|
|
Not Black Like You: Herman Badillo and the Limits of Liberalism
One Nation, One Standard
Claiming a non-racialist legacy from the Spanish in the Latino community, Badillo finds that: "Many Hispanic parents seem to accept the characterization of their community as a minority group, something they would find incomprehensible in the Latin and Caribbean countries from which they came. They accept labels such as ‘brown people’ or ‘people of color.’ Having gone along with such characterizations, some Hispanics behave as if they actually were a persecuted ethnic group, with a permanently diminished capacity for success.
"They find excuses to justify their nonperformance. They say they live in poverty and cannot be expected to accomplish what middle-class or ‘white’ people do. They cite language problems as impediments to progress. They say, above all, that they are victims of discrimination and thus cannot move ahead."
He goes on to observe that, “I have never heard a Puerto Rican refer to himself or herself as a white Puerto Rican, a black Puerto Rican, or a hyphenated Puerto Rican of any kind.” Puerto Ricans regularly identify themselves along racial lines, both stateside and in Puerto Rico. He is, in essence, perpetuating a Puerto Rican racial myth. Badillo states that, “I do not believe in racial categories and consider them harmful and literally divisive. Latin Americans do not racially pigeonhole themselves and thus get along much better as a society.”
“With a little ingenuity,” he argues, “America could redesign today’s government programs so that they could reach all who need them without scarring them with racist labels. We then would be well on our way to eliminating such categories as “African-American,” “Asian-American,” and “Hispanic- American” --- the one I myself helped to institute on the census --- and simply call ourselves Americans who share a unified culture.”
Ultimately, Badillo’s book reveals the real limits of liberalism when it comes to the issue of race. Badillo’s over-generalization about the lack of support for education by Latinos amounts to a negative stereotype that undermines his basic message. His sloppy documentation of the extent of the problem of Latino poverty and the dropout rate raises questions about the accuracy of his analysis and makes these problems appear much more insurmountable than they are. While he obviously wants to convey a positive message of hope, in the end he presents a picture that inspires despair and anger.
Angelo Falcón, a political scientist, is President and Founder of the National Institute for Latino Policy. He is an adjunct assistant professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, and the author of the Atlas of Stateside Puerto Ricans and co-editor of Boricuas in Gotham: Puerto Ricans in the Making of Modern New York City |
