The race card is played for you every day. If you're white.

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This week, America "played the race card." The phrase is usually used by white deniers whenever a non-Anglo attempts to ground a discussion in USican history. Playing the race card--as if the entire deck wasn't stacked, stacked against the people who paid/pay dearly for not having the power to deal the cards. The house always tries to win--even when its white children commit horrendous murder--and it's called White-Privilege America.

The reaction of some U.S. Anglo, white people to racial-hatred incidents can drive any non-Anglo crazy. When a twenty-one-year-old white boy massacred nine black worshippers in a South Carolina church this week, he provided an incident to hear more of these Stupid-America reactions. But he also helped create an atmosphere where "playing the race card" is about the stupidest thing anyone could bring up. Some Anglo-Americans understand this, their words directed toward White-Privilege America and what actions Anglos should take:

Charles Pierce, Esquire magazine: "What happened in a church in Charleston is a lot of things, but one thing it's not is unthinkable. Somebody thought long and hard about it. Somebody thought to load the weapon. Somebody thought to pick the church.

"One thing it's not is unspeakable. We should speak of it often. We should speak of it loudly. We should speak of it as terrorism, which is what it was. We should speak of it as racial violence, which is what it was.

"It is not an isolated incident, not if you consider history as something alive that can live and breathe and bleed. Not to think about these things is to betray the dead. Not to speak of these things is to dishonor them.

"Think about what happened. Think about why it happened. Talk about what happened. Talk about why it happened. Do these things, over and over again. The country must resist the temptation present in anesthetic innocence. It must reject the false comfort of learned disbelief and the narcotic embrace of concocted surprise. There is a ferocious underground fire running through American history. It rages unseen until it flares again from the warm earth. What happened on Wednesday night was a lot of things. A massacre was only one of them."

And this week, comedian Jon Stewart appropriately went with "no jokes, just sadness": "This is a terrorist attack. This is a violent attack on Emanuel church in South Carolina, which is a symbol for the black community. I hate to even use this pun, but this is black and white. There's no nuance here.

"The culprit is the corrosive culture of racism in America, especially in the South. We are steeped in that culture in this country, and we refuse to recognize it. The Confederate flag flies over South Carolina, and the roads are named for Confederate generals. And the white guy's the one who feels like his country's been taken from him."

On the other hand, our President seems ready to sweep Charleston under the rug: "Now is the time for mourning and for healing." Healing? Already? Nine black people slaughtered in a state that deliberately didn't lower its capitol's Confederate flag to half-mast?

In the city where Judge James Gosnell said, when setting bail: "We have victims, nine, but we also have victims on the other side. There are victims on this young man's side of the family. We must find it in our hearts not only to help those that are victims but to help his family as well."

Feel sorry for his family? The ones who raised him with the "values" that led to the slaughter? Their concerns outweigh the murder of nine black people? And how does the shooter's family outweigh the murdered victims' families? Only in White-Privilege America.

As an elderly USican Chicano, I've grown calloused toward Anglos who avoid admitting their status in this racist-history country. They don't depress me. I don't let them affect my fiction writing. I don't have a need to withdraw from the dialogue. I'm accustomed to here. To hearing Anglo, ignorant deniers.

Like billionaire-hair-mouth Donald Trump: "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people who have lots of problems (which include) drugs and being rapists."

In response, Reynosa, Tex., artesan, Avalos Ramirez created a Trump piñata perfect for bashing. It's a stand-in for the real thing, which would be preferable.

Maná, more than "pure" artists

And the Mexican Rock Band Maná denounced Trump, dedicating their song, Somos Más Americanos, viewable on UTube. As Fher Olvera, group leader, explained, "It is sad that someone with such hatred in his heart has a microphone to say those things."

Only in White-Privilege America.

For La Bloga's readers, don't imagine that Chicanos--or however you call yourself--are "above" or untouched by #BlackLivesMatter. If a Chicano had somehow been in the Charleston church audience, the racist shooter would not have held off shooting because that person wasn't dark enough.

