Although she understands racism and its consequences, she dismisses groups that have particular interests or concerns as self-serving identity politics, even when these groups are not discriminating nor claiming a superiority of one group over another.
She was disturbed and confused by the cyclical nature of Puerto Rican storytelling and discourse styles; similar to the ones found in a great deal of Latin American literature, and recorded excellently by Gabriel García Márquez, Ana Lydia Vega and many other writers from south of the border.
She was truly annoyed by the nonchalant attitude that many Puerto Rican clerks or waiters exhibit when working in stores and restaurants; that were in opposition to her matter of fact, direct, almost confrontational, approach when addressing people. She felt she was to be taken care immediately and with no pauses or distractions. Efficiency is a value not to be questioned.
She was/is a white USA woman in Puerto Rico expecting to be treated equally according to her standards. She was treated equally, except they were doing it according to different standards, that were not necessarily based on racism or sexism but in a different way of viewing and acting upon the world.
Her standards contradict her arguments against identity politics, as if her “forma de ser”, who and how she is has nothing to do with a particular culture (not only from an ethnic and racial perspective but from a certain educated class also and its intersection), a specific group, and in her case, to a large extent, the group in power.
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