Idaho School Teachers Dress as Mexican Stereotypes, Border Wall

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That is why, as a conservative I feel that that stunt was in very bad taste and highly inappropriate. Online and everywhere else it blows my mind to keep reading “oh stop being a snowflake” and whatever else, because 9 times out of 10 the shoe is on the other foot and we don’t like it! At least they are being punished for this, as things that bash right-wing causes and cause offense to us are rarely disciplined. It should just not happen either way. No politics in schools, period! And as an aside, part of that stunt was not political in my opinion. They teach children, Hispanic children. I’m sure many don’t grasp the nuance between someone from Mexico and an illegal immigrant (and what if they ARE an illegal immigrant??) and it would be very hurtful to them and totally break their trust to see that. Caricatures of people never do any good, ever. Almost half of my faith formation children are Hispanic and it breaks my heart to think how they would feel seeing something like that.
 
BoomBoomMancini said:
first, it has to be preserved as it is, and second, we wish it had never come into existence, because it represents the dilution, mixture, and evolution of prior ethnic groups. I don’t see how you can hold these two beliefs simultaneously.
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Yeah, that’s what it seems to me, and I likewise find the logic ludicrous. That’s why I asked the question, because I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and not assume that they’re that illogical.
 
Gingersnaps4 said:
They teach children, Hispanic children. I’m sure many don’t grasp the nuance between someone from Mexico and an illegal immigrant (and what if they ARE an illegal immigrant??) and it would be very hurtful to them and totally break their trust to see that.
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This is a very good point. I’m very familiar with this region, and it is highly populated with Latinos, both documented and undocumented. I don’t care who they are or whether or not they’re carrying the right papers. Young children have done nothing to deserve this kind of ridicule.

In this context, “unprofessional” seems like an understatement to describe these teachers’ actions.
 
Arkansan said:
I think that each race is valuable and should be preserved.
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About a decade ago, the KKK actually kept a website. I visited it out of morbid curiosity. They were making the same argument you were . . . as an official position.
 
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Does anyone remember the Frito Bandito from probably the early 70’s? No one made a fuss about those. Now, people would hit the roof.
 
'Cause we’ve been online together for years now. (Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
Still, on the off chance that a miracle has occurred and you are Tupac (Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.) , May I be the first to ask for an autograph? It will go far in moving up the date of my retirement! (Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
Actually, the cultural appropriation thought came to mind because I am seeing more and more of these sort of threads on CAF and pondering the increase in gate-keeping on all sorts of issues.
Who is entitled to voice an opinion or to have an opinion given credence seems to be often discussed as a function or race/ ethnicity/gender/faith group/country of origin/ on our website, as in so many other areas. I worry about increased fracturing into smaller and smaller identity groups with individuals claiming spokesperson status and the right to be arbiters of who gets to speak and be heard on their issue. I see this as a move towards nihilism.
I’m much more interested in the caliber of thinking than I am in the background of the thinker and the notion that some thoughts are more legitimate than others based on the background of the thinker seems tenuous, to me.

On a positive note, your quote took me back to the song. It’s hard to believe that it came out over 20 years ago. Suddenly, I feel old, which, I hope will not cause my philosophical ramblings to be viewed as less legitimate.
I miss Tupac.
May he rest in peace.
Amen.
 
Salmonslayer said:
Especially considering Mexican isn’t a race.

It may be jingoistic and nationalist, but it’s nit racist.
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Race is something Europeans invented to justify discrimination. Whether you want to argue Hispanic is a race or not, “Mexican” has been used often to discriminate or degrade. You need not go any further than our dear leader’s calling Mexican immigrants “criminals” and “rapists”. It’s a designation that matters, period.
 
Using an extreme example like Donald Trump isn’t really relatable and Mexican usually isn’t used as an insult.
 
