Jorge J Rodriguez V

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[jjrodriguezv]

45 and Corporate Media

Maybe controversial opinion but in my view, 45s constant bashing of "Fake News" is, in part, corporate media's fault and we need to be honest about that.

Throughout election 2016 (and before, let's be honest) corporate media gave highly sensational, non-journalistic coverage that was overwhelmingly partisan. And I want to be clear, we're talking about conservative (e.g. Fox) as well as more liberal (e.g. MSNBC and CNN) corporate media outlets. Indeed, shortly into the primaries it was clear that CNN, a major news network, was favoring Clinton because her campaign showered them with monetary gifts. Moreover, it's been clear for some time that much of corporate media in at least recent years is sensationalist, biased, and in short non-investigative. (This invites another conversation of the fall of print investigative journalism but that's a different conversation.)

My point is we can't pretend 45s bashing of corporate media as "Fake News" is just one of his idiosyncrasies and not—in part—corporate media's fault.

THAT SAID, there is also bullsh*t that must be called when 45 screams "Fake News!" We know, because he's often said this openly, that he gets his news not from intelligence briefings but from Fox and Friends. (Side bar: Fox and Friends sounds like something you'd find on Nick Junior, not a major news network. But I digress.) It's even been shown that he will tweet things minutes after they were reported on Fox and Friends (sometimes almost verbatim)! So there's, of course, ideological realities at play when 45 chooses to deploy "Fake News."

All that said, while, like a lot of things, sh*t's complicated, liberal's and progressives can't just scapegoat 45 for the bullsh*t their/our corporate media has aired.

You want to see change? Keep corporate media accountable and invest in independent, investigative news sources (e.g. Democracy Now!). Also, maybe help a journalism student get through school, we need them more than ever. I know a few if you need some suggestions!

[jordantarwater-deactivated20171]

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.

Hannah Arendt (via jordantarwater)

[jjrodriguezv]

Linguistic Intimidations...

Today I had an educational experience that I've never had before: my entire class this morning was in Spanish.

It was a class on religion and politics in Latin America where it just so happened everyone in the room was a Spanish speaker. So the Professor asks if we could hold our discussion in Spanish. Everyone is cool with it (and I'm, admittedly, thrilled because this has never happened before for me). As folks talk, though, I realize I'm the only Spanish speaker in the class from the United States. That is, there are folks from Puerto Rico, Argentina, Mexico, Spain and I'm the only one who grew up here. And I must admit, I was a intimidated for a good while and it took me a few minutes to jump into the conversation.

I wasn't intimidated because I wasn't fluent in Spanish (I am), nor because Spanish isn't my first language (it is), nor because I wasn't understanding my colleagues (I did), but because I was worried about my accent. My Spanish is unique. It's grounded in Puerto Rico, forged in the Diaspora, and influenced by Central America (especially Guatemala, El Salvador, and to a lesser extent Honduras). It's a blend of saying "coño," making "r" sounds into "l's," dropping letters, using "vos," adding "eis," and indicating a question by saying "va" at the end. Meanwhile I'm hearing colleagues speak "pure" Spanish from their respective lands and I start doubting myself.

Will my Spanish be understood? Would it be accepted? And why do I think their's is "pure" and mine is not? In short, why am I intimidated to speak the language my mother and father taught me?

Then I began realizing my own experiences with being bilingual in the United States. When I was growing up (and still today) some Puerto Ricans and Latin Americans would make fun of my Spanish as "too Gringo" (interestingly, some who learned Spanish in Latin America would say my Spanish is "too Puerto Rican," which meant too influenced by English, which meant "not good Spanish"). Simultaneously, English speakers would make fun of things like my name or pronunciation of certain words or my parent's accents because they were too "Spanish." So this linguistic space formed around me where I (supposedly) wasn't fully Spanish speaking or fully English speaking. This "ni de aqui, ni de aya" makes it intimidating to enter spaces where your speaking is what defines your participation.

In this particular instance I got over it and just jumped in with a "whatever" kind of attitude, if they understand me they understand me and if not I'll write it down! And I'm glad I did because it was powerful to hold a class in the language I feel most emotionally connected to (I feel more intellectually connected to English). Nonetheless, it was an interesting couple of minutes of feeling intimidated and needing to figure out why before jumping in.

Language has power in how we are shaped as people and communities. It can be a source of liberation or marginalization, colonization or freedom. In this way language can be an imperial force, one used to intimidate folk or make them feel less than in order to maintain power. It's what caused some indigenous languages to be wiped out, what empowers nativism and xenophobia, and what can cause students to remain silent for years in and out of classrooms. Yet language can also be a site of empowerment, of pushing back, or refusing to submit to supremacy. Indeed, language has power, perhaps more than we realize.....

[jjrodriguezv]

#ClapBackQuestions

I think from now on when a white person asks me something they clearly would never ask another white person or that they are clearly asking me only because I'm Latinx and fit some sort of stereotype I'm gonna invert the question. Let's call these: #ClapBackQuestions.

Here are some examples:

White person: Oh, so you like spicy food? Me: No! So you like bland food?

White person: Oh, so you're Catholic? Me: No! So you're Presbyterian?

White person: Oh, so you're bilingual? Me: Actually yes! So you're monolingual?

White person: Oh, so you study Latino Theology? Me: Kind of. So you study white theology?

White person: Oh, so you get tan in the sun? Me: Yes actually! So you burn in the sun?

White person: Oh, so you're on scholarship right? Me: So your mom and dad are paying for your school right?

These questions (many of which people who no nothing about me have actually asked) would sound absolutely ridiculous if they were inverted and asked to white folk based on stereotypes. So why don't people think they sound absurd when they are asked to people of color......?

