Devin Nunes: AG Jeff Sessions should be held in contempt of Congress

[Inisfallen]

Maybe not so much. After all, you can’t be a member of “La Cosa Nostra” (our thing) without being Sicilian or at least Neopolitan. And practically every Indian tribe’s name (in their language) was simply “the people”. And of course there was “die volk”.

Really, trying to make an analogy between this group and the Mafia, or “die volk,” with all its echos of fascism and racism, is a bit unfair, don’t you think? They’re not organized crime. They’re not Nazis.

Judge Curiel disclosed his membership in this group when he was nominated to the Federal bench. His nomination was uncontroversial. The Senate, who would have been aware of his membership, confirmed him.

It’s no big deal.

And, again, I think the whole discussion is a diversionary tactic, trying to deflect attention from Trump’s apparent racism (and, in fairness and charity, it may have been cluelessness as much as, or more than, racism) by attempting to make it appear that Trump’s comment was justified because Curiel was a member of a supposedly racist organization.

Which he was not.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Really, trying to make an analogy between this group and the Mafia, or “die volk,” with all its echos of fascism and racism, is a bit unfair, don’t you think? They’re not organized crime. They’re not Nazis.

I said nothing of the sort. All I was pointing out is that all kinds of people refer to themselves as “the people” or similar things. Just because some Spanish speakers translate “La Raza” differently from the literal “The Race” doesn’t mean they don’t mean “the race”, even though there may be other ways to understand it. The reference can be benign or less than benign, depending on who is saying it or hearing it.

Think of Trump the way you want to think of Trump. But he did not say anything directly derogatory about Mexicans. He was angry with Curiel in particular, and quite possibly for good reason. All kinds of people were calling Trump a racist for wanting a wall, and he seems to have thought Curiel’s motivation in doing what most judges won’t do, was because of that. Nothing he said later and nothing in his history of race relations would help because too many wanted him to be a racist.

 

[dvdjs]

All I was pointing out is that all kinds of people refer to themselves as “the people” or similar things. Just because some Spanish speakers translate “La Raza” differently from the literal “The Race” doesn’t mean they don’t mean “the race”, even though there may be other ways to understand it.

Why don’t you talk to some people fluent in the language and culture and ask them?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sometime I might ask that specific question, but I have certainly discussed the notion of “the race” with both Mexicans and Central Americans. The non-Maya, non-“Indio” Mexican notion of “the race” is as I described. Despite extreme variations among them in their Indian vs Spanish heritage, they have a concept of themselves as a race; a unique people, uniquely blessed, and certainly “better” than “Indios”. The Hispanic portion of the Americas is very race-conscious, massively more so than the “Anglo” part. “Anglos”, by and large, don’t understand that because they don’t want to understand it.