The other night, my wife and I were watching The Help. It’s a great movie about Black maids in Mississippi during the 1950s (date?).
The next night, we watched a movie called Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. It's about a Black jazz group in the 1920s. Another great movie if you haven't watched it.
Last week, we watched Hillbilly Elegy. It's about a poor white family in Appalachia who is dealing with drug addiction.
Again. Another great movie I'd recommend (my wife picks good movies. I'm an idiot with that.)
Stay with me, I'm getting there.
Do you know what I can relate to with all three of these movies? Hardly a Goddam thing. The closest thing I can relate to is that Latina women are current day maids, and I've known many.
Right now, my show is Narcos Mexico.
Though I'm not a narc, I know what it's like to be called a Pocho or Gabacho as a pejorative; I know what it's like to not be accepted by Mexicans; I know what it's like to be a Latino working for the U.S. government; I understand the Spanish slang and cultural references (the show is in Spanish). I can relate to this show.
So what do these shows have to do with the question?
I have no more in common with Blacks than I do Whites. So why the hell am I lumped in with Blacks? I don't want to be lumped in with Whites either. Don't get me wrong.
But this is a political tool to keep people divided. It's used to create the oppressed and the oppressor. The victim and the villain. The privileged and the disenfranchised. Stop putting us in groups we didn't ask to be put into. We are different people, with different histories, and with different cultures. Respect that.
That's why I hate that term.
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