We Chicanos as a whole have our own anti-black prejudices. Individually you can say whatever about yourself. No matter, we were raised with our version of anti-blackness. Those of us who read about Charleston and think, I'm glad it wasn't brown people; those who say, We don't have it as bad as them; those who assume, gladly, No blacks are my ancestors; those who'd never attend a demonstration for a black kid murdered by police; and those who are grateful they can sometimes pass for white--it's to all those Chicanos that Latino author Daniel José Older wrote Why U.S. Latinos Need To Get Loud About The Dominican Republic:

"The Dominican government’s fear of blackness dates back to Spanish colonizers and became a matter of policy under the dictator Rafael Trujillo, who murdered tens of thousands of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic and displaced hundreds of thousands more. Anti-Haitian sentiment became a rallying cry for some Dominican nationalists, a way to distinguish the supposedly more 'European' Dominicans from their Haitian neighbors.

Don't say "Glad I'm not a black Dominican." Support them.

"That prejudice is now manifesting in the revocation of citizenship from anyone deemed by the state to be of Haitian ancestry, which translates to anyone viewed as black. Anti-black mob violence has been on the rise--beatings, burnings, and lynchings. And we must see these actions for what they have always historically been: the run-up to a massacre. As I write, government buses are taking to the streets of Santo Domingo to detain and deport black Dominicans.

"With 1.5 million residents in the U.S., Dominicans make up the fifth largest Latino population in the country and the largest immigrant group in New York state. But some Latino news sites were slower even than mainstream outlets to acknowledge the ongoing crisis facing hundreds of thousands of Dominicans. And while a few Latino writers have spoken out (notably Junot Díaz and Julia Alvarez), Latino celebrities have for the most part remained entirely silent.

"Sadly, we can’t be surprised by this silence. Anti-blackness has run deep in the Latino community as long as there’s been a Latino community. Much like the wider American mythology of a glorious melting pot, we love waxing faux-etic about the multilayered fabric of our identity. In truth, we are a shattered family, a house deeply divided by white supremacy and colorism. It’s as true in Latin America — even Cuba — as it is in the United States.

"Watching the news can make you feel like racism against blacks worldwide is on the rise, but what we’re really seeing is the hard work of dedicated activists demanding that the world pay attention, often for the first time, to ongoing legacies of police violence, cultural appropriation, mass displacement. There is nothing new about state violence against black life.

"In the white mainstream imagination, the default setting for Latinos is white/light brown, a comfortable, neither-here-nor-there exotic that allows the diversity box to be checked without the perceived threat of blackness.

"Across the country, Latino artists are making strides and letting our voices be heard. We are loud and unapologetically us, and I love us. And amid this renaissance, we must also be unapologetically honest about who we really are, who we have been, how we have broken, and how we can heal. My Latin pride will be rooted in the unequivocal truth that Black Lives Matter, or it will be bullshit."

Supporting Charleston's real victims--blacks--must go beyond prayer or Obama's healing time. Chicanos should denounce all the manifestations of White-Privilege America. The Trump clones, Confederate flags flying anywhere, white-biased judges in Charleston, Hillary and Obama avoiding timely trips there, US complicity in the anti-black pogram in the Dominican Republic. It's in humanity's interest to do so. Being a good Chicano on the sidelines isn't enough. It never has been.

Es tody, hoy,

RudyG, a.k.a. an old Chicano aspiring to be more than non-black

YA a different way 1. Great opp to support El Museo. Keystone XL Pipeline.

Assessing YA lit

La Bloga's contributors cover many genres, especially children's lit, Chicano nonfiction, memoirs, detective and crime, chicalit, works in Spanish, sci-fi, magic realism and poetry. The Young Adult genre has been covered, though nowhere as extensively as its share of the market.

Last year sales in young adult were up 13%, and up 117% in e-books, more than twice the digital growth in adult markets. Reports indicate that young adult fiction yielded much bigger advances to authors.

