Our Alice in Wonderland Immigration Debate

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales soft-peddles the fact that many street gangs are composed of illegal immigrants. At a Texas police academy, meanwhile, cadets are warned about the problematic aspects of Hispanic culture, amid dollops of political correctness that would please the attorney general.


By David Paulin

“Certain gangs, certain street crews are composed predominantly of people that are here unlawfully, but there are many people here unlawfully who have also made tremendous contributions to our country.” (Emphasis added.)
– Attorney General Alberto Gonzales speaks to a reporter following his May 15, 2007, speech on the Justice Department's anti-gang initiative – a speech that failed to acknowledge that many gangs are comprised of illegal Hispanic immigrants.

“No, no (illegal immigrants are) not more crime prone. In fact, when you look at the national statistics, it’s just amazing. There’s not a single scientific study that shows immigrants are more likely to commit crime than native-born, in fact, or U.S. born.”
–Pia Orrenius, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas, speaks to television channel “11 News” of Houston, October, 2006.


So there you have it. Two comments from two esteemed sources, yet they reach totally different conclusions! One admits there’s a problem but he does so reluctantly. The other says there’s no problem at all. Such is the schizophrenic nature of the national immigration debate being conducted by the nation’s policy makers and intellectual elite – people who share little if any of the consequences of massive levels of illegal immigration that ordinary Americans encounter every day.

Last week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales outlined a nationwide anti-gang initiative being undertaken by the Justice Department, amid a spike in the rate of violent crime. Yet in his 3,582-word speech, not a single word even hinted at what Gonzales knew all too well – illegal immigrants comprise the ranks of many gangs. It took a reporter from the Austin American-Statesman to pry that admission from Gonzales after his speech at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Careful not to cause offense to pro-illegal immigrant groups and his own administration, the politically correct attorney general was quick to note that “there are many people here unlawfully who have also made tremendous contributions to our country.” What kinds of contributions? Perhaps Gonzales was referring to the illegal immigrants in Austin who hang out on street corners and at a controversial city-sponsored “day labor site,” or who work in landscaping, construction, and in restaurants around town. I used to work these types of jobs in high school and college; now this is the work Americans won’t do.

Curiously, the politically liberal American-Statesman failed to call attention to Gonzales’s troubling comments. They merited only a few paragraphs in the reporter’s immigration blog, The Borderline. Speaking of Hispanic street gangs, here’s the latest from Texas: Houston’s oldest Latino gang, La Tercera Crips, is threatening to retaliate against the Houston Police Department after one of the city’s officers allegedly shot a gang member in the back, according to Houston’s local television channel, “11 News.” The station’s viewers must be confused. Seven months ago, “11 News” reported that illegal immigrants were actually more law-abiding than native-born Americans, citing statistics from Federal Reserve Bank economist Pia Orrenius. An estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants live in the Houston area.

The station’s no-need-to-worry report followed public outrage over an illegal Mexican immigrant who allegedly murdered a Houston police officer weeks earlier. That report failed to even mention “La Tercera Crips.”

How’s an ordinary American supposed to stay well informed amid such convoluted reporting and the reluctance of public officials to admit the truth? In all likelihood, ordinary Americans are keeping informed by looking at what’s going on around them. Consider what’s happened in Texas and, specifically, in my own neighborhood in Austin, the capital. Now, most of my neighbors are illegal Mexican immigrants.

Spanish only, please.

The transformation happened over the last six or seven years. My street used to be orderly and people were well mannered. Now, some young Hispanic men driving pick-ups regularly screech their tires as they pull into the street, while Mexican music pounds from their speakers. More than a few Hispanic motorists blast their horns when they pull into the parking lot to pick up friends.

A local grocery store puts out ice-cold buckets of beer at 7 a.m. to serve the new market of lower-class Mexican men. Now, grade-school age kids are everywhere, the offspring of illegal immigrants. Graffiti has started to pop up here and there. In the evening, a group of shabbily dressed Mexican men sometimes drinks beer by a nearby curb, leaving a pile of empties on the ground. This is not to say there are not hard-working families here, too. There are. But there also is a low-life element here that the open-borders folks never want to talk about.