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PJH_74 said:
Race is something Europeans invented to justify discrimination.
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Except for the fact that the same type of discrimination is recorded in the Bible, even in the Old Testament. Moses’ siblings didn’t like that he had an African wife. The Jew/Samaritan divide was a major theme in Jesus’ ministry, and the Jew/Gentile issues were major themes in Paul’s writings. That’s just to name a few.

Somehow, I feel that those records of such discrimination predate the unreferenced European stuff you’re talking about.
 
ZMystiCat said:
Except for the fact that the same type of discrimination is recorded in the Bible, even in the Old Testament. Moses’ siblings didn’t like that he had an African wife. The Jew/Samaritan divide was a major theme in Jesus’ ministry, and the Jew/Gentile issues were major themes in Paul’s writings. That’s just to name a few.

Somehow, I feel that those records of such discrimination predate the unreferenced European stuff you’re talking about.
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Moses’s Africa was Egypt and the Sinai, not exactly a bastion of black Africa. Samaritans practiced essentially what they regarded as the authentic version of Judaism prior the Babylonian exile which the believed corrupted the “Jews”. What you have here is not a separate race, but something akin to Protestant/Catholicism. Gentiles are essentially those who are not Jewish, again a religious thing. So no, these are not analogous to “race”; at best they refer to foreign countries.

I should not have to reference anything assigned by Europeans. If you are an American you should know well the laws used to enslave and subjugate African Americans. The people kidnapped from Africa did not show up on our shores calling themselves “black”, they were Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, etc. It’s not hard to find information about how white Europeans rearranged and named the world to fit their needs, prejudices, and plain ignorance. So no, I feel no more need to provide any further references. If you managed to sleep through all of your history classes, there’s always Google.
Start said:
Using an extreme example like Donald Trump isn’t really relatable and Mexican usually isn’t used as an insult.
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It is entirely related and this was by far not the only time, millions of Americans went for his rhetoric. If it is SO extreme then why did 62,984,828 people vote for a man who says such things? Is calling someone a Mexican inherently offensive? No. But, it can be used as a descriptor of a group of people to insult and we both know the difference here.
 
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As a teacher, I think they should lose their jobs. We are supposed to advocate for our students, not belittle them.
 
So would you be okay with someone dressing up as a “Sexy Virgin Mary?” I wouldn’t, and this is not okay either.
 
PJH_74 said:
Moses’s Africa was Egypt and the Sinai, not exactly a bastion of black Africa.
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Whatever her skin tone, they still made a big deal about the fact that he married an African wife. Her possible skin tone doesn’t matter so much as the fact that she was an “other” along the lines of what many would today call “race” and/or “ethnicity”.
PJH_74 said:
Samaritans practiced essentially what they regarded as the authentic version of Judaism prior the Babylonian exile which the believed corrupted the “Jews”.
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PJH_74 said:
Gentiles are essentially those who are not Jewish, again a religious thing.
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Again, it doesn’t matter so much that religion played a role in that, whatever the cause, they ultimately divided along racial lines. It’s just like how some today, or even in European history, used religion to justify their own racism.
PJH_74 said:
I should not have to reference anything assigned by Europeans.
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Yes, I can make an educated guess on what you’re referencing. That’s why I assumed that it didn’t date back to the first century or earlier.

At the same time, though, I’m not an expert on all history. Maybe there is examples of Europeans using their definition of race to fuel such discrimination dating back hundreds of years before Christ. If such a case existed, I wouldn’t know if that is what you were referencing.
 
Their culture was most certainly being ridiculed with fake mustaches, sombreros, and serapes. That it occurred at a faculty party and got shared on social media doesn’t make it any more acceptable.

It might help some people to be at the receiving end of cultural mockery. I’ve traveled a fair amount and experienced insulting but highly ignorant stereotypes of the U.S. and Americans. Humbling doesn’t begin to describe it.

It will inevitably come from a lot of people, all over the world, including here. But school teachers in a professional setting should know better than to mock the culture of many of their own students.
 
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