← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Fliegende Hollander
Thread ID: 3678 | Posts: 7 | Started: 2002-11-25
2002-11-25 01:55 | User Profile
The following is a letter from Senorita Blanca Torres whining about Jared Taylor's appearance at Vanderbilt Law School. If she was offended by the courtly-mannered Mr. Taylor, imagine how she would have reacted to the late Dr. Pierce. I doubt she had courage of her convictions to confront him during Q & A.
[url=http://www.vanderbilthustler.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2002/11/08/3dcc00d383720?in_archive=1]http://www.vanderbilthustler.com/vnews/dis...20?in_archive=1[/url]
Opinion
Sunday November 24, 2002
Student offended by racial assertions at nationalism debate
Blanca Torres November 08, 2002 One of my friends told me the other night that everything that comes out of my mouth has something to do with Mexico or journalism and nothing else. We both laughed because her comment was an exaggeration, but it did highlight an important truth about me: I am proud to be a first-generation Mexican-American. Not only am I proud of that fact, I also love it. Nonetheless, my bi-cultural identity has added struggle and self-doubt to my life because there is always someone who will see my skin and eye color and automatically judge me negatively. Being Mexican-American also means that I will never know what a comfort zone is and I will always have my validity as an American citizen challenged because of my background. That fact was again made evident last Tuesday at a debate on white nationalism held at the Vanderbilt Law School. The event was a debate between a Jared Taylor, a white nationalist and racist and Tim Wise, a Fisk University professor and anti-racist. The debate left me feeling disdain for my American identity. I listened to Taylor explain why blacks and Hispanics are racially inferior and why it should be okay to keep America American by keeping whites on top. One note, being Hispanic does not really denote one race because many Hispanics are mixed. Basically, Taylor equated American with white. In other words, he was saying that an American like me, who comprises part of a minority group and has parents from another country, does not represent a "true" American. I know that Taylor's remarks are extreme and that not every white person in America shares them, but it made me wonder how many white people do hold similar beliefs and just don't say them within my earshot. Before attending the lecture, I anticipated hearing once again that Mexicans come to this country illegally to steal jobs from white people and overrun decent white cities with our Spanish- speaking and taco-eating ways. As expected, Taylor made such remarks. I wanted to ask him how many white people were vying for a chance to pick their own lettuce. I wondered how many times he's applied to work at an orchard. Taylor also complained that white people didn't want to become a minority in 50 years. I understand where he was coming from; I've been a minority and have had to deal with people like Taylor my entire life. It's not fun. I was appalled to hear Taylor's words because it was another reminder that racism and prejudice will always live on in this country. The specifics of Taylor's argument did not bother me so much as his close-mindedness and audacity in claiming that he was speaking the truth. People like Taylor and his ideas will never make sense to me. It will never make sense to me why people used to justify slavery based on racism or why anti-Semitism exists. Perhaps the problem is that I have never reached the point of hating other people based on who they are and not what they do. Taylor would probably look at me and say, "Well she only goes to Vanderbilt because she's Mexican." And even if I could convince him and others that I came here based on my own merits, who can say that a degree from Vanderbilt will negate racial prejudice? I don't hate white supremacists or the people who say that Mexicans don't belong in this country, but I do hate those attitudes and the fact that they may never change. I also hate knowing that reason, logic and good do not always prevail in our "modern" society. I guess I just don't know what else to do. I'm tired of getting angry and trying to explain to people why diversity isn't a bad thing or why I do deserve to have a blue passport. Maybe that's why sometimes I'm disgusted by American flag magnets on people's cars or why I spent last summer in Europe telling people I was from Mexico. Often times they picked up on my American accent and then I was forced to come clean. Nonetheless, I do wish that being an American of color could be just like being an American. I wish that I could be proud of my Mexican heritage and not appear to be a threat to white people, because I'm really not, I'm barely trying to keep up. I also wish that Americans could fulfill the promise that the "All men are created equal" clause entails. Right now, we, as a nation, aren't even close to living up to that ideal.
