A while back, I used to teach Mexicans in Minnesota. This may sound odd, but there is a sizable Mexican (as well as other Latino) population in the Twin Cities area. I was teaching them English and every weekday, for almost a regular school year, I would give them ESL (English as a Second Language) instruction in a classroom set up in a conventional office building. Frequently, during breaks in classwork, we would talk in Spanish (a no-no in the ESL field -- one should never speak to the student in his own language if one can help it) in the stairwell. Sometimes, we would talk about events in Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America in general. Other times we would take a coffee break in the same area some U.S. white-collar workers would use. The idea, here, would be to expose them to spoken English with me as a guide.
During one of those breaks, I overheard one of the "white" professionals talk about how sorry she felt for Oprah Winfrey, because "Oprah was 'black' ". Many people are aware that Oprah may not have had it easy as a kid, but the main point that was driven home by the North American was that Oprah, as a "black", was, somehow, worse off than she (as a "white") was. Having knowldege that Oprah Winfrey has a fortune well over a half billion dollars and also knowing that the "white" Minnesotan could not have made over $35,000 per year, I was caught by surprise by that statement and, rather than argue with it, instead translated it to my Mexican students. We had quite a laugh about that, mainly because, to the Mexicans (and to me as well), a half billion is a half billion and Oprah's "race" is secondary to that fact. Yet, how many "whites" identify as people more powerful than they really are because of perceived "white" privilege? Class-consciousness among "white" North Americans would certainly be much higher if there were no "minority groups" out there to deflect attention from vast divisions among people by income and wealth.
"Blacks" are not much better. A noted "black" athletics coach -- presently possessing a great deal of material wealth -- nevertheless likened himself to "black" freedom-fighters of the past, like Martin Luther King. Apparently, his "race" negates his economic good fortune and he would, therefore, call a "white" filling station attendant his "oppressor".
In my opinion, Latin America and Anglo (U.S.) America are two excellent places to be a wealthy person. For Latinos, just about every country has an oppressive class system in which the wealthy hoard and extend their resources in the face of weak governments and cultural traditions which glorify centralized authority and hegemony. Anglo Americans are a little better, but "race" wipes out most considerations of "who-has-what" in the U.S. Some "Blacks" with $200,000 per year incomes are, frequently, bitter people, since, to many of them, their $200,000 "would be $400,000 if they were white". It may be true, but it is a helluva way to celebrate one's good fortune: looking at the hole instead of the doughnut. Not to be outdone, modest-income "whites", who should be taking long and hard looks at an economic system which has had prices go up 10 times between 1966 to 2003 but wages only go up by a factor of four or five, routinely pay skant attention to overall economic inequities, focusing instead on their identity as a " 'racially' dominant group". Ask anyone who has to work two jobs to make ends meet what "economic inequities" means. Ask someone who has been laid off from their job.
I am reasonably sure that the multiracial perspective forces one to look at "the big picture", if for no other reason than the umbrella of "racial" politics is absent, thus bringing a greater focus on how people live. After all, it is easier to see exactly where, in the scheme of things, a twelve-million-dollar salary for a "black" NBA star stands if your head is not clouded by "race" -- and no amount of "superior" posturing by a "white" clerk at the ice cream store is going to obscure where she is either.
Social class is a reality. Always has been. "Race" is a concoction.
William Javier Nelson, Ph.D.
No, this editorial has nothing to do with Oliver C. Cox's book, Caste, Class and Race (which, though published in the 1940s, contained some pearls of wisdom frequently hammered home nowadays here in Interracial Voice). Rather, it starts off with Mexicans.
Also of interest by William Javier Nelson:
The Distortion of being a Minority in the U.S.A.
written by Naomi Zack
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