Yesterday I showed solidarity with Hispanic people by not watching SNL where Trump appeared.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I have never watched an episode of SNL in my life but it’s good to know that, for once, my not watching it had a political purpose.
I think SNL is always really funny. Laughter is good for one’s health, I think. I rarely watch SNL because I am almost always asleep by the time it airs.
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I’m all for humor but I don’t like this particular show. It reminds me of the horrible Monty Python.
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WTF, Monty Python is awesome😁 Life of Brian is one of the funniest films ever, Sings Always Look on the Bright Side of Life 😀
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I agree that the SNL humor has a lot in common with the Monty Python movies: Much of the material from both is moderately clever but not very funny or entertaining, but if you watch long enough, you’ll see rare examples of extremely hilarious skits that made watching the TV program / DVD worthwhile.
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Ah, but Monty Python’s infamous “Fish Slapping Dance” needs no words …
[and now for something completely different]
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Well ma’am, I don’t share solidarity with Hispanic people because they don’t show solidarity with me, and I’m Cuban American. I used to get picked on in school for speaking crappy Spanish with a Jersey accent, for liking alternative rock music, reading fantasy fiction and acting like a “white girl”, quote unquote by the other Hispanic girls. I decided a long time ago to just do my thing and be an American because if they don’t accept me as a Hispanic, then I’ll just be American. That is why Hispanic heritage month leaves me cold, it’s saying that all Hispanics are alike and no one mentions how they all are racist against each other, our dirty little secret. In the meantime, I will just be American.
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The preschool where I work had their annual Hispanic Heritage concert and the kids had to sing a song from Sesame Street about how all Hispanics are some big happy family. The misanthrope in me was laughing because they all look down at each other and the white people in those countries run everything, a white Argentine would be horrified being lumped in with Mexicans or Dominicans and don’t ever mistake any of them for a Mexican.
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P.S., I’d love to read that post.
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“Well ma’am, I don’t share solidarity with Hispanic people because they don’t show solidarity with me, and I’m Cuban American.”
“That is why Hispanic heritage month leaves me cold, it’s saying that all Hispanics are alike ”
I think these two statements are in tension with each other. So you despise the idea that all hispanics are alike, yet don’t share solidarity with ‘hispanic people’ (an amorphous mass, one assumes) because ‘they’ (the same amorphous mass) despise you.
Wow is all I can say.
There’s hope, though. I think most immigrants or minority groups go through stages like this. In the beginning, you try to disassociate from your background to try and blend in with the majority (hence the humblebrags disguised as faux-complaining about white people saying ‘you’re not like the other xxx people I know’).
Instead of just saying you find some other culture more attractive or you want to be more like them (whoever they are), many people frame it like they had no choice, they were pushed, blah blah. Example: I know black men who date white women exclusively but never come out and say that they find white women more attractive. It’s always ‘oh, black women don’t like me. They think I’m not black enough, they’re too aggressive blah blah’. Which is kind of weaseling out of taking ownership of your choices.
I know I went through that. When I first came to this country if someone would ask me if I loved spicy food:
Stage 1: No, I don’t but most Indians do. Let me be your guide to those people. Can I be your friend, please?
Stage 2: Yes, but I only acquired it after I came to the US and tried spicy thai food.
Stage 3: I fucking love it.
After a while when you get secure in your identity you just stop giving a fuck. And it’s a awesome transformation that’ll change your life.
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“Example: I know black men who date white women exclusively ”
Oh, and Indians too. ‘Indian women are too traditional, I don’t want to deal with that blah blah’.
Look at you, the only progressive human being to come out of a country of a billion people. How cute!
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You have a good point, I do have a complex about being Hispanic because my parents really wanted us to be “American” and not be too ethnic and fit in. I don’t speak Spanish well and don’t care for music like salsa or Cumbia or that stuff, I feel as though I’m expected to like this stuff just because my family is Cuban. My maternal relatives are far more traditional and I feel like an alien around them because I speak crappy Spanish and I’m not married or have kids and I’m in my thirties. After a while, though, you just don’t give a fuck.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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