A few years ago, illegal immigration and high Hispanic birthrates pushed white “Anglo” Texans into “minority” group status. Now “Anglos” account for 49.8 percent of 20 million Texas residents, with non-whites comprising what the Associated Press called the “majority-minority” population. As a consequence, bilingual signs and bilingual education are now the norm; and the courts and charities provide Spanish-speaking personnel. On Austin’s busy Lamar Boulevard, tiny Mexican flags even fly outside some car dealerships.

In early 2000, I returned to Austin after an absence of several years. Immediately, I was struck by the shabby and obviously uneducated Hispanic men arriving here. I used to visit Miami a lot, and the Hispanic immigrants there – legal and illegal – seemed much better educated and more likely to assimilate and move up the socio-economic ladder.

“What’s going on?” I said to a Venezuelan friend, a Miami investment banker.

He wryly observed, “The fact that the immigrants coming to Miami had to come up with 400 bucks for a plane ticket makes a big difference in the quality of people you get.”

And they keep coming.

Two years ago, I realized a tipping point had been reached when it became more common to have illegal Mexican immigrants jabbering at me (a 6’2’’ gringo) in Spanish: They expected to be spoken to in their own language.

Police Face Problems

What kind of affect has this had on crime? Getting solid answers is problematic. It’s politically incorrect to maintain such databases, and if they do exist, nobody wants to reveal what’s in them. The news media here throws little light on the issue: Race and ethnicity are only relevant when white police officers allegedly abuse their authority when dealing with Hispanics or African-Americans or other members of the “majority-minority.”

Police officials may not publicly admit it, and Attorney General Gonzales may only reluctantly admit it. But if the curriculum in at least one police academy is anything to go by then the reconquista has definitely posed special problems for law enforcement.

Consider a hefty spiral-bound training manual being used in one of the police academies in Austin. Not long ago, I paged through a manual that belongs to an acquaintance attending the academy. Simply put, an incongruous coupling of materials reflected a case of police academy schizophrenia.

Specifically, it seemed that two items did not belong together. One was obviously written by an academic: "Multiculturalism and Human Relations.” It introduced cadets to the ideology of political correctness, warning them against “racist” conduct such as negatively “judging” other cultures or even harboring thoughts to this effect.

Yet in the same manual, another hand-out offered blunt and unflattering real-world insights into some Hispanic cultures, touching on traits such as “machismo” and proclivities toward domestic abuse and clannish behavior. These tidbits were contained in a 67-plus page manual in survival Spanish, a Berlitz-style approach for police officers. It was loaded with quick-and-dirty grammar; cultural insights; Spanish swear words; and “survival phrases” such as "Policia No se Mueva! ("Police! Don't Move!").

The “multicultural” paper warned cadets against racist behavior such as “stereotyping.” On the other hand, the Berlitz-for-cops manual made it clear that officers could very well expect certain types of problematic behavior from some Hispanic cultures; and those were patriarchal cultures for the most part. It explained, for instance, that men from such cultures live by a code of "machismo" and "honor.” They put family and fellow Hispanics above the larger community – and even the rule of law. Presumably, such commentary referred to unassimilated Hispanic males; but perhaps not. In multicultural America, Hispanics are not really expected to assimilate, and that includes learning English.

Arresting a Hispanic male poses special problems, as the Spanish-language manual pointed out:

“When arrested, he may routinely protest verbally or fight back to 'save face' (quedar bien). To be embarrassed in front of others may be more painful than the arrest itself, for most Latinos have great difficulty with feelings of verguenza (shame). Sometimes, a macho attitude may cause a Latino to blame his wife or daughter in the event she is raped or beaten. Some, but by no means all or even a majority, may abuse women physically or verbally. If that is the case, many Latino women may not want to press charges, because the female ideal is to be delicate, sensitive, non aggressive and submissive to the man. The woman may consider it her duty to stand by her man, no matter what happens."

One thing about these Hispanic family values was startling clear: They’re like nothing Americans ever saw in TV sit-coms like “Leave It To Beaver” or “The Cosby Show.”

