmail.com
Mayte
How nice to be lectured by someone who has an ax to grind against white people. Why is Rational Faiths allowing this excrement to be put out? Gee, can I write a screed against Hispanics or Blacks now? Is this an open forum for trashing people you hate? I thought this was a forum about FAITH. I guess I was mistaken.
There are plenty of screeds against Hispanics and black folks, a lot written by Mormons, Google is your friend
Thanks, Bruce, we’re all drinking your white man tears like wine with our dinners tonight.
Is the objective here to eliminate abuse based on gender or race?
You would make more progress if you weren’t guilty of the very behavior you are condemning. So someone writes a screed against blacks. Why is your best response another screed attacking the race or gender of the author? A person writes a comment disagreeing with ideas you espouse. Is it really optimal to mock her based on her race and gender? Does the gender of the pronoun in that last sentence matter? Because it shouldn’t.
Bruce’s comment reflects the fact that he found the post unconvincing. Did the post offer evidence that Trump’s offensive behavior generalizes to all white males? If so, perhaps Bruce missed it, and you could point it out. If not, maybe the author could improve here future writing and more persuasively make her case. This is called constructive dialogue.
If there is indeed a problem with “White America”, a thoughtful author should be able to make a compelling argument, one that is capable of convincing more than those that already agree with her.
It’s cute how you’re playing like either of you commented with the intent to have some constructive dialogue. Both of you made completely dismissive comments, so you can’t turn around and point the finger back at me for not being gentle with you.
Pardon me, but I think I know men showing up to let women know how wrong they are when I see it. I have seen it *a lot.* I know when engaging in dialogue will be worth it and when it will not.
I disagree with the idea that when dialogue will not be “worth it”, the default should mockery of gender and race.
I am sorry you seem to think you have so many enemies. Please don’t count me among them. Speaking as one human to another, I think you will find more friends and more friendly interactions if you don’t assume disagreement means fight to the death. Not every comment on the internet is written in the spirit of hate and snark.
Also, I think this dialogue has been worth it.
I am thoughtful, I just wasn’t thinking about you @Ted or @Bruce and I wasn’t trying to convince you.
I can already predict how that is gonna go- you are gonna get indignant, and tell me that I should be trying to engage with people like you (Nah, I shouldn’t, I don’t owe you that) and good luck making change without getting you guys on you on my side!
Let me start by explaining, again, that I don’t write to try to convince or get anyone on my side, I write for myself, to express myself and I don’t lay awake at night about guys who were literally not asked to come and read something and give me their tired, L.L. Bean, button up, two cents that I didn’t ask for.
Also, engaging in a discussion is asking questions, not going in to places and telling people how damn wrong they are.
You weren’t interested in engaging, you were offended that I didn’t prioritize your feelings or the feelings of people like you in a post *I* wrote with *my* thoughts and feelings and observations and lived experience, and then you had the gall to get huffy with @Leah who has sharpened her discussion skills with people with more skill and finesse and subtlety than your Old Spice Deodorant logic.
I mean, I am just telling you, not on my corner buddy, and so is Leah, so, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.
No, I am not indignant. And whether you owe it to me or not, you are engaging with me, just not in a way that is constructive. And I am sorry that seems to be the default mode of discussion here.
I have no qualms about your choice to write for yourself, but its disingenuous to suggest that that’s the end of it. Why advertise your other writings? Why link to your blog? You want others to read what you are writing.
You believe that your thoughts and feelings have value. Here I am reading and responding. I agree that your thoughts and feelings have value.
I suggested that this particular piece of writing seems uncomfortable, underdeveloped. I did not suggest a particular remedy to these issues because, “Nah, I shouldn’t, I don’t owe you that”. You’re the writer, you know if you can, should, or want to fix it.
I’m not saying you are a bad writer, that you are wrong, or that you have no place to express yourself. I did not say the post is bad because you are a woman. I made no personal attacks.
As for discussion skills, I would love to see them used. So far all you or your friend Leah have done is respond in what seems to be approaching hatred. Why?
Let’s discuss this: Donald Trump is sexist and racist cad. Why do these qualities extend to those of his same race and gender, as you suggest?
