About misogynist, xenophobic, racist and intolerant issues on this blog

A partir del siguiente párrafo el post estará escrito completamente en inglés. Queridos lectores, tengo mis razones para hacerlo así y les suplico su comprensión. Si no están familiarizados con esa lengua por favor vayan a este sitio y copien y peguen el texto para obtener una traducción adecuada.

The main reason by wich I write this post in english is because there are some people who don’t seem to understand spanish, despite it’s their mother language. Besides, I’ll sustain the TOEFL soon and I need to practice.

It seems I’ve touched some nerves by making some racist jokes, nevertheless things are not always as they seem.

In order to enlight this point, I’ll use this example: movies. Movies like Men in black and rush hour (the three of them) are plagued with racist jokes. In my country, most people missed them because in Mexico, black people and black descendent people have a different culture and a different ethnic consciousness and their integration to the main mestizo society have been way different of how all of this have been for african- american people in the United States. Anyway, many pleople laughed at those racist jokes, including black and asian people. Some might say, movies and jokes within the movies are for entertainment purposes only and laughing at those jokes can’t be an issue to be taken seriously, but, If you laugh at a racist joke, does that make you a racist? And I ask as well, If you laugh at a misogynist joke, does that make you a misogynist? or if you laugh at a feminist or feminist supremacist joke, does that make you a feminazi? Or in case you are a man, does that make you a gender betrayer? If you are a woman and you laugh at a misogynist or macho joke, does that make you a self hater? a gender betrayer?

Certainly, I don’t have the need to do this, for I dislike to repeat myself, and specially, I hate to explain myself. For the sake of a better understandig of what I have to say here, I’ll have to tell you some things and deeds of my personal life, starting by my ethnic origins.

My father’s maternal grandfather was a mulato, wich is 1/4 mexican indigenous, 1/4 spanish and a half african- born black. Therefore, I am an african- borne black descendent. If I had a camera, I could show you a picture of my legs, then you could see that my leg’s bone structure is a remaining phenotypic feature of mulato. Then, how can I be racist against my own people? Am I that kind of son of a bitch?

Take a look at this picture.

The guy with the number 6 is César, we’ve been friends since we were 12 years old. Among my friends, he has the darkest skin, because of this, we call him names. Back in the middle school, I used to draw pictures of him as a man- shaped oil refinery tower. Nowadays I still say things to him such as “pinche negro”, but I don’t say those things in a despiteful manner, It’s just the way we get along. He calls me names too, such as “crazy ass motherfucker”, “Lucas”, “Locochón”. Although all of this, I feel a great respect for him and his family and I have a great deep esteem for him, wich is mutual.

He is not precisely black, he is a mestizo with predominant indigenous (zapoteca) features.

The guy with the number 5 is Ernesto. His father is a mulato, therefore, as well as I am, he is an african- born black descendent. I have a great respect and esteem for him as well, and it’s mutual too.

If I am racist, why would I be a friend of them? Why would I be a friend of Elesban (1), Sergio (7), Sinué (3) or Exal (4), whom have predominant spanish- white features?

What kind of a racist motherfucker would I be if I am theirs friend instead of insult them, assault them, abuse them, punch them and/ or kill them or set fire to their houses? A nice, politically correct racist? Could there be such thing?

I have to expose something else, now it’s about being an intolerant guy. I feel strongly in disagree with enviroments or institutions wich functioning is based on rigid thoughts, where there is no place for discussion, questioning or doubts. I am refering specifically to the military institution. I am strongly in disagree with obligatory military service.

César’s father (RIP) was a military man. Ernesto’s father is a military man, still in active, as far as I know. When I met these men I did not see military men, I saw my friends’ fathers.With time, I had the chance to get acquainted to them, and I have a lot of respect to them, for they are men who taught their children how to live with decency and righteously.

I admit I could be intolerant, there’s a lot of things that piss me off, for example, the processions and the celebrations in honor to the virgin of Guadalupe, because of all that noise and the mountains of garbage left behind by the believers. And because they obstruct the traffic and obstruct my way.

And what I do about this? I try to keep walking, and I dodge among the mass of people that’s going round rejoycing with the celebration. I don’t insult them, I don’t push them away, I don’t spit on them. I acknowledge they are in their right to express their beliefs in that manner, and I thank Benito Juárez for I have the right to not participate onto those celebrations if I don’t want to.

Does that make me an intolerant person?

When I was 14 years old, one saturday evening I was walking back home and suddenly I heard a scream. I turned my sight and I saw a man kicking a woman’s ankle, while she was holding her baby in her arms and trying in vane to stop her tears from falling down. A sudden rage invaded me and I rammed against him, I took him down and I started to hit him. A hard strike on his throat let him K.O. I told that woman she should run away and look for DIF help. I also told her that she did not need that drunk man. She didn't have to stand that mistreating.