Interestingly, the multicultural paper’s intended audience appeared to be only white police officers and cadets. Why? Presumably, that’s because multicultural ideology pits “dominant” groups against “victimized” ones. Accordingly, white cadets are presumed to be the only group capable of racism; no matter that they’re now a minority in Texas. They’re expected to adapt to Hispanic values. And new Hispanic immigrants are not expected to assimilate.

Not surprisingly, the multiculturalism hand-out devotes much space to describing the traits of “prejudiced” people. One is ethnocentrism: "the act of regarding one's culture as the center of the universe and hence the basis for all comparisons with other cultures." Another is stereotyping: “a convenient grouping of people of whom one is ignorant.”

According to the multiculturalism hand-out, prejudiced people possess "a self-assured feeling,” believing “they are superior or better than others, which is frequently expressed in inappropriate jokes” and “disparaging remarks” about people they regard as "inferiors” and thus label as “lazy, too aggressive, stupid, tricky, deceitful, clannish, (and) pushy.”

Of course, the point of such lessons is to ensure that officers behave professionally and treat every member of the public with the same level of courtesy and respect. Yet the multicultural paper goes beyond this, stating that officers must not even “privately” judge other cultures in a negative light or even harbor “feelings of superiority.”

And what if the culture in question embraces values and notions of citizenship that are at odds with traditional American values, culture, and concepts of citizenship? The issue isn’t addressed; but it amounts to a white elephant in the room in light of the harsh spotlight the Spanish-language manual puts on some Hispanic cultures – namely (though not always) those with “patriarchal” traditions.

Despite the multicultural hand-out’s warnings about making generalizations about other cultures, the Berlitz-style manual states:

"Regardless of their specific cultural or national background, Latinos will most likely side with each other than an outsider. An individual will assist family members and friends regardless of the consequences, and expect the same in return. A sense of honor is so important in Latino culture, that it may keep an individual from cooperating with the police against a friend or family members, even though he or she may not condone any of the actions."

This can pose special problems for police investigations, as the language manual observed:

"Due to the profound importance of family and community in Hispanic culture, officers need to be aware of common group identification styles. Under questioning, for instance, a Hispanic family member may 'eye-check' family members before coming up with a question, and may follow this action with what seems to be an inappropriate use of the pronoun “we” when the officer expects to hear an “I.” This behavior may seem to be evasive or misleading to some officers, but it often simply reflects the fact that no individual in the family can separate his or her affairs from the family's larger concern."

Obviously police officers should avoid making disparaging remarks about members of the public, including those in their custody. They should treat all people with respect. Yet there is something a bit unsettling in the way the multicultural hand-out tells cadets to avoid regarding themselves as culturally superior to “macho” Hispanic males who immigrate to America illegally and then insist on maintaining their own values and cultures as opposed to assimilating – right down to refusing to learn English. The city of Austin encourages such conduct with its own polices.

In my neighborhood, I come across residents who have been here at least three years. Yet they appear to speak no English, except for a few broken phrases. One of them is “What’s your problem?”

The other day, a young Mexican male uttered that in a somewhat ominous tone when I complained to him about revving up his car’s engine outside my apartment window. No doubt about it. The days of “Leave It to Beaver” and “The Cosby Show” are over in parts of America where major demographic changes have occurred – changes that Congress is poised to make a permanent part of America’s cultural landscape.


UPDATE: VIOLENT CRIME INCREASING

"Crime kept climbing in 2006, a top FBI official said Wednesday (May 31), previewing a report detailing nationwide increases in murders, robberies and other felonies for a second straight year," according to an article by The Associated Press.

It added, "The crime hike marks the latest blow to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who has targeted neighborhood violence as a top priority. Gonzales took office in early 2005, when violent crime rose by 2.2 percent in the first annual increase since 2001.

"A Justice Department study released earlier this month of 18 cities and suburban regions indicates youth violence, gangs and gun crime largely are to blame for the increasing rates. Gonzales also has promised to help local police combat gangs and guns with $50 million this year and up to $200 million in 2008."

