angry Joto Chicano

You have the nerve to talk to me about class, don’t you? Of course you do! You feel entitled to come and teach me about what it means to have social class and stature. You are here again to teach me about your values, because somehow your way of living is worth more than mine. I have been here before, this is nothing new to me. You will always want to me to be like you. Constantly comparing yourself to me, hoping I can imitate your ways. You know what I call that?

   

In “Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis” R. Rosaldo talks about “imperialist nostalgia” as  “a mood of nostalgia that makes racial domination appear innocent and pure…[it] uses a pose of ‘innocent yearning’ both to capture peoples’ imagination and to conceal its complicity with often brutal domination.”

We have recently been called "un-classy" by the opposing slate. Somehow, they are much more “classier,” than the people I associate myself with -- the people I stand in struggle and solidarity with, those who have been with me through some of the most difficult times in my life. This rhetoric, however, requires a much more complex analysis; one using Critical Race Theory as a foundation. It is key to note that the vast majority of Bruins United are non-people-of-color, in the traditional sense. Although many are not what have historically been dubbed as “White,” most of them overall benefit somehow from the privileges associated with Whiteness. Thus, their comparison between what they consider to be classy to our performance, paradoxes their manifestation of Whiteness (power) as being superior to our methods of resistance. Ironically, we are being dubbed the non-classy ones for speaking the truth. When the vast majority of people of color begin to speak the truth, then they are considered to be non-classy? I am sorry—no wait, I don’t have to apologize-- but the entire Student Body deserves to know the truth about who they are electing. Their presidential candidate has missed 8 Council meetings, let us note that there are only 10 council meetings per quarter and the spring quarter has not ended yet.

Though it may seem like I am overreacting, and being the crazy joto Chicano that takes everything out of proportion, I want to refer back to the definition of imperialist nostalgia – “racial domination [that] appear innocent and pure.” While they peevishly continue to call themselves “classy,” (making us un-classy) may seem “innocent and pure,” THEIR POWER to even have the authority to call us that, is rooted in a history of colonization, racial superiority, and power.

Go ahead, and challenge my methodologies, theoretical frameworks, and scholarship. You are just afraid that I keep calling you out on your inherited racist ideology that you refuse to challenge. Go ahead, try and silence me, villainize me. Afterall, I am jus that—an agry joto Chicano.