[jjrodriguezv]

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive. —James Baldwin (at Union Theological Seminary)

[jjrodriguezv]

I've had something weighing on my heart and mind for days and I think I'm at the point where I want to articulate it, not for validation or anything, but just because I think there's power in naming things publicly.

I'm profoundly privileged. All week I've been sitting through orientation for my Doctoral program and have had to physically remove myself from places because I'm so overwhelmed by the fact that this dream me, my family, my community has had for years is finally here. I am allowed to read and write and converse and discuss and teach and learn for a living—and that is a privilege in so many senses of the word. I NEVER want to forget that and want to be held accountable and reminded of that fact that this is a privilege so few people get to have.

AND, holding that privilege in tension, this week I've also been reminded of the fact that institutions of higher learning—including my own and including (perhaps especially) doctoral programs—were not built for people like me. There have been times where because my Puerto Rican identity informs my scholarship it has been assumed that's my only topic of expertise or interest (tell me, how many white, Euro-American folk have been asked how their Whiteness influences their scholarship or limits their academic interests and expertise?). There have been times where I see how funding sources are accessible only to those with U.S. citizenship (as if U.S. Americans were the only ones who had the calling and passion to be in the academy—what arrogance to think so). There have been times where I've learned how the academy asks people to work for free no matter if you have a family, kids, bills, come from lower means, etc. (holding this up with the fact that a whole dorm floor of my institution was originally built for student's maids—let that sit). I could keep going.

So I hold this in tension: privilege and the fact that these institutions weren't built for people like me. And I claim that tension while also claiming my space here because it is my community and family and friends and people who validate my worth and propel my work, not an institution and not a degree. And that too is tension.

So today I live into tension, knowing I may feel differently tomorrow. And that too, is ok.

[jjrodriguezv]

It really feels like just yesterday my Abuela and Mom were walking me down to my first day of kindergarten. I was excited and nervous to meet new people, make new friends, learn new things. And now, a few years later, I start orientation for my new degree—the "terminal" degree (whatever that may mean)—and I'm just thinking back on all the times my Mom and Dad and Maminai and Tio took me to school. Just thinking about my family on this day we've been waiting a long time for.... ----------- Se siente como si nada más el otro día mi Abuela y Mama estaban caminando con migo a mi primer día de Kindergarten. Yo estaba nervioso y emocionado a conocer gente nueva, hacer nuevos amigos, aprender cosas nuevas. Y ahora, años después, empiezo orientación para mí proximo programa—como le dicen, el programa "terminal"—y yo aquí pensando en todas las veces que Mami y Papi y Maminai y Tio me llevaron a la escuela. Solo pensando en mi familia en este día que hemos anticipado por tanto tiempo.... #MyUnion (at Union Theological Seminary)

[jjrodriguezv]

When fear is our only motivation we can't envision a new world, a new way of being, a new way of engaging, a new way to love together.

[jjrodriguezv]

When did "why" become a "divisive question?" When did idealism, struggle, and pragmatism become mutually exclusive? When did all positions become "pure" and without contradiction? When did new ideas become "unhelpful?" When did learning become "impractical?" When did family and community no longer become an "academically accepted" source of knowledge? When did screaming out for one's humanity become "unhelpful for building unity?" When did "unity" start meaning "sameness?" When did we decide to just accept things as they are? When did we decide to act only on fear? When did we stop dreaming?

[micdotcom]

Black man Charles Kinsey told police he was unarmed before being shot

Charles Kinsey, a therapist who works at an assisted living facility, was trying to help an autistic patient that escaped from a group home on Monday. Police arrived in response to a 911 call regarding an armed man who was threatening suicide. Kinsey was then shot by North Miami Police, despite being unarmed and pleading with the officers, his hands in the air. He survived and was treated for his wound.

“When it hit me I had my hands in the air, and I’m thinking I just got shot!“ the caregiver told WSVN. “And I’m saying, ‘Sir, why did you shoot me?‘” The officer responded with three jaw-dropping words.

[2jam4u]

if you’re telling me that that scum’s (read: police officer) response to why he shot him (“I don’t know”) isn’t a DIRECT reflection of anti-black institutionalized racism in police forces….

[jjrodriguezv]

People of color live, dance, eat, and entertain, and some manage to become upwardly mobile despite everything. Life for people of color is not defined simply by the racist discrimination they experience, yet racist discrimination is constitutive of their life chances and possibilities, including for the few who achieve social mobility. We must dwell on struggle, not victimization.

Ramón Grosfoguel

[jjrodriguezv]

One of the most difficult things about repeated [systemic] trauma is that it becomes impossible to respond because every response is triggering. Analysis becomes triggering. Silence becomes triggering. Sharing information becomes triggering. Not sharing information becomes triggering. Constant triggering, no matter the response, is the sinister effect of a wound never allowed to heal but instead constantly held bare. It's an injustice morally, interpersonally, pastorally that certain communities are never allowed to heal, never given room to heal. Let's give space. Let's hold people.

[jjrodriguezv]

Because....you know....#4thOfJuly is awkward for some of us we had Samoan Chicken, Mexican Beer, and Young Lord/Independentista themed Cake/Beer Cozies. It really became a Decolonial Fourth..... (at Union Theological Seminary)

[jjrodriguezv]

#ElBarrio sabe que #NoHayPromesa (at El Barrio, NYC (Spanish Harlem/SpaHa))

[jjrodriguezv]

#AlbizuCampos #Che #ElBarrio (at El Barrio, NYC (Spanish Harlem/SpaHa))

[jjrodriguezv]

I missed this place that I now call home #NYC (at The High Line)

[revolutionarykoolaid]

Some of the beautiful faces stolen from us at Pulse Orlando. Please keep them and the many others lost and affected in your prayers to night. Rest in power.