Links and pouty white people

When it rains, it pours. I'm late to the story, but fellow Pasadena blogger Rudy Carrasco (whose son Sam is fighting leukemia) now is driving around in a rental van; his 36-week pregnant wife Kafi was driving the family van when it was totalled in an intersection last week. The baby is due any minute, and Kafi and Micah (the one about to be born) are fine. Sam continues his fight against cancer, and Rudy is exhausted. Rudy is, however, throwing out the first pitch at Dodger Stadium tomorrow night. If you go to his site, you can donate to help either the Carrasco family or to assist the kids at Rudy's Harambee center get tickets for the aforementioned game. I made a donation via Paypal, and sent prayers as well.

Jenell Paris has a review-cum-vignette about a Tony Orlando concert that may be her best post yet.

Father Jake has some excellent insider analysis on rebel parishes in the Episcopal Church.

Brian has a modest proposal for Oregon voters: defend traditional marriage.

Telford Work preached the welcoming sermon at Westmont College this past weekend.

Yesterday's LA Times had this fascinating piece: Pouty White People, by Gregory Rodriguez. It begins:

Once known as the land of futurists and dreamers, California is increasingly home to pessimists. Often nostalgic, newspaper commentators, novelists, journalists and social critics issue jeremiads about paradise lost and the coming dystopia. California has always had its share of apocalyptic prophets, but these voices are no longer cries in the wilderness; they reflect a growing public mood in the once Golden State.

There is a racial dimension to all the gloominess. The downbeat outlook is in large part driven by Anglos, the state's largest minority. Although they enjoy the highest per capita income and are significantly more likely to own a home than any other group, Anglos appear to be suffering from a bad case of "declinism."

Tell me about it. Did Rodriguez interview my family? It goes on:

A majority of Anglos clearly believe that their best days in the state are behind them.

One explanation for what is happening is what journalist David Whitman calls the "I'm OK, you're not" phenomenon. Anglos have less faith in the future of today's immigrants than the immigrants have for themselves. Over a generation, immigrants from Asia and particularly Latin America have changed not only the cultural landscape but also the state's image of itself.

The newcomers have punctured the idea of California as a middle-class utopia. They are associated with high rates of poverty, density, diversity and social ills reminiscent of New York City and Chicago at the turn of the 20th century. Whites don't easily identify with the aspirations of these emergent groups.

Bold emphasis is mine. That is absolutely dead on.

The student body at PCC is only 20% white. A very high number of our students are still (in the current parlance) "English Language Learners". The writing and cognitive skills that many of our students bring to the classroom are dismal. Even in the eleven years I've been teaching, I can see a notable decline.

But so many of my students have such an amazing work ethic! They work full-time, go to school, and push themselves much harder than I could ever have imagined. And they really, really believe that a community college education is a stepping-stone to their dreams. Though they are often cynical about government, they are heartbreakingly idealistic about the American dream and their ability to achieve it. They will have the house and the lawn and the nice car. They don't know how, but they know that if they work hard, it will come. And if it doesn't come for them, it will come for their children.

On my mother's side, two great-great grandfathers and one great-great-great grandfather came to California for the Gold Rush. They came from Germany and Illinois and England (the last by way of New Zealand.) They came to a nearly empty place that was not yet a state. None found gold; all three found prosperity in one way or another. The one from Illinois (the great-great-great) brought ten children with him; they could only afford to send the youngest to college. That youngest was my great-great grandfather; he graduated from the College of the Pacific (the early version of UOP) before the University of California was founded. In other words, theirs was a large family that dreamed big, worked hard, and used a college education to climb to affluence.

I'm not a superior person because my ancestors came here so long ago. And I know what the California dream did for my family. My grandfather was a teacher in the public schools. My father taught at UC; my mother at a community college. I am called not only to be a teacher, but to be a California teacher. I want for my students what my ancestors found: possibility, prosperity, and a uniquely tolerant, open, comfortable way of life. I don't know how that will happen in this over-crowded place, but I have no choice to believe that it will.

