Ask A Mexican 4/9/08

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

By Gustavo Arellano

I understand that Dallas spent several million dollars for a Latino cultural center a couple of years ago and is now considering spending money for an Asian cultural center. Please explain why the City is spending money on things like this instead of hiring a few more police and fire people with names like Gonzalez and Chen. Also, when do we get an Irish Cultural Center to celebrate our rich cultural heritage of whiskey, poets, fistfights and rain?
-The Leprechaun

Dear Mick: If you’re looking for a bit of Eire, move to San Francisco, Phoenix, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and the many other cities in the United States that host Irish cultural centers. I’m with you that city officials should spend taxpayer money primarily on infrastructure and services, but the way you and other gabachos whine about ethnic studies and cultural centers being exclusionary is mystifying. Mira, the only reason why Mexicans, chinitos, negritos, and every other aggrieved minority group in this country demand recognition for their cultural contributions is because they went a good two centuries being treated as Sambos, chinks, and beaners.

Besides, cultural institutes are manifestations of what the legendary Columbia sociologist Herbert Gans deemed symbolic ethnicity: the idea that America’s ethnics eventually become assimilated and choose what parts of their heritage to celebrate. So celebrate, America! For every Cesar Chavez Day and Cinco de Mayo holiday imposed upon the land by P.C. pendejos, that’s just one step closer for Mexicans to become Americans.
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Ask A Mexican 4/9/08 | Planet JH News Article: Ask A Mexican

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