In short, the blog danced around in Mexican stereotypes, mentioning all the bad news that comes from Mexico: crime lords (whom she jokingly calls "Bandidos"), corrupt police, drug dealers, etc., etc, all in all making the point that, at the moment, Mexico is getting a lot of bad PR. She jokes that "Nowadays the best PR Mexico has is the movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua."
And then she makes an interesting point:
"...can it be we have been looking for just this swine flu excuse to close our borders to Mexico?"Could this be true? People have advocated closing the border because of swine flue. According to Democratic Representative Eric Massa (N.Y):
"The public needs to be aware of the serious threat of swine flu, and we need to close our borders to Mexico immediately and completely until this is resolved."Anti-immigration activists have also used swine flu as a reason to close off the States from Mexico. So, interesting- there are a lot of people who strongly dislike Mexico, illegal immigration, and all that Jazz, and swine flu could be, as Perry states, the excuse they've been looking for.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/lawmaker-wants-border-closed-over-swine-flu-2009-04-25.html
Perry also makes the point that Mexico is losing it's tourists to other destinations, like Miami, and that she wouldn't go to Acapulco these days even if she was paid. And perhaps she's right, Mexico is having a lot of headaches.
But the whole blog was merely a rant, an observation, and some questions, quickly thrown out and said. Maybe she doesn't want to go to Mexico. Whatever. No big deal, right? Well apparently I'm wrong. Here are some of the comments made on that entry:
"This article was filled with negativity and ignorance. Not all mexicans are bandidos, and [if you] want to find some bandidos, I suggest watching western movies." inc300Uh... what? Did we read the same blog? No, no, I'm being serious! Did we read the SAME FUCKING BLOG?! A lot of other comments made sure to say that (and I paraphrase) "hey, I know free speech is good and all, but this is really bad stuff, Miss Perry!!!"
"What I'm trying to say by this is that your article is based on ignorance and xenophobia." Efraim
"How can anyone express this way about a whole nation?" PPGzz
"You little piece of unprofessional mind. Poor woman, you really need to get to know the world a little bit better, travel, learn languages, study and please stop writing!" Daniela Vizcaino
"Betsy may have not realized that she arrogantly CROSSED all HUMAN RESPECT and DIGNITY boundaries by verbally abusing Mexico" LatinAmericano
"Does she really believe that 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua' was filmed in Mexico? Does she really believe that 'Banditos' are Mexican?" emorales
All I can say is What. The. Fuck. People. No where in the article does she say all Mexicans are bandidos. No sane person thinks all Mexicans are bandidos. There is more ignorance in jumping to the conclusion that someone is generalizing than there is in the mocking usage of a stereotype. No part of the article contains the words "Mexico is ____" or "All Mexican People are _____," other than when Perry states that "Mexico is going to get a big time out and spend years on the naughty chair list" if it doesn't take care of some of it's bigger problems.
What happened to the use of humor, satire, sarcasm? What happened to the artist's right to be witty, funny, and exaggerate? What ever happened to the reverence of works like A Modest Proposal, wherein Johnathan Swift suggests that "the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies."
Was he serious? No! Does Perry actually "believe that 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua' was filmed in Mexico" as emorales asks? No. Fucking. No.
But people are sensitive about stereotypes. They are. Sometimes using them as a joke can be misinterpreted, because stereotypes and generalizations are sometimes used to oppress verbally. Well, fine, I guess. So Perry in her rant was offensive, but she was far from xenophobic and hating of all Mexican people. I don't know her, but I can most likely say that she probably doesn't hate Mexico, either. But maybe the content was just too extreme for Huffington Post. Maybe you're not supposed to say things like "bandidos" or "Montezuma's Revenge."
Oh wait:
"Karl Rove is one of those legendary mythological creatures: half doughy man-boy, half ratfucker. It's his nature. Once a ratfucker, always a ratfucker... Ratfucking in the private sector. Ratfucking at the mall. Ratfucking in the self-checkout aisle at the grocery store." Bob CescaSo, it's ok to talk about Karl Rove "ratfucking" and purposefully overuse the possibly offensive term for comedic and emotional effect? And it's ok to generalize about "pink men" being lazy at home, spending all their wives' money, and lying on television- as if all "pink men" were the same?
