I was deeply offended by Jesús Iñiguez’s opinion piece “Hispanic or Not, We Are All Trayvon Martin.” I was also shocked that Fox News Latino would publish such an incendiary piece of race baiting and hateful speech more worthy of Granma than a supposedly serious news organization.
I have to hand it to Mr. Iñiguez though. He has cojones. When an illegal alien (yes, here illegally) has the audacity to criticize the legal and constitutional underpinnings of the very country that shelters him, the world has indeed turned upside down. He is a poster child for exactly why many Americans don’t want him and others who bad-mouth this country to gain legal status. His ignorant comments undermine the very legitimate need for immigration reform that so many legal and undocumented Latinos have fought long and hard to achieve…and that is almost within our grasp.
Trayvon was certainly not the angelic image portrayed in what is apparently the only photograph ever taken of him; frozen in amber at age 12.
Mr. Iñiguez can’t pick and choose which of America’s freedoms he likes and which ones he doesn’t like. You can’t love freedom of speech and denigrate the judicial system that protects the First Amendment and all of our rights and liberties. Until he is a U.S. citizen he should keep his mouth shut and pray that ICE doesn’t track him down and ship him back to whatever corner of paradise he fled from. As far as I am concerned, he is an ingrate and an embarrassment to all Latinos who love this country…regardless of its warts.
But I digress.
Let’s talk about why Hispanics should not sympathize with Trayvon Martin or the rabble rousing charlatans that foolishly liken him to the great civil rights martyrs of the 20th century.
Let’s also talk about why Hispanics should not cast their lot with race baiting profiteers like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Tavis Smiley or the Congressional Black Caucus. We also shouldn’t side with President Obama and the rest of an administration hell-bent on using every organ of the state, and every bit of raw political power, to divide and undermine the wonderful melting pot that is America.
If we should be supporting anybody it should be George Zimmerman. We should defend him and the legal system that found him NOT GUILTY. We should support him because the FBI could find no evidence that George Zimmerman ever engaged in any racist behavior. We should defend Zimmerman not because he is Hispanic but because it is the right thing to do: pure and simple.
America is a country based on the concept of equal protection under the law. The system is far from perfect and abuses have no doubt taken place in the past. It is however, the best system in the world. Millions flock here seeking the great opportunities and the level playing field offered by a robust and proven legal and economic system.
Unfortunately, we have our problems. One of them is a big crime problem. A lot of our crime is violent in nature. Statistics show that the majority of violent crime is committed by young black males. In places like New York City, almost 75 percent of violent crime comes at the hands of young black thugs. Most of the violent crime is blacks killing other blacks in gang and drug related vendettas. It is an ugly but undeniable reality.
In his hometown of Miami Gardens, Trayvon Martin was apparently a thug wannabe. He had been suspended from high school after a history of defacing school property, possessing stolen jewelry and burglary tools (a potential third degree felony in Florida) and most recently for smoking dope. The Miami Herald and other legitimate news sources have confirmed these facts.
Trayvon was certainly not the angelic image portrayed in what is apparently the only photograph ever taken of him; frozen in amber at age 12.
That is why Trayvon was in Orlando walking through the rain, at night, alone, in a neighborhood that had, unfortunately, been frequently vandalized by individuals he resembled, both physically and by disposition. He had been kicked out of school for criminal activity…not for bad grades or for talking smack to his teachers.
Let me pause and make something very clear. Trayvon didn’t deserve to die. No child should have his life cut short. No parent should bury their child prematurely. It is a tragedy of the highest order when children, even teenagers, die needlessly. The vast majority of Americans share this sentiment. But the truth requires that we speak plainly, even if it hurts or offends.
Trayvon Martin sowed the seeds of his own destruction. It started with his bad behavior. It was compounded with his hooded camouflage on a dark, rainy night in a frightened neighborhood. It was sealed when he viciously attacked George Zimmerman, an innocent man, legally armed, wanting to protect his neighborhood.
Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law had nothing to do with the Zimmerman case. That is a red herring to distract attention from Trayvon’s assault on Zimmerman. Nevertheless, in Florida law-abiding black gun owners have disproportionately benefited from the stand your ground defense when it has been relevant.
Zimmerman’s defense was also not about white people having guns. The Second Amendment is a right guaranteed to everyone, not just whites or Hispanics. Race baiting profiteers like NPR’s Tavis Smiley should look into this. He thinks that the NRA should arm all blacks; the inference being that only whites have guns. Obviously Mr. Smiley hasn’t been to a gun range recently.
What about the oft mentioned civil rights affinity that exists between African-Americans and Hispanics?
There is no such affinity.
Blacks see Hispanics as an economic threat, not as an ally. The whole civil rights synergy is an elaborate kabuki theatre promoted by black and Hispanic activists simply to keep affirmative action going for as long as possible.
The only civil right that really matters is money in your pocket to feed and clothe your family. When it comes to that, America’s black leaders have a consistent record of unbridled antipathy toward all immigrants.
Hispanics (and other immigrants) compete with African-Americans for jobs, especially at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum and in the inner cities. Immigrants have displaced many blacks in construction, manufacturing, hospitality and other industries. They have also made significant inroads into the government jobs that have historically been closed shops dominated by black workers…and their main pathway into the middle class.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have been meeting with the President to derail immigration reform. I can’t blame them. With black unemployment running almost twice the national average, blacks are already at a huge disadvantage in the workforce. Adding more legal workers anxious to achieve the “American Dream” will only make it that much harder for blacks to succeed or hold on to their economic gains.
Meantime, President Obama, our first mixed-race President, has decided to harass George Zimmerman, another mixed-race individual, for as long as possible. He has instructed his Department of Justice —whose name is quickly becoming a misnomer— to set up a tipster hotline to dig up any racist dirt, real or imagined, to crucify the exonerated Zimmerman. Those are the same hateful tactics used by white segregationists against black people.
This is the promise of Hope and Change? This is what you call progress?
It is despicable. It sickens me. America’s first black President, the Nobel Prize winning Messiah who was going to bring us to the promised land of racial harmony and equality, has done more to divide this country than any President I have witnessed in my entire lifetime. He has alienated conservatives with his IRS Tea Party witch hunt. He has offended Jews by calling into question the territorial integrity of the State of Israel. He has antagonized hard working people of all ethnicities with his costly health care mandates and increased taxes. The list goes on and on.
Unlike the inane Mr. Iñiguez, I do not stand in solidarity with Trayvon Martin. I have no desire to align myself with his apologists or the race baiting profiteers in the media, in the black community, in Congress and in the White House who are intent on using his death to tear this country apart. They are putting us on a path to race riots in America.
I am proud of my Cuban roots but I am first and foremost an American. I sympathize with but have little in common ideologically with other Hispanics, including our celebrity starlets and harlots, who fawn over a President whose cronies and supporters now denigrate an innocent Latino and the very principles that are the bedrock of our sacred democracy. Countless white, black, Hispanic, Asian and other-Americans have fought and died for those principles. They were only Americans when it mattered.
So I am an American. Nothing more and nothing less.
Don’t confuse me with other hyphenated quasi-Americans who love their country only when their selfish interests are met and their pocketbooks lined with thirty pieces of silver.
I am not one of them…and never will be.
Thank God.
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