2002-11-25 03:51 | User Profile
I also hate knowing that reason, logic and good do not always prevail in our "modern" society
Reason? Logic? Is there an argument based on reason or fact in this entire diatribe? Senorita Torres merely gushes forth one emotion after another.
I am proud to be a first-generation Mexican-American. Not only am I proud of that fact, I also love it.
**I've been a minority and have had to deal with people like Taylor my entire life. It's not fun. **
I don't hate ... but I do hate .... I also hate ...
So, she hates, she loves, she doesn't find dealing with Taylor fun, IS THERE A SINGLE FACTUAL ARGUMENT PRESENTED BY TAYLOR THAT SENORITA TORRES HAS A FACT OR REASON-BASED REBUTTAL TO, OR ARE WE TO RESTRICT OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS ACCORDING TO HOW EACH INDIVIDUAL MINORITY FEELS ABOUT THE OPINIONS WE EXPRESS?? (Or more saliently, the facts we report?)
She gets close to making a rational argument when she asks if Jared Taylor would like to pick his own cabbages- close, ever so close to reliving that momentous occasion when the Ionian philosophers awoke Europa from her mythical slumber some 2600 years ago; but alas, Torres loses her feeble grasp on this subtle but important characteristic of Western Man, plunging once more into the swirling black waters of emotive irrationality. Her future career as a journalist is safe, free from the inconvenient constraints of truth that so often contradict how we FEEL, which is oh-so-much more important.
On a more serious note, I would love to read a transcript of this debate or get it on tape. Timothy Jacob Wise is a smarmy European-hater, having read several of his essays I would love to see the erudite Taylor slash him to ribbons (Metaphorically! Metaphorically!!)
2002-11-25 04:18 | User Profile
Incidents like this created by the likes of Senorita Torres prove one thing: that a White speaking on behalf of WHITES is very powerful. Make no mistake; it's easy for the non-Whites to flaunt and boast about their supposed "empowered" status and their feel-good "consciousness" (in all in the name of die-ver-si-tee), but when faced with a White doing the same, it puts these non-Whites back in their place big time. It's the ultimate reality check.
2002-11-25 12:26 | User Profile
Originally posted by Robbie@Nov 25 2002, 04:18 Incidents like this created by the likes of Senorita Torres prove one thing: that a White speaking on behalf of WHITES is very powerful. Make no mistake; it's easy for the non-Whites to flaunt and boast about their supposed "empowered" status and their feel-good "consciousness" (in all in the name of die-ver-si-tee), but when faced with a White doing the same, it puts these non-Whites back in their place big time. It's the ultimate reality check.
Good point.
Jared is out there doing exactly that. Waiving the flag, marking our territory, going on record in a very public way.
Good for him. He certainly has my support.
Walter
2002-11-25 13:14 | User Profile
**I also wish that Americans could fulfill the promise that the "All men are created equal" clause entails. Right now, we, as a nation, aren't even close to living up to that ideal. **
Oh, so the signers of the Declaration, who created the governments they lived under, somehow did not understand what they meant when they wrote that phrase. Thankfully, modern man and chicana is able to enlighten us as to what they really meant. The slave holder Jefferson did not understand that what he really meant was that all races are equal. I wonder what he really meant when he said this:
"Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion has drawn indelible lines of distinction between them."
Seems to me he meant all White men are created equally. And all Negroes are created equally. And that each ought and must live together unequally, or apart.
2002-11-25 16:00 | User Profile
People like Taylor and his ideas will never make sense to me.
You can say that again....
In fact, this statement is the only statement that made sense to me.
2002-11-28 23:51 | User Profile
Fliegende Hollander,
Thanks for posting this article.
As Maximillian said: "Reason? Logic? Is there an argument based on reason or fact in this entire diatribe?" And No!
The Main thread:
"Racism" Debate, Jared Taylor vs. Carol Swain
url: [url=http://forum.originaldissent.com/index.php?act=ST&f=6&t=4098&hl=taylor]http://forum.originaldissent.com/index.php...=4098&hl=taylor[/url]