You're So Articulate (for a spic)
I thank the cosmos daily that I am no longer in the corporate world so that I don't have to hear the "You're so articulate" line only to then be called into the Managing Director's office so I can give his Latina housekeeper instructions in Spanish since I was the only Spanish speaking (and Latina) person on the floor. But now that I work at home , that doesn't mean I've escaped people's surprise that as a single Rican mami I can put words together to create sentences that say something. At la MapucheRican's school, I attended a workshop and the Vice-Principal said "You're so articulate" and expected me to be grateful for her compliment.
posted by Ms.Maegan at 10:44 AM
8 Comments:
When I was in high school, this white classmate of mine was completely shocked when I said I was Puerto Rican. She explained, "You don't sound like a Puerto Rican!" and she really thought it was a compliment. It was basically the less-subtle teenage equivalent of the "You're so articulate"s that I, too, continue to get as a Latina who was lucky enough to get a sound, sustained education.
The saddest thing was, though, when I heard basically the same thing a few years later when I was in college, from a Black woman with whom I was working at McDonalds. Hearing it from a white girl, that was one thing, but from another person of color - that really stings in an entirely different way.
grrr. i hate that shit. don't get it so much where i'm living now, cuz there arn't a lot of mexicans so i'm defacto white until i tell people otherwise, but when i was in holland, there was a heavy population of mexicans/latinas/os and got it all the time for both mexicans and white folks--so white folks were impressed that i could speak english, but Mexicans saw my light skin and expected me to *prove* myself by speaking spanish. which i have my father's (and my communities) accent, so i *sound* like i should speak spanish, but I can't. does that make sense?
sigh. life sucks living on fringes.
Oh dios yes!!! My accent is all over the place because of learning spanish nuyorican (read broken) and then living in Chile. So when I open my mouth they have to figure out what box to stick me into. And then when I speak Spanish they always come and correct my fucked up grammer and give me that look, like awww por non spanish speaking latina.
I got you're not like other Mexicans quite a bit when I was a waitress at an English pub. From other Latinas I've also been told that I don't look Mexican beats me how Mexicans are supposed to look like.
Yeah...and repeatedly many first generation immigrants from Mexico think I was born in Mexico because they deem my Spanish is not pocho Spanish.
gloria anzaldua is so right on when she says the chicanas (and Latinas) use language to judge, accept, reject, hurt, silence other latinas...
It doesn't just happen to Latinas. I as a man go through that as well. At first it used to bother me, but I have come to realize that it is just the person showing their ignorance. I chalk it up to that and usually let it go unless they harp on it. I will usually then call them on it.
However I especially hate the comments about how I do not have an accent. What the hell am I supposed to sound like?
i'm totally with you on this, just like all of the women of color that commented before me. i don't even wanna get into the fucked-up stories of people getting surprised of my 'wit', 'articulation' and 'skills' every fucking step of the way.
or people telling me, 'but you're not brown,' or 'you're NOT a person of color', or 'but you don't look muslim' (whatever that's supposed to mean...) also as a compliment, mind you.! as if being asian or foreign automatically excuses me from being attacked by racism and closed-mindedness.
thanks for sharing! ;)
I know what you mean. Many white people seem shocked that I (a Mexican-American) can speak good enlish. I think they're under the impression that every Hispanic is am immigrant who speaks broken english.
And then, unfortunatley, fellow Hispanics have accused me of "acting white" just becuase I pursue an education and speak properly.
I just can't win.
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