Open letter to Rick Sanchez from a Latino Democrat

[DonCoquixote]

OK, disclaimers up. I am Hispanic, male, and I can be defensive of Latinos, however, this is NOT going to be the case here.

I refer to this link :

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blotter/rick-sanchez-fired-at-cnn-after-outburst-949220.html?cxtype=ynews_rss

Ok Rick, I am someone who wants to see Latinos do well in the country, to have their voice grow, and be respected. We are natives to the Americas, yet we are different than what is called "America", yet we have a lot to offer the U.S. So, when I heard that a Latino anchor got fired for supposedly offending Jon Stewart, my sirens went off.

However, I read the article referenced above, where it laid out in clear detail what you ACTUALLY SAID. I quote some examples:

``I'm telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish, are an oppressed minority?'' Sanchez said, then added with sarcastic emphasis: ``Yeah.''

Now, keep in mind, I just got a lot of heat here for mentioning that people who look "White" have some privileges that they may not realize, and that some (though by all means NOT all) whites do NOT want to give up those privileges. So why am I about to call you a pendejo and rip your backside a new one?

First off, as someone with a bit of education, you really should have known better than to foment the old "Jews run the media" card. Let's not forget, mi amigo, we have Spanish blood in our veins, which means we comes from a nation that used Anti-Semitism as an ezxcuse to get militaristic (Good old Queen Isabella sure enjoyed burning Jews at the stake) After bigotry was used to fuel the militaristic regime, that machine was used to go to America, and oppress the Native Americans and Africans, who make up the other parts of our bloodline. Some of us have a little more of the Spaniard, some more African, some more of the Native American, but all Latinos out there are a mix of the victims and victors of history; this gives us the odd virtues and flaws that make our identity. But every Latino should know that any bigotry, any stereotype, is mostly bunk, and that it is the tool of the master to keep the slave confused enough to stay working in the fields. When you fed that old, old stereotype, you fed into the same bigotry that the churches and kings used to keep the Africans and Indians that are in YOUR bloodline oppressed, and for that reason alone, you should not have tried to wield it.

Now, let me make a disclaimer, are some Jews rich, yes. Not I said some, as I am sure there are several Jewish readers looking at this going "I sure as hell am not rich." However, like every ethnic group, the Jews are not a monolith. That race of people can produce folks as diverse as Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Leonid Trotsky (solid left) and Ben Stein and Michael Savage (solid right) and even then Joe Lieberman and Rahm Emmanuel (Centrists?), as well as a few points on the spectrum that would take a library to catalog. No, I am not a fan of what is called Zionism, then again, neither are a lot of Jews, many of whom post here on this board.

Again, you drank from a well that you knew was poisoned, and what is worse, despite the fact that you indulged in a prejudice invented by the same bigots that also hate you, me and other Latinos, you are now trying to imply that you are the oppressed victim. Let me tell you amigo, do not try to polish your halo. You may look like my relatives, but that only means that I cannot and will not allow you to do behavior that is not only self-destructive, but that puts all of us Latinos in a bad light.

Now, let me attack one other little bit of your speech, one that somehow got by in all the noise, yet is more damaging in some ways:

``I think he looks at the world through his mom, who was a school teacher, and his dad, who was a physicist or something like that,'' replied Sanchez, speaking of Stewart. ``Great, I'm so happy that he grew up in a suburban middle class New Jersey home with everything you could ever imagine.''

Oh, and all people who grew up in the middle class have this outlook? Gee, last time I checked, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara were a bunch of middle class kids, in nations where Middle Class meant you were close to the upper class. Then again, so was Mao, so was Lenin, and for that matter, Karl Marx (who happened to also be Jewish.) Yes, I know that people who were born richer may have a harder time understanding those who were not, but it does happen. I guess you would have told Fidel and Che that they could never see past the worlds their mom and dad made for them, right?

``Everybody else who's not like him. Look at his show, I mean, what does he surround himself with?

Last I checked, he hired an Englishman (Jon Oliver), an Arab-American (Aasif Mandvi), an Asian-American(Olivia Munn), an Afro-American (Wyatt Cenac) and that most exotic of types, a Canadian (Samantha Bee). Oh yes, all of them New Jersey suburbanites. The only other Jew on the show is Lewis Black, and well, Lewis Black is not like most people, period. Also, I doubt that guy from South Carolina, Stephen Colbert, really had that common a childhood.

But this goes to HUMOR, which you failed to show. Now, we Latinos have produced some great comedians, and no, I do not mean Ned Hloness aka Carlos Mencia. We can take a joke, and give one. You were offended because those mean people at Comedy Central made fun of you, poor baby. This is the network that considers one of the high honors to be given a "roast" where the guest of honor is subjected to insults that would freeze the blood in your veins. It is still an honor, because the only people they do this to are people so famous that they come out of the whole mess looking great. If your jaw is made of glass, then frankly, I do not WANT you representing my people, because people who are easily offended are those whose jaws are so weak they cannot take a punch, and frankly, the race that produces many of the world's great comedians and boxers does not need to be represented by a wimp!

As Hugo Chavez might say, Vette al Carajo, Sanchez. And if you go to Fox News, I hope you get all the dishonor and disgrace you deserve. Ask Geraldo Rivera what Fox did for his career, pendejo.

[napi21]

1. WOW! I don't speak spanish but the author of that post enabled

me to know exactly what his words meant. I probably wouldn't have been as harsh toward Rick because I was only a watcher of his show, but I sure can't disagree with the poster and how offended he(she) feels about Rick's words.

More than anyone's feelings, I must say Rick was a real AH for not knowing just what his words would mean to his career. What a dumb AH.