I still love this smoggy, dry, hot, often dystopian place. I cannot imagine being anywhere else. On Saturday, I ran with some friends up in the Angeles Forest on some remote trails north of La Canada; we saw deer and rabbits and bear scat and no humans for miles around. On Sunday, my fiancee and I rode our bikes from Pasadena down to Dodger Stadium and home through Glendale along busy, pot-holed urban thoroughfares.

In the name of my ancestors who found so much here, I have no choice but to struggle on in the classroom. At least for now.

This sixth-generation Californian is as Anglo as can be. (As a historian of medieval Britain, I loathe the fact that Californians use "Anglo" for all white people. It's like using "Inca" for all Latin Americans.) I'm going to marry the Afro-Colombian/Croatian love of my life, and lord willing, raise children here. And whatever the Times says, this white boy isn't pouting.

Comments

[Brian]

Hugo - thanks for the link.

My parents grew up in Southern California and I was born in Granada Hills. My parents moved to Oregon when I was 3. They were fleeing California, rather than moving to Oregon. They both taught in Watts during the riots. My Dad avoided vietnam through a teaching deferrment. Both of my parents were assaulted by students in their classroom.

They obviously had extreme experiences, but here in Oregon it seems like practically everyone is a California ex-pat. It's interesting to me how California can be hated by so many people, yet also be a beacon of hope and opportunity.

Personally, I have no strong feelings about CA. I have trouble imagining wanting to leave Oregon. But the way things are going with the religious right here, who knows?

[Amanda]

That anti-Hispanic racism is a nightmare in El Paso, too. It's my observation, though, that it's transparently class-based racism. Middle class Hispanics are practically "honorary" whites. In fact, middle class Hispanics often use the exact same racial slurs against Mexican immigrants and poor Hispanics that white racists use.

The funniest was watching my family go into contortions the first time I brought my boyfriend home. They wanted to reassure me that they weren't going to be nasty racists to my boyfriend, you know, since he's probably a "good" Mexican. Since I have an evil sense of humor I let the various family members finish their spiel and then said, "Don't worry about it. He's not Mexican, just Puerto Rican." Sadly, they were relieved.

I swear to god this is all true.

[Camassia]

I thought the term "Anglo" referred not to an ethnic origin but the fact that you're a native English speaker, in contrast to "Hispanic." Because, in fact, many Hispanic people are white, and think of themselves as such. Mexicans and Central Americans tend to be brown but the Argentinians and Chileans I've met are as white as you and me.

[Hugo]

Perhaps, Camassia, but that might make Jamaicans "Anglo" -- which would really mix things up quite a bit. I like my hyphenated terms like "English-American."

[Camassia]

True, but referring to non-Hispanic whites as "white people" isn't especially more accurate. For that matter, neither is "Hispanic," seeing as many of them have little or no descent from Spaniards. Actually, the whole idea of defining people from Latin America as a unified ethnic group is weird, but it presently seems entrenched in our society.

[Hugo]

Agreed. The whole terminology of race is hopeless. Calling them "Latins" (a name derived from a region of Italy) isn't much better. I have Brazilian friends who get hysterical when they are called Hispanic. Chicano is really only for Mexicans, and has a dated political undertone.

But my Jewish ancestry (Dad's side) makes it impossible for me to use Anglo seriously. I only use it for myself in a post like this because it's the agreed term.

[Pip]

Wow, this definitely made me nostalgic for home. Can I just put in a plug for Mike Davis's excellent book, Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the US Big City?

[Glen]

It's so complicated. I have relatives who think we are Swedish. My paternal great grandparents came from Sweden. On the maternal side they came on a ship from Wales in the 1500s--set up farms on stolen land in New Hampshire and later Ohio. (I am sure not a green card amoung them.)

But I grew up in La Puente-Whittier in the days of Chicanismo. (Alas, a lost political ideal. I think Luis Rodriguez writes about that in Always Running. He also talks about the school strikes that happened when I was in high school) When some people hear me talk, they think I have an east LA (mexican) accent.

So, my point? I like those immigrants all around me. They remind me not to take it all for granted. Work hard. Take risks. Please don't mistake me for one of those pouty white people just because I look like them. Gregory Rodriquez has some great thoughts on this.