The Fallout, 5

I am really getting fed up with a lot of Latinos these days. I am on this site called Conversation Exchange, for people who want to learn and teach languages by arranging to meet up one to one. Sometimes it's pretty good. It is often very frustrating and I think for three reasons, in my case anyway: there is a lot of ageism on these kinds of sites, especially given that your age is publicly listed with your name. I also suspect that a lot of the young Hispanic males on this site think of one stop shopping and really want to hook up with Canadian girls, and the pillow talk can be in any language. The other concern is a real elephant in the room. It is racism. Now, I shall patiently count to ten while the Politically Correct Thought Police stop screaming and crying and get their breathing and heartrates back down to normal range...Feeling better, duckies? Now let us continue. First, I will treat you to my recently updated profile on the Conversation Exchange Page, in Spanish, then I will translate it into English: Acepto todos niveles de ingles. No soy maestro estricto. Por desgracia, hay muchos que desprecian a la gente canadiense mientras sacar provecho de nuestra generosidad, por eso la falta de consideracion que ocurre mucho por parte de muchos de ustedes. No nos responden, nos dejan pendientes, no nos valoren a pesar de nuestro interes para conocerles. Tratenos con respeto y no nos fastidien de tus pendejados ni de tus actitudes racistas! Estan bienvenidos. No nos dan por sentado a nosotros! In English: "I accept all levels of English. I am not a strict teacher. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who despise Canadian people while taking full advantage of our generosity, therefor this lack of consideration that we get from so many of you. You don't respond to us, you stand us up, you don't value us despite our interest in being your friends. Treat us with respect and don't annoy us with your stupid nonsense nor your racist attitudes! You are welcome here. Stop taking us for granted!" I have already written that racism is not just the purview of white people. It is everywhere. I have experienced racist treatment in Mexico, in Colombia and in Costa Rica, as well as by so-called Latino "friends" here in Vancouver. they always seem on the ready, prompt and punctual and available to other Latinos. To North Americans, not so much. This has really spilled out recently in my contacts with people here in Vancouver as well as internationals I know on Skype through the Conversation Exchange Page. I am really quite sick of this kind of shabby treatment from others, and I am no longer cutting slack. I have written elsewhere that when we cut slack for racist treatment from others, even if we are white and they are not, we are not doing them, nor ourselves, any favours. We are simply adopting a most patronizing and colonialist mentality, as though we are treating them like mentally deficient children who really shouldn't be expected to know any better. But if we are going to completely dispense with racist treatment of others then this also means having to recognize people of colour, as well as ourselves, as intelligent, fully functioning adults worthy of being treated with respect and dignity, which also means that there is going to be a reasonable expectation that this respect and dignity is going to be reciprocated. Of course, there are historical and political underpinnings for this unequal treatment. Not only do we have this ugly history of racism and white supremacy in North America and Europe, but it is also going to take an awfully long time to live this down. The ravages of American interference and the ravages of war they have fomented throughout Latin America are not going to be easily forgotten, for what they have done to help aggravate the collective trauma of Latin Americans. They have already had the violent legacy left by the murderous, pillaging and raping Spaniards. Still, I would like to dedicate this blogpost to the idea of challenging contemporary postmodern Latinos and others to become conscious of this mentality and to work hard at overcoming it, and just maybe to consider not only coming here to my country for all the opportunities, freedoms and benefits, but to actually become friends with Canadian people. Who knows? You might even come to love us. Scary thought, eh?