At 07:36 PM 24/08/2001 -0500, Greg Burch wrote:
>Olga, relax. "Mexican" is the word in English for people from Mexico. It
>so happens that in LA and Houston and, I guess from Brian's post, Atlanta,
>the most numerous population of recent immigrants who are just starting up
>the socio-economic ladder are from Mexico.
True Greg, but Olga's point is a good one too. Sure, "Mexican" is just a
word to refer to people from a locality, but we must still be careful how
we use words. Chink, spik, wog, etc could be justified the same way, though
they are so clearly loaded that the racism is obvious. I am not saying that
what Brian said was racist. All I can say is that it *could* be interpreted
as such. Only Brian can know for sure... and possibly even he doesn't know.
These things can often be so ingrained we don't even know we are doing them.
My point is that we must be aware of how we use language. As far as I can
see Olga did a service being prickly about possibly racist remarks. It
makes good sense to be careful about walking on broken glass.
Best wishes,
- Miriam
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