CULTURE WARS

Visitors to a Texas Library Learn about Admirable ‘Traditional Values’ of Marriage and Community...IN AFRICA!

...An occasional report from the “People’s Republic of Austin” (Photo of Elizabeth Kahura)

UPDATE: See Thomas Lifson's comments on this article at The American Thinker.

By David Paulin

Ann Coulter delivered a speech in hip and liberal Austin, Texas last year and nearly provoked a riot. The catcalls and boos that left-wing University of Texas students hurled at her hit a pitch when one student posed a vulgar question, intended to attack the conservative columnist's concepts of marriage and traditional values.

“Let him go” chanted supportive students at LBJ Library Auditorium, after nearby campus police quickly arrested the 19-year-old man.

Curiously, no such protests erupted during an event on traditional values a little over one week ago at a city library. Why? Perhaps it’s because the values being discussed were not American – conservative or otherwise.

No, this event focused on traditional African values – or as a library news release explained: the “traditional African values of family, community, responsibility, commerce, and self-improvement.” That, at least, is the virtuous picture of Africa that Elizabeth Kahura, a native of Kenya and professional “storyteller,” would have you believe. She spoke during an event associated with Kwanzaa week – the controversial African-American holiday which ended a little over one week ago.

In one sense, Kahura is the perfect cheerleader for the Africa-oriented Kwanzaa, which is taken very seriously in Austin.

Sixteen years after arriving in America, Kahura makes a career out of idealizing her native Africa – all while keeping both feet firmly planted in multicultural America. Her mission is to “enlighten the world on the true meaning of Africa,” as one Austin Public Library news release puts it.

Kahura, who settled in Texas, has spent ten-plus years playing up Africa’s virtues. At libraries, schools, and day care centers, she utilizes colorful presentations to show off African clothing, music, and dance. She was a big hit last year among grade-school kids in nearby Bastrop: They got to “dress up like an African King and Queen to demonstrate African Village life.”

In Austin, Kwanzaa gets plenty of serious coverage from the politically correct daily newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman. No matter that conservatives of all colors have long derided Kwanzaa as racial hucksterism with Marxist and racially charged overtones.

Nearly 40 years ago, Kwanzaa was dreamed up in California by Ronald Everett, an African-American who was an adherent of various black extremist groups and causes. In the early 70s, he served jail time for the false imprisonment and torture of two women who had been his followers. Completing his sentence, he reinvented himself. Today he’s Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor of black studies at California State University in Long Beach.

Over the years, Kwanzaa has been variously described as an African-American alternative to Christmas or a focal point for African-American pride and community. According to one survey, however, it's celebrated by a mere 1.6 percent of Americans – or 13 percent of African-Americans.

At Kwanzaa events you see few if any white faces, yet Kahura insists, “Kwanzaa is not just an African-American concept. It can help anyone."

She went on, “It’s about teamwork, unity, and people walking together. It celebrates culture and it can link African-Americans to their roots and their mother language.”

Oh really? Kahura obviously needs to learn more about her adopted country: American culture has always embraced the civic-engagement aspects she touts. Indeed, America’s remarkable levels of civic-engagement were highlighted in Alexis De Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America,” his seminal volume first published in 1835.

To be sure, a debate is underway about the status and possible decline of America’s levels of civic-engagement. Some experts say it remains healthy. Whatever the case, it’s doubtful Kwanzaa has contributed anything to America’s virtue of civic-engagement, as the holiday has morphed from its racist and militant origins into mainstream respectability. Today it’s utterly beyond criticism or probing questions by the mainstream media.

Multiculturalism Gone Berserk

How did this happen? Obviously, Kwanzaa’s ideologues rode the wave of multicultural and politically correct ideology that eventually infected the mainstream media. As a result, questions that ought to be asked are stifled. One example was a recent Kwanzaa puff piece from Cox News Service, owners of the American-Statesman, whose headline trumpeted: “Kwanzaa glows even brighter after 40 years.”

Completely missing was any mention of Dr. Maulana Karenga’s sleazy past; not a word about his criminal record and extremist associations, observed the NewsBusters blog. A provocative headline accompanied its incisive comments: “Cox News Honors Kwanzaa Creator, A Rapist and Torturer.”

