1. Why is Cinco de Mayo all about drinking Tequila and pretending to be Mexican (performing “brown-face”)?
  2. What is Cinco de Mayo?
  3. When was Cinco de Mayo introduced to the USA?
  4. For what reasons was Cinco de Mayo introduced to the USA?
  5. In what ways has white America appropriated Cinco de Mayo?
  6. Are there any parallels in which St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo are celebrated in the USA by white Americans?

All these questions and more are discussed in this episode of The Racism 101 Podcast with Dr. Darron Smith, Azul Uribe, and Miguel Barker-Valdez.

Please leave an email question for Dr. Darron Smith to answer on the podcast by filling out the form below. We encourage our listeners to email us a voice-mail question so we can play it on the podcast. Also, please share this podcast with friends if you find this series helpful.

Dr. Darron Smith and Miguel Barker-Valdez (please sure to scroll down and see pictures posted at the bottom of this episode)

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    Click on the following links to learn a little more about Cinco de Mayo and its history in the USA. Also see pictures of Benito Juarez, Emperor Maximilian,  Napoleon III. and a map of Mexico showing where Puebla, Mexico City and Vera Cruz are in relation to each other  Also we’ve embedded the video from MSNBC that has some huge racist problems with regards to Cinco de Mayo.

    From History.com
    White People doing Cinco de Mayo wrong
    About the Chicano Movement and the corporate monotization of Cinco de Mayo

    Benito Juárez

    Emperor Ferdinand Maximilian (Maximiliano in Spanish)

    Emperor Ferdinand Maximilian (Maximiliano in Spanish)

     

    Napoleon III

    Napoleon III

     

     

     

     

    Map showing Puebla, Mexico City, and Vera Cruz

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The shirt Miguel had made after chatting with Azul on this podcast episode.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Dr. Darron T. Smith is a faculty member at the University of Memphis in the Department of Sociology. He is frequent political and cultural contributor for Huffington Post on various issues of inequality in the form of racism, classism and other systems of U.S. based oppression. He has also contributed to various forums from Religion Dispatches and ESPN's Outside the Lines to The New York Times and Chicago Tribune op-ed sections. Dr. Smith’s research spans a wide myriad of topics on including healthcare disparities, Religious Studies, Race & Sports, Stress & Mindfulness, Transracial Adoption and the Black Family. His current research focuses on healthcare workforce discrimination involving African American physician assistants. His is the author of, When Race, Religion & Sports Collide: Blacks Athletes at BYU and Beyond, was recently released to critical praise in November 2016.

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