Ruth over at Illegal Protest has been really going to town on La Raza.
Me, I'm not as enthusiastic at digging into this racist organizations books, bullshit lies that they aren't racist and other assorted garbage that they spew.
However, if you're not familiar with this racist group - that wants everything for Hispanics and nothing for other races - then have yourself a read of these three posts from Ruth.
All About the National Council of LA RAZA (The RACE)
NCLR says “La Raza” does not translate to “the race” - oh really?
And there’s MORE on La Raza
The NCLR explanation is correct. Raza means race, but a new definition of race meaning "mixed race". This isn't that different from the idea of multiculturalism -- the idea of the "mutt American" and how a lot of white people consider themselves very mixed... though generally mostly or only mixed European.
This idea was probably put forward to deal with the other competing "race" ideology in Mexico, which is basically Eurocentric white supremacy, and anti-Indian.
I think the upshot has been that both ideas still exist. The Raza concept today seems to have narrowed to include Indians, but exclude Asians and Arabs, who were originally included in the Vasconcellos writings. Again, there are parallels in American history, when American multiculturalism explicitly excluded non-white people.
Posted by: johnk on September 2, 2007 06:17 PM