You are trying way too hard to force your opinions of race into this issue. The whole thing reads like the ideas themselves are uncomfortable with where you have put them. After carefully reading, all I can say that it was written by a non-white, female author who really dislikes Donald Trump.
excuse me, you are mistaken, I don’t like anybody lol
This comment is a denial of the obvious race issues with this election. After carefully reading, all I can say is that it was written by a white male without a clue.
LMS, you commit the classic error of the ideologue by assuming that because I am critical of the writing of the piece, I disagree with the ideas it expresses. The opposite is true.
I object to the redefinition of the word ‘violence’ in a neo-activist sense. And I object to the guilt by association that is assumed on white men as a result. Trump is guilty of violence to Mexican women because his comments didn’t specifically mention them? He is doing violence to African Americans by making an overly general statement about inner city demographics?
Why must one work so hard to manufacture offenses like those above when Trump furnishes genuine offense so readily? He has confessed privately to what amounts to sexual assault! He espouses overtly racist beliefs!
This rhetoric is designed to convince readers that the author’s issues are on par with what most people mean when they use the word ‘violence’. Unfortunately for the her, I doubt many people put Trump’s use of the words ‘inner city’ on the same level as the violence being done to innocent people the world over through war, crime, or even traffic accidents. However, sexual assault is indeed right up there with the first two.
In closing, yes, I am a white male. Surprise! We exist, and some of us are actually interested enough in the issue to read and comment here. I would also guess that since you seem so antagonistic toward people of my race and gender, it follows that we are the population whose opinions it would be most advantageous for you to influence and change. Neither this post nor your comments here are likely to do that. It requires intelligent, logical, compelling arguments to change opinion.
I am thoughtful, I just wasn’t thinking about you @Ted or @Bruce and I wasn’t trying to convince you.
I can already predict how that is gonna go- you are gonna get indignant, and tell me that I should be trying to engage with people like you (Nah, I shouldn’t, I don’t owe you that) and good luck making change without getting you guys on you on my side!
Let me start by explaining, again, that I don’t write to try to convince or get anyone on my side, I write for myself, to express myself and I don’t lay awake at night about guys who where literally not asked to come and read something and give me their tired, wrinkled ass, L.L. Bean, Lazy Boy two cents that I didn’t ask for.
Also, engaging in a discussion is asking questions, not going in to places and telling people how damn wrong they are.
You weren’t interested in engaging, you were offended that I didn’t prioritize your feelings or the feelings of people like you in a post *I* wrote with *my* thoughts and feelings and observations and lived experience, and then you had the gall to get huffy with @Leah who has sharpened her discussion skills with people with more skill and finesse and subtlety than you Old Spice Deodorant logic.
I mean, I am just telling you, not on my corner buddy, and so is Leah, so, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.
This article is poorly written… Not the quality I’m used to seeing on RF. Leah Marie Silverman, go hide underneath your umbrella!
I’m going to take that as an endorsement for female ordination. Thanks, Mark!
Ted, what a fat liar you are. Look at all the responses. Every one is an attack on the “white” guy. You are all racist hypocrites of the worst kind. Pretending to be open minded and inclusive only to viciously attack any one who dares to disagree with you. Silverman can’t wait to show off her sexist and racist bigotry and loves to spit on anyone who disagrees with her. So much for feminist dialog…it always degenerates into man hating spittle spewing from their lips.
Idk if you knew this but racism refers to institutional power. I can be prejudiced against white dudes (and I am, esp for you big boy) but I can’t be racist because surprise! I don’t have institutional powers!
Also, how rich that y’all are coming after Leah too- men say they are not as irrational because women are the feeling ones, and here we have a prime example of a dude who got his feelings hurt and decided to write much without saying anything AND whine about it.
Also, why is white in quotation marks, have white men ceased existing, do I not have to worry about Trump anymore, is this a day of celebration
Guess I hit a nerve here. 😉
Great contribution Azul. Can’t wait for all the commentary denying our collective racism/sexism/ableism/… White America has a problem, we just can’t seem to wake up to it.
I think Donald Trump is the grossest wake up call, so, I feel hopeful
Azul, let me first say how great this piece is. How I love your writing and insights.
Then let me say how hard I laughed at “pussies are not mugs, afterall”.
can we make mugs that say “pussies for small hands”, we could make bank, consider this lily
I love this f#$&ing Sh$#t!!! It’s Scott time RF allowed some adult conversation!