It's obviously an important genre, given its influence on the younger generation. Also, in a La Bloga series last year, "Spic vs spec - 1. Chicanos/latinos & sci-fi lit", I referenced how classic, American SciFi helped produce the scientists and engineers responsible for the U.S. space program.

For these and other reasons, I've decided to shift my posts to YA lit, especially to the speculative novels of SciFi, fantasy and magic realism. I will focus on books pertinent to Chicano, latino et al youth, but not exclude others.

I'm not a teenager, nor certain if I ever was a "regular" one, either. And from my limited understanding of YA, I won't be reviewing books, so much as assessing them for the messages they give to the young. In the process, I'll refer readers to other, regular reviews.

Morals, ethics, principles, beliefs--all reviewers inject some or much of this into their reviews. I propose to bring mine out front, bring them to bear on specific stories and come out on the other end with "what's the message," if you will.

Being subjective means my opinion can't be taken as THE word about YA books. My intention isn't to attempt to develop a Must-Read or Never-Let-Your-Kid-Read lists. Kids read what they want to, not what their parents wish they would, anyway.

I can already hear Latin@ author cringing, hoping I don't zero in on their work. I know how my gente is and don't necessarily expect my assessments will be met with open brazos. For that reason, I'm going to test my methods on non-brown authors and books first. That won't get me off the hook, but it will give you an idea of the basis for the appraisals. I'd welcome a better term than that one or assessments.

In the end, I hope to generate dialogue, not only among Chicano et al authors, about the nature of YA authorship in these times. I begin.

YA a different way 1

Halo - The Flood (2003) by NYT bestselling author William C. Dietz who's published over forty novels. On his website, Dietz doesn't list any more than he's an American author. Halo is one of the most popular war video games, so boys particularly may pick up one of novels in the series. The book was a Publishers Weekly Top Ten paperback bestseller, listed as SciFi genre, not YA. It's written as an "adult" book, but appeals to youth because of its game connection. (Here's reviews about it by gamesters. Go here for an Amazon synopsis.)

If you're into war, kill, death, weapons, soldiers, alien enemies and earthling heroes, that's in the novel. If you're not, pick up something else. From the first chapter, the novel takes you in and through to the end of the Halo videogame.

So, what are some of the main messages conveyed to readers?

• Tired or wounded soldiers can usually fix themselves with drugs, ganas or inspiring leaders, and keep on fighting.
• There are no cowards on "our side," the earthlings'.
• Our heroes always come up with more weapons or ammo and only run out of anything for brief periods.
• Lack of sleep, rest or food never stops "our side" for long.
• There are few female good-guy soldiers.
• Shotguns aren't just legal in war, they're very good to use.
• The enemy is stupid and are inferior fighters, no matter their technology.
• It is quick and easy to kill hundreds of the enemy, no matter how many come at you or how they're armed.
• The enemy doesn't take prisoners, except for special ones they need to torture for info, collaborate against their people, or Spartan, who is basically Super Soldier, their most deadly and seemingly invincible enemy.
• The good guys, especially the hero Spartan, can go for hundreds of pages, killing hundreds of the enemy and suffer no regrets, PTSD or negative changes to their personalities.
• In war, there is no collateral damage, since there are no civilians in the story.
• The war on the alien threat is never-ending.

I plowed through this book and about two thirds of the way through, my mule had difficulty traversing the mud of death, body parts and blood. After a few thousand kills, I wondered about the mind of a reader still interested, entertained and avid to turn the page.

From what I've read, violent games don't breed school shooters. On the other hand, it's conceivable such games and a novel like this do breed something. I won't make this assessment any more subjective by saying what I think that is.

This completes YA A Different Way 1. I am very interested to know what La Bloga readers and contributors feel about this post. Should they include more? Should I push the envelope of criticism? Qué más?

Next time, I'll up the stakes by assessing the messages of non-Chicano author Paolo Bacigalupi, bestselling author of The Windup Girls--an incredible novel. I'll consider instead his two YA SciFi bestsellers, Shipbreakers and Drowned Cities. I'll examine his novels in the context of his words, "Give up on the adults!."

