Friday, August 8, 2008

[I Can't Title Posts] Forest for the Trees, or Something

After noting the myriad of problems he faced at the DMV, DH letter-writter William C. Hogg says this:

I have absolutely no problem with Spanish people here in Albany. Most of them are very nice and courteous and have beautiful families. But while at DMV, I observed many Spanish people go to the counter, present some kind of ID, then take a small test and have their picture taken. They were then provided with a driver’s license, which would be mailed to them. The exact way we used to get ours. What?

OK governor, senators and representatives, what are you trying to prove? How about the citizens?


Right. Because clearly no Spanish people could be citizens of the US. And clearly anyone who's not Black or Asian must be Spanish - not Mexican, Ecuadoran, Panamanian, or any one of many, many other identities. Nope. All Spanish, all foreigners.

This is a great example of unintentional racism. I don't think Mr. Hogg had malicious intent, but the assumptions he put in writing erase whole groups of people from existence and make unfounded assumptions about others. Not cool.... not to mention that he's making an assumption that his experience is representative of white people and the experiences he observed were similarly representative of whole groups.

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