Two months later, right in front of me, a stoned boy about my age attacked a woman and her child. I got near from behind and I strangled the guy. I almost killed him. I could not tolerate that.

Now, someone who defends a woman from abuse or assault could be taken as a misogynist if we think of him as someone who believes that women are unable to stand for themselves. In my case, my actions were not the best things a man could do. But if I have to, I would do the same again. Because I was taught to protect women and children from abuse. Unless the attacker is armed, I would not attack him directly, but I would call the police.

My mother gave the best years of her life for her children. She worked hard for more that 32 years to sustain her family. She is a doctor and she decided to work as such and she also kept her role as a housewife. And she never allowed to herself to perform in a mediocre manner in any of her roles.

She and my father taught my brothers and I to look for ourselves and never expect for some one to look after us. My mother taught us how to sweep, how to mop, how to cook, how to make our own beds, and how to sew.

My brothers and I were taught to respect woman as our equals, as human beings. We never saw women as creatures for men´s service or as inferior beings. As a difference to other boys, we never pulled of a girl's hair or tried to watch under their skirts, we knew that is wrong and disrespectful.

Those are reasons for I cannot be called a misogynist.

As for xenophobic… I live in a state where every year arrive thousands of foreing people from all over the world. Some arrive on vacation, mostly from Europe and the United States. Some others just pass through the state in order to get to the United States. I am more than used to their presence.

When I lived in Tapachula, various transmigrants came to me in a number of ocasions in order to get help from me. Either they asked me for a little amount of money or for some food. When I was able to do that, I provided my help. It's terrible what they live on the roads to the United States.

I've had more contact with foreings from Europe and the United States since I live in Tuxtla Gutiérrez. They often come to me in order to ask me for directions. I always direct them on the right direction, exactly where they want to go, as I would do for a fellow mexican.

There was a time in wich I got offended when I saw those guys with those huge backpacks, and their wild looks. That was because I thought they thought of us as a selvatic country, I found out later, they use to go through the world in those guises, because sometimes they can't afford a hotel.

I have never attacked a foreing person, nor insulted or cursed them for belonging to another country. I have never assaulted, burned, or kidnaped a foreing person. I have never commited extortion or blackmail against a foreing person or raped a foreing women or asked for sexual favors from them. And I won’t do that.

But turns out I am a xenophobic son a bitch…

I haven’t even yelled to a foreing!

I have never attacked a woman, nor insulted or cursed them for belonging to the opposite sex. I have never assaulted, burned, or kidnaped a handicaped person or a woman or anyone because of their religious beliefs. I have never commited extortion or blackmail against anyone or raped a handicaped woman or asked for sexual favors from them. And I won’t do that.

I have never and I would never refuse to work with or for someone who would have a nationality, or ethnicity, or religious beliefs, or a different manner to dress, a different accent or anything different to those of my own.

But turns out I am an abusive, misogynist, racist, intolerant son a bitch…

Just because I laugh at misogynist, xenophobic, racist and religious intolerance jokes.

I condemn sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, racism, and every kind of intolerance. I am very strongly in disagree with those cancers. But those evils have widely spreaded all over the world. Anyone of us could find them very frequently and some times we could believe we sighted the enemy, but it was just its shadow.

If I condemn racism, but I laugh at a racist joke, that doesn’t seem very coherent. But when I laugh at a racist joke I laugh at racism itself because I find racism as ridiculous. And ridiculous things are funny. Also, I have to admit I have a vein of racism or a vein of intolerance, I laugh at it. I ridicule that part of myself, because being tolerant is something you learn, it’s not something you born with.

As I wrote before, those evils of intolerance, racism, sexism, misoginia, etc., have spreaded widely. I condemn these things, but I can’t allow myself to be pissed about it all the time. I have no time to be protesting against racism, sexism, intolerance the whole time. I would complain about those things. I would raise my voice to condemn violent acts of racism and so fort, but I can’t be pissed all the time or see racism everywhere or see racism where there is not any racism at all. It’s not healthy.

Instead, as a part of the process of becoming a tolerant person, as an exercise of tolerance, why not use laughter?

What's worse? Laughing at a racist joke or killing people just because of their ethnic origins or religious beliefs?
What's worse? being incoherent or being destructive?

I think I can't be more explicit now, but still if you have NEVER shared this shitty racism, you don't share this kind of humor, then don't! I'm not trying to convince you to do so. If you believe this blog is getting worse with each passing day, and you feel the urge to hit the road, then hit the road, but NEVER play holier than thou with me. Leave, but don't label on me.

I am open to discussion, I'm open to questioning, to debate, but I'm not open to trials of made up forced moral and of course, I'm not open to labels, I don't play that game any longer.

I hope I've been clear enough. Thank you for your visit, have a nice day.