Filed under: artist news, en vida real, familia, hi$panic, la raza cosmica, los rakas, subvHERsive | Tags: Afro-Latino, America, Bocafloja, George Zimmerman, Los Rakas, New America, Politics, Unity, Univision
Where is the love?
I really dig Aura Bogado – who writes about race and politics for The Nation and Colorlines, among others. Her poignant yet simple expression on Facebook this weekend regarding the absurdity of the George Zimmerman interview on Univision and our peoples’ deep issues with their African history/roots hits so close.
Those of us raised by Latin parents in the USA know what it is. The topic manifests its way into our daily lives in various, micro-aggressively yet seriously engrained ways which in my opinion, detract us from looking at how oppressed people could unite powerfully against the much bigger culprit$ beyond ourselves.
First, I commented on her post with my reasons for doing conrazón in the first place and supporting groups like Oakland-via-Panama’s Los Rakas:
Then, I took a selfie with a purple lips lollipop I purchased for Valentine’s Day. It reminded me of a story – which I mean in no way to disrespect my fallen abuela – but which has always made an impression on me.
As a young woman in her very early 20s, I was dating a man from the Dominican Republic who I cared about very much. My abuela, who was meeting him for the first time, recommended to me I look for purple in his lips or in his mouth to tell if he was “Africano” – in a light, but negative way. I, emotional and loud as always (nor graceful), brought up the issue at dinner, I was so upset. It embarrassed my abuela that I brought up the topic publicly, but ultimately, I do not regret what I did and I would do it again. Bless her blindness and guts in the face of it all.
A lot of this self-imposed hate, I understand as a mechanism for survival in a new land for people like my abuela and family. Get in where you fit in – and especially* if you can pass as non-black. It matters little that my father’s father – who she was with and loved – had African raices – Caribbean coast of Colombia, anyone? Seen my lips lately?
When will we celebrate ourselves and these bridges? These connections. This richness. I feel blessed to have found the clarity, but it’s much deeper across the board. We’re watching manifestations of this hate now here in America in the case of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. On Univision, Telemundo, Mainstream Latin networks, also – I have many stories to tell. As the writer Ed Morales says, “Univision’s interview of George Zimmerman: A travesty of journalism.”
This week, Los Rakas becomes a face of the Converse Cons 2014 campaign. Their black, Latin and proud Raka faces will be up all over the United States. One small example of seeing ourselves!
Stay Raka: A Raka is a rebel who loves themselves. Love yourself. Latin America, love your violent and real context. We are the remedy to breaking the Black & White binary (seen this cover of Vanity Fare, yet?) WE ARE THE KEY, BUT WE HAVE TO UNLOCK IT. THE PROOF IS IN OUR VERY FACES. ALL THE PLACES WE COME FROM.
Music and culture is not a bad place to start. How is this connected to the criminalization (some will say extermination) of blacks & Latinos, the immigration detention epidemic, cultural deficiency and declining education in this country? That’s a big answer. There are artists, writers, social media mavens, educators and entrepreneurs doing the hard work, but they must be supported and we must feel the responsibility of supporting each other and looking at ourselves closely! Can we break the cycle?
WHERE IS THE LOVE?
Serious big ups to Juan Data from SF (good to chat last week) for this piece on rap-en-espanol + it’s limitations in the US market + solutions. A lot of these topics have been swirling my head + conversations this past week with Chilean-EMCEE Anita Tijoux in town, so props to Juan for laying it down on paper.
It was touching that though Anita and I were from two completely different places, we could both get so emotional to hear ‘Stakes is High’ and start rhyming to each other in unison. This is power.
What I do know…there are SO MANY people to reach who will feel this music – this I know in my bones. I see it happening RIGHT NOW. It’s not IF it will happen…but WHEN.
I must, must highlight this – because I AGREE:
So, what to do to overcome all these obstacles?
Record labels take note: Try to get the product reviewed on English-speaking specialized media. Try to get record stores to place the album in the hip-hop section of the store, not in the reggaetón or Latin pop/rock subdivision where actual hip-hop diggers will never go. Print vinyl. Once again, print vinyl! Real hip-hop listeners still cherish vinyl over all other formats. Pay for a remix from a respected hip-hop producer (Pete Rock, El-P, MadLib…) and release it in 12 inch single vinyl (most hardcore hip-hop heads will definitely buy a record based on the producer, even if they don’t understand the lyrics, and that’s a good way of introducing them to a foreign artist). Pay for a guest appearance by an underground respected English-spitting MC (Talib, Chali2Na, Del…). Cross your fingers from both hands and pray for a less segregated market.
Came across this video by the Afro-Latin@ Forum (thanks Bryan Vargas).
If you’re Afro-Latino, surely you’ve encountered this dilemma at some point. Maybe your parents told you to check off “white” or you never thought to identify with being “African-American.” I wish the video went into more detail about WHY it’s important for the census and what benefits would arise from it – but it’s an important visual + hope it gets to the community. This issue is so unique/nuanced depending on where you live, whether uptown in NYC, or in Miami, Chicago, North Carolina or South Los Angeles, as you can read in the article by Ed Morales referenced below.
For more information about the Afro-Latin@ Forum, read this article by Miriam Jiménez Román:
“Our focus is on Black Latinos in the U.S. and their relationships with other communities of color. By looking at the new face of this country, we recognize that some “Browns” are browner than other Browns, that some Blacks are also Latinos and that many Latinos are victims of racial—as well as cultural—discrimination. We are questioning the facile Black versus Brown paradigm and proposing a unifying Black AND Brown paradigm.”
She referenced another article by Ed Morales in The Nation, “Brown Like Me?” from 2004.
What do you think?
Filed under: hi$panic
The aeropostle, the bling, the little girls w/ their bellys (blasphemous). Call me no-sense-of-humor, but this is NOT funny or cute. Who are these kids’ parents? Puerto Rico…WHERE YOU AT!?
(thx, Ant Vala)
conrazón 
