Forbidden Love: The Secret History of Mixed Race America (Edge Books)

Rating:
Summary: More political correctness - fewer facts
Review: I lived in Mexico for about a year as an English teacher. The chapter on race relations in Mexico in this book is flawed.

Mexicans who are not objective, and are basically jealous and contemptous of "gringos" will sometimes bring up the supposition that "we Mexicans married our Indians, and you Americans killed yours." This book tends to support that view.

I had a 3x great grandmother who was pure Indian (from Virginia). To my knowledge, our family never tried to hide this fact. Many Americans that I know ARE part Indian, maybe not very much, and never to my knowledge feel ashamed of it. Among Americans, Indian heritage is often a source of pride.

I found that when living in Mexico City, if I referred to the house maid, who was a native Indian, as an "Indian", 'that I would get chastised for using a term which most Mexicans consider to be the equivalent of the "N" word. "Call her 'the girl' for God's sake, just don't say 'Indian'!", I was told.

In addition, my Spanish was good enough to overhear some Mexicans denigrating the local Indian population - for example "You eat like an Indian!" (chuckle chuckle). Whenever I asked my students how much native "blood" they had, they would look embarassed and claim that they were white Spaniards, and "just a little" Indian. The book "A Vagabond in Mexico" also makes mention of an encounter the author had, where the locals all deny any "contamination" with Indian heritage, in spite of the fact that that brown skin they had didn't get imported from Spain.

This book give the impression that the Spanish influence of racism got removed once Mexico became independent of Spain. Hardly. If you've ever noticed, there is barely one president of Mexico who is of native blood. Most of the people in the upper echelons of politics, business, and show business in Mexico are clearly white Hispanics, with maybe just a little race mixing. And all those Mexican cocoa cereal boxes with the black face on the cover, Mexican kids making fun of blacks because they "look funny" - you can't tell me that Mexico doesn't have some serious race issues to contend with.

My Mexican friends came to my "rescue" when they found out that a Chinese guy I met there was interested in me. "Not good for you.", they told me.

Mexicans now living in America seem to think that they have a right to take over California because of their "Aztec" heritage. Aztecs were not the majority of the tribes in pre-hispanic Mexico, and certainly never made it into California. What makes this idea even weirder is the fact that the average Mexican does not identify with any tribe, but considers himself European. And last time I looked, the Comanches were the people who originally inhabited California, not the Aztecs.

All of this just goes to show how screwball politcal correctness is.

America tends to get blamed for all the race ills of the world -I think it would help if people did a little traveling (I've been to about 50 countries, and lived in 2 long-term), that they would see racism as a world-wide issue and not just as an American one. America is at least trying to work its problems out. Other countries sweep them under the carpet - cases in point - India, with its caste system based in part on skin color and its frequent religious riots, and Japan, where there has been discrimination against the native Ainu (a caucasoid race), ethnic Koreans born in Japan (the govt. refuses to grant them citizenship), foreigners in general, and oddly enough, against the Burakumin, who are native Japanese.

And let's not forget the airlift of bi-racial Vietnamese children, left over from the Vietnam war. They are now living happy and productive lives in the US. If they had been left on the streets of Saigon, they would have ended up as beggars and prostitutes because of the intolerant attitude of the Vietnamese when it comes to mixed race children, many of whom may have been the offspring of prostitutes.

There obviously hasn't been a whole lot of legwork in terms of actual in-the-field research in this book, just a rehashing of "facts" from other politically correct tomes. Thus, the information is flawed. 2 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Politically Correct
Review: I lived in Mexico for about a year as an English teacher. The chapter on race relations in Mexico in this book is somewhat flawed.
Mexicans who are not objective, and are basically jealous and contemptous of "gringos" will sometimes bring up the supposition that "we Mexicans married our Indians, and you Americans killed yours." This book tends to support that view.

I had a 3x great grandmother who was pure Indian (from Virginia). To my knowledge, our family never tried to hide this fact. Many Americans that I know ARE part Indian, maybe not very much, and never to my knowledge feel ashamed of it. Among Americans, Indian heritage is often a source of pride.

I found that when living in Mexico City, if I referred to the house maid, who was a native Indian, as an "Indian", 'that I would get chastised for using a term which most Mexicans consider to be the equivalent of the "N" word. "Call her 'the girl' for God's sake, just don't say 'Indian'!", I was told.

In addition, my Spanish was good enough to overhear some Mexicans denigrating the local Indian population - for example "You eat like an Indian!" (chuckle chuckle). Whenever I asked my students how much native "blood" they had, they would look embarassed and claim that they were white Spaniards, and "just a little" Indian. The book "A Vagabond in Mexico" also makes mention of an encounter the author had, where the locals all deny any "contamination" with Indian heritage, in spite of the fact that that brown skin they had didn't get imported from Spain.

This book give the impression that the Spanish influence of racism got removed once Mexico became independent of Spain. Hardly. If you've ever noticed, there is barely one president of Mexico who is of native blood. Most of the people in the upper echelons of politics, business, and show business in Mexico are clearly white Hispanics, with maybe just a little race mixing. And all those Mexican cocoa cereal boxes with the black face on the cover, Mexican kids making fun of blacks because they "look funny" - you can't tell me that Mexico doesn't have some serious race issues to contend with.

My Mexican friends came to my "rescue" when they found out that a Chinese guy I met there was interested in me. "Not good for you.", they told me.

Mexicans now living in America seem to think that they have a right to take over California because of their "Aztec" heritage. Aztecs were not the majority of the tribes in pre-hispanic Mexico, and certainly never made it into California. What makes this idea even weirder is the fact that the average Mexican does not identify with any tribe, but considers himself European. And last time I looked, the Comanches were the people who originally inhabited California, not the Aztecs.

All of this just goes to show how screwball politcal correctness is.

America tends to get blamed for all the race ills of the world -I think it would help if people did a little traveling (I've been to about 50 countries, and lived in 2 long-term), that they would see racism as a world-wide issue and not just as an American one. America is at least trying to work its problems out. Other countries sweep them under the carpet - cases in point - India, with its caste system based in part on skin color and its frequent religious riots, and Japan, where there has been discrimination against the native Ainu (a caucasoid race), ethnic Koreans born in Japan (the govt. refuses to grant them citizenship), foreigners in general, and oddly enough, against the Burakumin, who are native Japanese.

And let's not forget the airlift of bi-racial Vietnamese children, left over from the Vietnam war. They are now living happy and productive lives in the US. If they had been left on the streets of Saigon, they would have ended up as beggars and prostitutes because of the intolerant attitude of the Vietnamese when it comes to mixed race children, many of whom may have been the offspring of prostitutes.

There obviously hasn't been a whole lot of legwork in terms of actual in-the-field research in this book, just a rehashing of "facts" from other politically correct tomes. Thus, the information is flawed. 2 stars.