Okay...it's bad enough that I've been aggravated as of late because of issues with publishing my latest book. I really didn't need any additional aggravation, as my fuse is already short as it is...
My organization (the UNIA) was invited to participate in a Kwanzaa event last night (Dec 6th) that was organized by this local community college that we've been working with as of late. We were invited as guests to the festivities, and were allowed to have a vendor's table there to display our organization. Considering that I have a day job, I had to come straight home, shower and change, and bring the remainder of the materials that my organization needed for our table. That left me a little tired, so that didn't help this situation much...
We get to the building where the college is holding the event. The other members of my organization finally show up, and we set up our table. All is actually going well, and we're enjoying the event. What pissed me off was seeing this mestizo mutherfucker that I know at the event. He's a student at that college, and I met him a few months earlier this year, when we held the winter version of
The Consortium of Afro Latino Communities on the campus during
Black History Month. He was initially impressed with me for organizing such an event, but then his opinion of me soured when I revealed that I didn't speak much Spanish. He caught an attitude, and had been copping one with me ever since.
Apparently, he was a student volunteer for the Kwanzaa event. He was walking around, and had passed by our table. We made eye contact with each other, and I was in the process of nodding at him in acknowledgement, when this baboso had
the nerve to attitudinaly turn his head, and roll his eyes, walking away. It took every fiber of my being NOT to get up, and punch his ass in the nose.
#1- Do you REALLY want to fuck with me like that?! Do you
REALLY want to go pound for pound, matching resumes'? I've been doing this shit for 23+ years; you're a fucking snot-nose that's probably JUST in your twenties, IF that. I'm out in the streets/community organizing; you're a punk-ass college kid who has done...what exactly?
#2- Just because I don't speak my enslaver/colonizer/oppressor's language
DOES NOT make me less of a Latino that your hybrid ass. My first language is English; that's how I was raised. As it is, if ANY language is suppose to be my primary or first language, it would be
GARIFUNA...
NOT Spanish! I am a lost son of AFRICA; mi tierra madre, mi pais. I proudly proclaim my African roots. As it is, you would NEVER have known my Latino background had I not worn my colors (the Honduran flag) at my event.
#3- Your disrespectful attitude showed me that you learned
NOTHING from what I was trying to do with The Consortium of Afro Latino Communities, with your college
uneducated ass. The event was about highlighting, promoting, and exposing our African roots and heritage as a Latino people. I
DON'T want/need your approval/acceptance, or the approval/acceptance of so-called mainstream Latino society. You haven't acknowledged/approved/accepted us in over 500+ years,
WHAT THE FUCK makes you think I want your approval now?!?!?!
#4- I consider myself a conscious brother, but my ass WILL go fucking ghetto on you if you fuck with me. You WILL catch a Brooklyn beat down if I catch you on the streets. The campus is neutral ground; the streets are a WHOLE 'nother beast. I probably know more about YOUR history and culture that you do, while all your pendejo ass can do is speak the language and
maybe dance a little salsa. I know other scholars and activists that I've studied under, and a few that
I'VE brought to the campus. Again...WHAT have you done...?
That experience completely irritated me, and soured my disposition for the rest of the night. The little bit of glee that I got was when the organizers were getting the volunteer students together to do the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa before the karamu (feast). That mestizo payaso was one of the presenters, and his dumb ass couldn't even pronounce the principle that he was supposed to do (Ujamaa). Really, dude? You're participating in a Black cultural event, doing a presentation in front of an audience...and you CAN'T even pronounce the fucking principle?! REALLY?!?!?! But you wanna look your snot nose down on ME because of my limited command of my enslaver/colonizer/oppressor's language...?!?!?!
GTFOHWTBS!!!!!!!!
I had to get this off my chest. It's kind of indicative to what I face on a consistent basis when I deal with the Latino community in my activism, specifically here in the south. Their level of knowledge of self is revolting, specifically when it comes to Afro Latino issues and identity.
