Yes, my voice speaks to my soul, history, body, intentions.
No, my similarities with you are not the point to start a conversation on us since it is you who wants to talk about what unite us. Really!
Yes, I am not so transparent that my sense of the world will be determined by your need to be so universal; to be so above petite ethnic, sexual, racial, identity politics; that you dismiss these concerns, valid or not, as you disregard those who talk about them. Remember you are who you are, for better or for worse, a product of those politics. Dismiss them is not going to eliminate the desires, needs and ways of seeing the world that you claim to have been able to transcend.
No, I am not so stupid as to see me as a fixed entity. If you would listen to learn and not to judge and look for ways to dismantle the ideas pf the other, then a world would have opened for you. In the end, it is the likes of you trying to negate the existence of the other that create the conflict between those who claim to be transparent and those are trying to understand their place in the world, and also make a comfortable life for themselves.
Yes, blaming multculturalism or ethnic politics as the reason for the neo-fascists and populist reactionary governments coming into power, is to fall into the trap of people whose histories, identities, voices are very clear, in unison with their purposes: to eliminate any differences, to protect their similarities, which, when closely observed, have very little in common with mine; and a lot with money and the obsessive need to control those who are different, who enjoy their differences.
No, had I included my colleagues when celebrating my 50th birthday, I would have not invited the white faculty only. But I did not. I did not invite colleagues, “y punto”, much less heteros, to my soirée. There were white, black, blue, brown, pink, jinchos, jabaos, prietos, sambos, gringos, boricuas, franceses, cubanos, sureños, norteños, and all of them were my friends: gay men who served as mirrors and “agentes freirianos problematizadores” when I was working at the City College’s Bilingual Multicultural Teacher Education Program, a year after I found out my positive hiv status, and a few years after my friends Gunter, Gary, Guillermo, Joachim, Paul, Alfredo and many acquaintances died; and no, we were not transparent.
* Similar situations happened at the College where exclusion was the norm; a particular birthday of a Cuban colleague comes to mind: when it was celebrated, only selected "white Faculty" was invited to the party; and we -two Ricans- had enough "material" and history, not to be surprised by the quality of the colleagues. Once more, the conflicting story between Cubans and Puerto Ricans in the USA continued at the City College.
No, had I included my colleagues when celebrating my 50th birthday, I would have not invited the white faculty only. But I did not. I did not invite colleagues, “y punto”, much less heteros, to my soirée. There were white, black, blue, brown, pink, jinchos, jabaos, prietos, sambos, gringos, boricuas, franceses, cubanos, sureños, norteños, and all of them were my friends: gay men who served as mirrors and “agentes freirianos problematizadores” when I was working at the City College’s Bilingual Multicultural Teacher Education Program, a year after I found out my positive hiv status, and a few years after my friends Gunter, Gary, Guillermo, Joachim, Paul, Alfredo and many acquaintances died; and no, we were not transparent.
* Similar situations happened at the College where exclusion was the norm; a particular birthday of a Cuban colleague comes to mind: when it was celebrated, only selected "white Faculty" was invited to the party; and we -two Ricans- had enough "material" and history, not to be surprised by the quality of the colleagues. Once more, the conflicting story between Cubans and Puerto Ricans in the USA continued at the City College.
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