Covering The Coverage: "Miss Hispanic Week" Competition Is Kind Of Weak
A “Miss Hispanic Week” competition in Massachusetts has got us taking out our trusty soap box (it’s really a Café Bustelo can covered in old Lisa Frank stickers) and preaching that, no, Hispanic isn’t a race and, yes, we’re complicated:
Moriah Reid, the teenages chosen by a panel of judges as Miss Hispanic Week on May 23, is the first biracial beauty queen ever elected — her mother is Dominican and her father, Scottish.
…And that’s it. She’s “biracial” because her mom is from one place and her dad from another. So, hi. “Hispanic” is not a race. And not all Dominicans are black. For that matter, we’re pretty sure not all Scots are white. “Yeah, so? What’s your problem?” some of you might be asking. Well see here, you. Shut up. Also, our problem is that creating a racial identity for a nation is harmful, exclusive and potentially discriminatory. A White Dominican is no less Dominican than one from any other race, just as a Black Scot would be no less Scottish.
So, true, she may very well be biracial, but not solely because of the insinuations made by this reporter.
Also, come on:
To prepare for the pageant, each of the eight participants was given a challenge — to create something out of bathroom tissue.
Reid attached the paper to a slip and made a dress, adorned with ruffles and black polka dots.
“The point is it doesn’t matter what a beauty queen wears because her inside beauty will shine through,” she said.
Yeah, we’re always happy to have toilet paper handy when our “inside beauty” comes pouring out. Jesus Christ.
Lawrence’s Miss Hispanic Week makes history [Eagle Tribune’
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Daniel Mauser
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Cindy Casares
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Alex Alvarez
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Gabriel Caro - Camilla Rowan
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Marcelo Cunning
i would have made a tampon
Posted by la roncha | June 09, 2008
See, this is exactly why mainstream American society, with the dichotomy between Black and White as its founding principle, can’t make heads or tails of us so-called “Hispanics” and lumps us all into one group. Rich and poor, white and indigenous and black, caribbean, Mexican, Central American, south American, we’re all the same to them. What a White, part-Italian Argentinian, a Black Dominican, a Mexican-American whose family has lived in the US Southwest for generations, a Puerto Rican immigrant, and a very mixed Brazilian have in common with each other is beyond me. Despite language(maybe) and continuously being fucked by mainstream American culture (maybe), there’s not much left to form a community around. So-called Hispanics do not naturally coalesce into one organic group, they do not all get along, they are not all the same. White American people (who are not Hispanic, that is) don’t usually get this. We are not all the same.
And to be honest with you (and I understand that this has a lot to do with the very fucked up racial dynamics of the DR) I myself am Dominican and did not hear that “all Dominicans are Black” nonsense until I moved to the States. Actually, there are a lot of things about “Dominicans” and “the Dominican Republic” of which I, an actual Dominican from the Dominican Republic, had to be informed, mostly by non-Dominicans born in the US, because I guess I missed the Dominicans 101 class during Platano school or something. Like calling the Dominican Republic “the DR”, for example. I had no idea what that was for, like, months!
Posted by wha? | June 09, 2008
Pft, next you’re going to tell me that everyone in South America doesnt speak the same language.
/sarcasm
Posted by Wormfather | June 10, 2008
I totally agree. The insinuation that all Scots are white (or indeed all british people are white) and all Dominicans are black is incredibly offensive.
Posted by Ogilvie | June 10, 2008
Homogeneousness is easier to grasp. Rather than taking the time to truly understand and identify all the different races that make a culture unique…
Posted by Ana | June 10, 2008
chalk it up to laziness on the part of most u.s. americans who don’t care to understand the varied and diverse cultures of nations around the world.
Posted by illy | June 10, 2008
Didn’t you get the memo? No Dominicans are black.None. They’re all Indios! ha ha ha!
“platano 101 class”= total win.
Also: am I wrong for having very dirty thoughts about Miss Reid?
Posted by zno | June 14, 2008
I’m 100% Dominican, I was born there and raised here. I don’t tan I burn. and I have freckles. Black is beautiful! But we Dominicans come is all shades and colors.
Posted by griceldy polanco | June 15, 2008