2 to 1 Matching Fundraising Campaign - Only 1 day left!

A worthy appeal from Denver's Museo de las Américas:

"Museo's long-term benefactor, Irving Tragen, has offered a matching grant that will make it possible to own our building in the Art District on Santa Fe that we have occupied since 1991. Mr. Tragen has offered $50,000 if we meet a goal of $25,000 by June 30, 2013. Through many Museo friends and 100% of our board contributing, we have raised $18,000.

"Please give today to support the only Latin American museum in Colorado, which serves 11,000 students and 20,000 visitors each year!

"Thank you for your generosity!"

http://coloradogives.org/tragen

Keystone XL Pipeline - not good news

From Obama's Climate Change statement:

"I know there's been, for example, a lot of controversy surrounding the proposal to build a pipeline - the Keystone pipeline, that would carry oil from Canadian tar sands down to refineries in the Gulf. The State Department is going through the final stages of evaluating the proposal. That's how it's always been done. But I do want to be clear. Allowing the Keystone pipeline to be built requires a finding that doing so would be in our nation's interest. And our national interest will be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution. The net effects of the pipeline's impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project is allowed to go forward. It's relevant."

It's relevant, as he says, but he may approve the pipeline. The reason is, the wording "significantly exacerbate." The State Dept.'s has already certified that the pipeline won't "significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution." The EPA is not in agreement. Pipelines leak, energy companies lie about safety and compliance,  their compliance with regulations. Those are the inescapable facts about pipelines, especially oil pipelines, especially tar-sands oil pipelines, especially tar-sands oil will poison the atmosphere and further char-broil the planet. The Oglalla Aquifer will be affected by the filthiest fossil-fuel ever. Obama may take a dive on this summer.

You can read more here. 

Here you can do something about it in your area, this summer.

Es todo, hoy,

RudyG

aka Rudy Ch. Garcia, author of The Closet of Discarded Dreams, awarded Honorable Mention at the 2013 International Latino Book Awards, Fantasy/SciFi category

Alumineros. Obama no mea culpa. Writing opp. Contender novel.

From reciclero to El Aluminero

The U.S.A. is THE industrialized country known, and becoming more famous, for old people eating cat food or out of trash cans, catching zees and pneumonia under bridges during Xmas, and other uniquely American (U.S.) customs like losing your home to catastrophic medical expenses. (Not possible in Canada, for instance.)

Evidence of our fame includes people panhandling on American street corners or going through alley garbage bins. We don't see many of the alley basureros, but the panhandlers are obvious to daily commuters.

If you've excused yourself from giving them money because you omnisciently know that they're winos, you should still read on because, given our 1% economy, you might soon be cramming anyway to pass American Begging 101.

Among other sectors of U.S. society where white privilege holds strong, there are few dark-skinned panhandlers, and fewer Anglo basureros. The parameters appear to be that an ethnic has a better chance of gaining something from a nondenominational garbage can than from the Christian driver waiting at the red light. Trash cans possess neither telepathy nor prejudice.

I haven't yet joined the street-intersection ranks, but have gradually became a part of the Can Collectors Anonymous. This happened in stages as I've risen through its many levels.

In the beginning I was the pop drinker who wouldn't throw aluminum cans in the trash. Recycling was more responsible, even if the money for toting them to the recycling center wasn't lucrative.

In the next stage I learned the hassle of dragging six big leaf bags of cans, how sticky hands got emptying them at the center and how much time it took. I graduated to getting a manual, can crusher to lessen the bulk, resulting in toting few bags but still a little messy and time-wasting. I had a new hobby now.

This was followed by obtaining a large trash can on wheels that could hold all the crushed cans that I only had to empty once, never touch, and made for quick trips. I'm in the money now too, making more than ten dollars each trip.

That's when I got my B.A. in can collection. Daily walks with the dog now required two small bags--one for his poop and another for the aluminum poop that Americans leave on streets and sidewalks. A trip to the park might net ten cans already crushed by cars on the streets. It almost became a side business.