As to Kahura, nobody has dared to publicly ask an obvious question about her: How can a Kenyan immigrant be so presumptuous as to settle in America and then make a veritable career out of lecturing Americans about traditional African values?

Let’s face it. The values she admires are mostly a product of her imagination. One reason Africa is a basket case, after all, is precisely because of its values.

Indeed, the idealized Africa Kahura extols would be unrecognizable even to the high-minded readers of America’s most liberal newspaper, The New York Times. Consider a Times article from May, 2005: “AIDS Now Compels Africa to Challenge Widows’ ‘Cleansing’.”

It focused on a bizarre yet common practice in rural areas of Zambia and Kenya and “a number of nearby nations.” After a husband’s funeral, a ritual takes place: “sex between the widow and one of her husband's relatives.”

Its purpose is “to break the bond” with the husband’s spirit, according to The Times. “Widows have long tolerated it, and traditional leaders have endorsed it, as an unchallenged tradition of rural African life."

Did the school kids whom Kahura dressed up as African kings and queens learn anything about this? I have yet to attend one of Kahura’s lectures, to be sure, having only had the pleasure of reading about them and seeing her on television. Even so, I doubt she’s ever waxed poetic about the joys of sex with bereaved widows – whether they want it or not.

Kahura caught my attention two years ago, not long after I moved to Austin. Reading a news item about one of her upcoming presentations, I was dumbfounded by what seemed to be a case of multiculturalism gone berserk. I dashed off a protest letter to the America-Statesman: It wasn’t published.

I complained to my public library which was hosting her presentation. A library official responded that Kahura was a well-respected “educator” and much in demand for events such as Kwanzaa, Black History Month, or for various educational purposes.

Conservatives, incidentally, have an epithet for this town: “People’s Republic of Austin.”

Child Sexual Abuse

Presumably, Kahura’s presentations about her idealized Africa also skip over the pesky issue of child sexual abuse in Africa. The problem is persistent in Kahura’s native Kenya – not to mention in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya, and Sierra Leone, according to an article in The New York Times last December, "Sex Abuse of Girls Is Stubborn Scourge in Africa." Dr. Rachel Jewkes, a specialist on sexual violence with South Africa’s Medical Research Council, was quoted as saying: “The prevalence of child rape in South Africa goes from really, really high to astronomically high.”

Some traditional values, huh?

Presumably, Kahura also skipped over another traditional African value: promiscuous sex. Once again, the venerable New York Times dealt with this in an article, “AIDS in Africa: Experts Study Role of Promiscuous Sex in the Epidemic." It was published way back in 1990, about the time Kahura first left her idyllic Kenya and came to America.

That article, believe it or not, actually stated that sexually promiscuous behavior may have something to do with Africa’s legacy of colonialism!

Presumably, Kahura’s lectures also have overlooked another ritual based on traditional African values – “female circumcisions.” Last June, The New York Times dealt with this in a delicately titled article, "Genital Cutting Raises by 50% Likelihood Mothers or Their Newborns Will Die, Study Finds.”

It stated, “In a number of African cultures, genital mutilation is part of a coming-of-age ceremony, and defenders have contended that it is a cultural practice, like male circumcision among Jews, with few, if any, proven long-term health consequences.”

Incidentally, the term “genital cutting” is the euphemism preferred by multicultural types who consider the more graphic “female circumcision" (the removal of the clitoris) to be too negative and judgmental of cultures that practice this procedure.

Modern-day Slavery

Some African-Americans and Kwanzaa diehards may idealize Africa – and Kahura may cater to their fantasies. However, they can count their blessings for having grown up in America, not Africa. Consider the plight of many African children – the subject of a New York Times article last October, "Africa’s World of Forced Labor, in a 6-Year-Old’s Eye."

African children sold into indentured servitude work up to 14 hours per day and “are part of a vast traffic in children that supports West and Central African fisheries, quarries, cocoa and rice plantations and street markets,” reported The Times.

“The girls are domestic servants, bread bakers, prostitutes. The boys are field workers, cart pushers, scavengers in abandoned gem and gold mines.”