"I am so tired of pink men whose wives double or triple the family income thinking they can spend it without doing a damn thing at home. I am so tired of pink men spouting nonsense on TV. I am so tired of pink men arguing, blathering, bloviating, predicting the future--usually wrongly--and telling women to shut up." Erica Jong
Well, to be honest, it IS ok. To generalize. Nobody wants to make sure Bob Cesca doesn't think Karl Rove isn't human, he's being sarcastic to make a point about his dissaproval. Erica Jong (hopefully) doesn't hate all white men, no, she used repetitive sentence structure, the reoccuring use of the phrase "I am so tired of pink men," in order to make a point and make her commentary.
None of them were spammed with angry comments. None of them have stopped posting at Huffington Post. And I bet they've gotten a lot less hate mail. And none of them lost their membership on a board because of these posts. At least, I don't think they did. But you know who did?
That "poor woman," Betsy. Because of overwhelming pressure, and the fear that this pointless fucking debacle would be a distraction to Mayor Bloomberg of New York, she stepped down from her post as a member of the Women's Commission.
"Betsy Perry, the Women's Issues Commission member who drew fire for her anti-Mexico essay last week, has resigned, the Bloomberg administration said Tuesday."So even the news is calling it an "anti-Mexico essay" and an "anti-Mexico rant." What a sad place we live in. And oh yeah, she volunteered under Mayor Bloomberg. On the Women's Commission. She wasn't part of anything regarding Mexico, immigration, social studies and Mexican Education or anything remotely involving her little rant. But she had an important position as part of "an advisory body to the Mayor on matters impacting the lives of New York City women." (http://www.nyc.gov/html/cwi/html/about/about.shtml)
NY Daily News
And people are proud of this.
"The Mexican and Mexican-American communities scored a victory when they sent a clear message to the administration of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg: We will not tolerate being insulted and being called 'bandit swine flu carriers,' as Betsy Perry called us."Well, good job entire Mexican and Mexican-American community (because I'm sure its fine to generalize in this instance and say that all Mexicans and Mexican-Americans are better because of this. All of them. Every single fucking one of them!) you got her to resign. You made one lady, who apparently made a silly mistake of judgement by saying things, to step down from a relatively important position. Bravo. Bravo.
http://www.indypressny.org/nycma/voices/372/editorials/editorials/
And she never said that Mexicans were all "bandit swine flu carriers." Anything close to that wasn't serious, was sarcasm. Sure, she may have an irrational fear of Mexico because of all the scary news, but whatever. She didn't hurt anyone.
She didn't hurt anyone.
So basically, I'm tired of selective free speech. Free speech being ok only when certain people like it. People had to right to get angry at Betsy. They did. But she should have fought for her right to say what she said. We all have freedom of speech, as long as we fight for it, and I'm sad that Betsy tried to keep things low-key, normal, and safe by stepping down. I'm a little upset she didn't stand up more for herself. But maybe I'm wrong, maybe she didn't have the choice.
Whether she did or not doesn't matter now. All that matters is that if this ever happens to me, I make the choice to stand up for myself, even if it isn't a feasible option. Because if I don't, I'm wrong, and I don't have freedom of speech.
That is all. Simout!
wow -- and my response as Betsy Perry for real -- thank you for getting it. Unfortunately, it is an election year for the Mayor and when I realized this was blowing up out of proportion and might be detrimental to someone I respect, I chose to opt out. I was amazed at the speed with which this took off and disappointed at the lack of good investigative journalism especially in the on line world. Each piece said the same old thing about me and I often wondered if they'd really read the piece or any of my other equally snarky and funny and most often self deprecating articles. I doubt it. But what I don't doubt is that this election year with a very popular Mayor made his opponents desperate for anything and I became the "anything." Whatever piece of viral software that snakes around looking to connect the political dots clearly zeroed in on a few words and said "gotcha."
ReplyDeleteWhat is sad for me is that I was just a victim in a political skirmish and didn't have a prayer of defending myself though in my heart and in my writing I never once took after a person; it was merely commentary on a subject.
I really didn't defend myself because I couldn't without bringing more attention to a Mayor I like as a person and who has always been good to me and my city. There are some battles you can't fight.
And one more thing..as A.J. Liebling said "there's no such thing as freedom of the press, unless you own one."
Thank you for understanding. I never gave up, just took the closest exit.
Betsy