Riding the bicycle on long trips gave the can collecting a new aspect and problems. More cans. But for each one I had to stop, pick it up, empty it, put it in a bag that wouldn't get trapped in the spokes. This is still a hassle, something I'll rectify with a tool to pick up cans without alighting the bike. That'll put me in the top echelons of nerdy can-collecting bike riders.

No aluminero is an island unto himself, so as I progressed, my relationship to others altered. The assumedly poorer people go through trashcans and bins in searching for more of the metal. I willing acceded that territory to them, the more deserving. At one house, the couple threw their weekly can collection over the fence to benefit the sincasas. Those too I felt weren't treasure meant for me.

Next came the "poor pocho" psychology. I didn't want the Denver Northside gentry seeing me pick up cans. The verbüenza of their looking down on me took hold and I'd pass up a couple of tall cans, rather than be considered "one of those." I'm still at that level, although my wife has no problemo doing so. Must be a machismo hang-up.

I know I made the grade with the homeless-looking raza, because now they see my bag of stepped-on cans and tell me, "There's some over by that tree," meaning either we're peers and they want to help me out, or I'm worse off than them, so they're looking out for my welfare. They're obviously not mind-reading Anglo Christians at the stoplight.

I've reached the stage of Aluminero first-class, though there's more I need to learn: how to pick up a can in front of a gentry; when's the best time of year to turn them in for the most cash; are there better centers. So, the learning continues.

I've added computer motherboards and other metal collection to my take, which have a better return. I've considered going door to door and asking for old electronics to tear apart, but that's in the future. I'm still working on the bike instrument to make that part easier.

This article isn't intended to turn you onto that path, because I don't need the competition. Nor am I trying to glorify the trade, because, except for me, the collectors don't care how you think of them as you watch them on a collection run.

At least in my case, I don't do this to "save the planet." If that were my intention, I'd be picking up the much more plentiful plastic water bottles Americans love purchasing. Also, my efforts do little to save anything, except some my face to myself. I know littering of any kind is inherent to why my species should lose it's spot at the top of the food chain.

So maybe what started as conservation simply turned into its own mania. I'm afflicted. You might catch it as well. If you're interested in that, you can follow my template. Or maybe you can just stop buying cans, so us collectors don't have to pick them up. Then I'd have more time for writing.

Obama worried about complicity in crimes against our humanity?

From his speech at National Defense University this week, Obama gave History his reputed views on how our loss of privacy and civil rights, our illegal killing of people by drones, illegal detention of suspects and all the other constitutional violations are not his doing. Among other things, he said:

"We strengthened our defenses -- hardening targets, tightening transportation security, giving law enforcement new tools to prevent terror. Most of these changes were sound. Some caused inconvenience. But some, like expanded surveillance, raised difficult questions about the balance that we strike between our interests in security and our values of privacy. And in some cases, I believe we compromised our basic values -- by using torture to interrogate our enemies, and detaining individuals in a way that ran counter to the rule of law."

The Denver Post comment on this is "Can Obama walk the walk on terror policy?" and concluded: "We're hopeful about the vision the president has articulated as he stands at the crossroads of the war on terror. But we counsel vigilance." And where was their vigilance as the violations unfolded to become Presidential policy and practice?

Esquire Magazine noted: "We should be a long way from judging this president on his rhetoric or his portrayal of himself as a moral actor." That seems a more accurate conclusion.

My own take on his speech is that it's groundwork to cover his historical and possibily prosecuted ass, in case The Geneva Convention or the U.N. or History itself ever rises to prosecute Bush, Cheney, Obama et al for war crimes. It could happen.

You should raise your hand if 12 years ago (9/11) you knew: 1. That Bush's Global War on Terrorism would cause more than inconvenience, 2. That expanded surveillance would violate our privacy and erode civil rights, 3. That enhanced interrogation was torture, unconstitutional, immoral and evil, or 4. That U.S. Presidents would do nothing to stop it. Tally up how many you got right and a score of one or more makes you smarter than the last Presidents, present company, included.

