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MEXICAN!  NOT LATINO!  NOT HISPANIC!

I read these words boldly emblazoned across a man's shirt that I noticed while walking through the mall recently.  It clearly expressed his distaste for people calling him Latino, or Hispanic when he is clearly Mexican. 

Which I agree with.  People confuse the hell out of the race of other people.  But I have finally decided to take my own stand in all of this.

 Don't Call Me White!

White is the color of a bleached and lineless piece of paper.  It is the color of the reflection of all color. It is the color of the delicious whipped topping that mounts ice-cream sundaes.

 It is not a race.

If need be, follow my ancestry back and then you can accurately asses who I am and what you can call me.  I do not care if it takes you an extra ten seconds to list off the French, British, German, and Native American portions of my heritage.  Hell, if life originated in Africa, count me in for one of those too.  I want to be recognized for what I am and not for what you "non-whites" decide to call me. 

Furthermore, I would like to find that man wearing that shirt and challenge him to distinguish between different Asians.  The differences between middle-eastern races.  The differences at least between white people.  But we do all look the same don't we?

The answer to that is yes.  We all look the same.  Even I confuse white people a on no irregular basis.  The ability to distinguish such things comes only through time and familiarity.  Go downtown to Jerry's pizza and try to pick apart Scene kids from the Punks, Goths and Metalheads if you've never actively engaged the music scene.  

But I do see where this oppositional mindset is coming from.  We, all and every white person in this country, has it out to completely take over and destroy the culture of every group of persons that we deem necessary.  This is just a fact.  Any opposition from, say my part, is clearly racist.  It is me, the privileged white male who is trying to keep the brown man subverted.  If one who is white is so enlightened as to embark upon a quest to absolve any wrongdoing, they must concede to every point of contention - legitimate or not - that an oppressed group makes.  Any failure to do so - on part of the white man or even a minority who feels that things just aren't being approached the right way - results in them being dismissed as racist (for the white) and disconnected or white washed (for the dissenter).  

Demonstrators waving Mexican flags who spit on the American flag (quite literally, and I am referencing a specific incident) are completely justified because they lack the racist qualities inherent in all White people.  There is no possible way that anyone, even the most neutral of persons, can see that sort of spectacle and be confused as to what goal it was trying to achieve unless they have a pre-conditioned resentment toward the damn wetbacks! 

Never mind that I have encountered numerous bigoted statements from Mexicans, El Salvadorians, Cubans, and a number of other countries. 

I knew someone from El Salvador (not actually from there personally, they are first generation in America) who was mistakenly called Mexican one time and vehemently rejected that label by stating in no uncertain terms that they were "El Salvadorian, not a stupid dirty Mexican!"  And that sentiment, I had come to find later, was not isolated to the individual thoughts of that one person. 

But rest assured I have heard the throngs of insults hurled from Mexicans toward other surrounding races that we would deem "Hispanic" or "Latino."

Now, I am not meaning for this to suggest that Euro-Americans are completely innocent in any case whatsoever.  Prussian Blue is a darling example.  But where my teeth begin to grind is the point where I am assumed to be grouped with those people.  And I know that that sentiment is shared with a number of other Mexican immigrants who feel that the protestors did not speak for them or the Hispanic population as a whole. 

So why the hate then?  Euro-Americans took parts of Mexico and transformed them into the country that we have today.  So what then, as new evidence suggests, would become of this idea of "indigenous people of America" if it turned out that the furthest traces of people inhabiting this land were Australian aboriginals who migrated here centuries ago, before the speculated Asian migration across the Bering Strait?

Furthermore, what does it matter?

Unfortunately, what is done is done.  Retribution, reparations, all that means nothing.  We need to collectively begin to try and understand the perspectives that are the driving forces behind a number of these calls for battle.  We are going nowhere.  We've gotten to the point where we jump on these bandwagons just to be seen.  Just to feel legitimized as a person regardless of whether or not these assertions being made hold any real value or follow any sound patterns of logic.  So as long as there is a uniqueness to who you are, there is a uniqueness to who I am.

Don't call me white.