She was abused, threatened, bullied, scared to go to school, run off the road by a car....yet, her closest friends were also Hispanic. I was single, and I worked a lot, and a traditional Hispanic family was like her family. She stayed with them a lot. Their daughters were her close friends since first grade. She received much love. Her wedding attendants were her best friends from HS.
As a professional, often being the only white person in a courtroom, I really was not discriminated against. My clients were almost all Hispanic too. I disassociated with a friend because her partner kept making racists comments about Hispanics, though he denied they were racists.
I could have justified my experiences and been a racist, or do what I and my daughter did, embrace the warm and loving friends, who continue to enrich our lives. It is a choice, regardless of your race.
I have never been a racist. I stand against it, and I don't let racists comments slip by, regardless of whether they are against blacks, Hispanics, Asians, whatever. I have been ostracized a few times in my life for that, to the point of having law enforcement involved. I have more black and Hispanic very close friends than I do white, but that's just the way it has worked out for me. I talk openly w my friends about racial issues and problems.
On election night, I went to be w my closest friend, who just so happens to have beautiful black skin, because we are bonded, in our politics, and we were both very nervous. We are also bonded with our families, our personal lives, our ups and downs, and we have traveled the world together. She and my daughter, who is now a doctor, grown with her own family, are still close, and have a relationship apart from me. We will always take care of each other, like family.
My friend was working the poles on election day, and she was mistreated by the other workers, who were violating the rules, and discussing RW politics and Pres Obama in raw terms. She didn’t have a chair. She lives in a RW area, and she came home very upset. There was no question, there was racism. We filed a complaint. I wanted to personally confront the people, but she didn’t want us to. She was so upset, I feared she might have a stroke. We watched the returns and cried, like most Dems. She had so many fears that came to the surface, after that terrible day of personal discrimination, and the election of the RW bigoted government. She expressed fear of deportation, even though her family have been born in the US, as far as she remembers. However, she said, first they come for...then, there was no one else to stand up.
I deplore racism in all it's forms, and I deplore racists. I understand the need for support to form minority support and professional groups, just like we needed women's groups.
Whites have done cruel and unspeakable things to blacks and others, including whites, throughout history. Blacks have been slaveholders too, though not as much. Hispanics did cruel things to my daughter. You have to separate good people and bad people from their race, and respect the good. Resist and fight against what is right, and fight against racism.
Back to my friend who I was with for the election,
the discrimination where she lives, Phoenix, is against undocumented workers and Hispanics. She said it is so bad, she hates to go to the grocery store, when things are heated. When she hears people talking bad about Hispanics, she sees those people morph into people with white pointed hoods. It is true. If you are a racist against one group, including whites, you are against all.
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