Big Writing Opp

Since I'll be submitting something, you may not have a pulga's chance in a haboob of winning this, but here's a call for submissions from Lee & Low Books.

"Lee & Low Books, award-winning publisher of children's books, is pleased to announce the fourteenth annual NEW VOICES AWARD. The Award will be given for a children's picture book manuscript by a writer of color. The Award winner receives a cash prize of $1000 and our standard publication contract, including our basic advance and royalties for a first time author. An Honor Award winner will receive a cash prize of $500.

The New Voices Award encourages writers of color to submit their work to a publisher that takes pride in nurturing new talent. Go here for the details. Deadline: 9/30/13.

Can The Closet win?

Next Thursday at 6:00 pm in NYC, results of the International Latino Book Awards will be announced. My Chicano fantasy novel The Closet of Discarded Dreams is one of four finalists. The other three are already award winners, which puts my entry also in the category of a-pulga's-chance-in-a-haboob of winning.

I'll be sitting with friends in Denver, eating, drinking and not hoping as much as just mellowing that, at a minimum, the book was a contender. We'll see if there's más.

Es todo, hoy

RudyG

Allergic to Politics

I hate politics.

I’m not sure why, but I always have. I think it’s primarily because I’ve always been the type of person who can handle anything or anybody who comes at me from the front. If you don’t like me, I’m cool with that, just tell me straight up and don’t smile at me and pretend otherwise. I have no tolerance for anyone who sneaks up from behind. And that pretty much covers all politicians, doesn’t it?

And as someone who has worked in marketing and public relations for twenty years, I have been trained that putting down the other guy was a bad idea. What if I were to tell a prospective student, “Oh you don’t want to go there, that program sucks!” even if it were true, it’s just not good business. But somewhere along the line this method is what political campaigns have been reduced to: mud-slinging and distorted truths. I mean really, it’s hard to believe what anyone says in either party anymore, and really the differences between the parties aren’t as dramatic as they used to be.

It seems that Obama has done much less mud-slinging, which I appreciate. But in general, why can’t a candidate take the high road? Perhaps it’s because in this mud-wrestling world of reality television and unworthy celebrities (I mean Nicole Ritchie? Paris Hilton? What talents do they possess that make them worthy of celebrity?) the American people have become acclimated to the low road. If you’re not slinging insults you’re considered weak.

I have to admit, though I stayed abreast of his actions in office, I did not hear our current President speak (other than in print) until his second term in office. It upset me too much. (I'll never forget that first time, I was in a cafe in NYC and he was on the three tvs bolted to the ceiling giving a speech. After the fourth reference to God, I turned to the person next to me on line and said, "What the hell happened to the separation of church and state?" She looked at me like I was an idiot and grabbed for her soy latte.) And the last debate I watched was the vice presidential one with Dan Quayle (remember when Perot’s running mate, James Stockdale, turned off his hearing aid in the middle? That was just wonderful. And of course there’s the “I knew Jack Kennedy and you sir are no Jack Kennedy”…priceless) but it was mainly out of morbid fascination. But now I find it too disturbing, too base. McCain’s camp brings up Ayers but he himself associated with eugenics guru Anthony Bouscaren. I mean, we all have people we have come across in our past whose goals and interests do not parallel ours (I have heroin shooting exes who I would hide from in the street if I saw them), but isn’t that what makes this country great? We are composed of people of all sizes, shapes and colors and there is room for all beliefs. Can’t we keep our focus on the here and now?

I know I am an idealist, but I’m glad the election is soon, I can’t watch too much more playground sand kicking. I prefer a straight fight. But I must admit, I am honored to live to see a man of color in a presidential race. I just wish my mother was around to enjoy this. But she always said they’d elect a black man before they’d elect a woman and it seems she was right once again. So I cast my vote, will dance in the street when Obama is elected, and look forward with hope. But it is still a cautious hope as the political game is still the same…and it never comes at you straight.