Not very idyllic, huh?

Here’s a suggestion. The next time Kahura delivers a lecture on traditional African values, maybe the school or library or daycare center that’s hosting her can provide some counter-balance: Get a patriotic professor from the University of Texas to give a talk on American and Western values – with the aim of illustrating how those values have made us who we are.

Yeah, I know. In my dreams.

From the author:
….Readers that got this far may be interested in an Op-Ed piece I wrote in July, 2005 regarding the uproar over Mexico’s allegedly racist postage stamps. The piece, “All the Colors of the Rainbow,” ran in The Philadelphia Inquirer and Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

All the Colors of the Rainbow

Mexico’s ‘Racist' Stamp

By David Paulin

Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and White House spokesperson Scott McClellan all agree that a Mexican postal stamp plays upon racist stereotypes. Their unqualified agreement – from across our racial and political divide – is probably shared by most Americans. Our condemnation, though, may say a lot more about our culture than about Mexico's alleged racial insensitivity.

Don't get me wrong. I’m also put off by the stamp of a beloved Mexican comic-book character that, to me, also resembles a racist Jim Crow-era caricature: a goofy black male with exaggerated features such as thick lips. But Mexicans like the stamp, and President Vicente Fox has defended it.

So are Mexicans lining up to buy the stamp racists? I have my doubts, in part because I recall all too well how complicated racial politics can be in other countries, including in Venezuela and Jamaica where I have lived and worked.

Like in much of Latin America, for instance, Venezuela’s racial politics is complicated by the fact that it’s hard to tell just who is black -- and who isn’t. The reason is that 80 percent of Venezuelans are mixed race or mestizo. You find all sorts of gradations of colors and facial features. I first realized I was out of the loop when I asked a white upper-class Venezuelan friend why his country lacked any prominent black politicians.

“What about Claudio Fermin?” he asked with incredulity, referring to the dark-complexioned politician in the Democratic Action party.

"He's black?"

"He's as black as can be," he assured me.

He was right, of course. No doubt if I'd met Claudio Fermin on a street in Detroit or Atlanta, I would have figured that, yes, he was black. But in Venezuela, racial distinctions seemed harder to make.

It was an epiphany

How an American like me perceived somebody abroad, in terms of their race, often had more to do with culture and class than with skin color or features. It also had a lot to do with how people perceived and defined themselves.

Not all Venezuelans, to be sure, felt the same way. My Venezuelan girlfriend and I once visited one of the country’s venerable fortune tellers, called brujas. We were so impressed with Fanny – she provided correct numbers for a 4-digit Florida lotto, among other things – that my girlfriend referred a friend to her.

Fanny wasn't pleased.

"Why are you sending blacks to my house? I don't deal with that kind of clientele!"

I was shocked. I hadn't given it much thought until then. But Fanny was black. At least that's how she struck my girlfriend and me (who I guess, incidentally, would qualify as mestizo).

Perhaps Fanny was perhaps using one criterion that some in Venezuela used to determine race: kinky hair.

In overwhelmingly black Jamaica, racial politics and classifications were a lot more complicated. One strange thing I quickly realized: After a few days, I didn't regard Jamaicans I met as being "black.” The reason is that most ordinary Jamaicans, unlike many black Americans, didn’t define themselves by their skin color. Instead, they regarded themselves as Jamaicans – no matter what country they were in. It’s an attitude that upsets some black Americans.

For Jamaicans, however, that attitude affects how they perceive themselves – and how others perceive them. One Jamaican friend related how he was visiting Miami and was in a car with several white friends and acquaintances. Somebody blurted “nigger” in a casual conversation. An embarrassing silence ensued for a few seconds – for my Jamaican friend is black – until somebody in the group quickly clarified: "Of course, we're not talking about you. You’re a Jamaican!”

“It was like water rolling off a duck,” recalled my friend.

Interestingly, such an easy going attitude seemed common among Jamaicans, except for members of the left-leaning elite: newspaper columnists, university professors, and politicians. Many of them viewed the world through a racial prism – an obsession that gives them a lot in common with many black Americans, and with many left-leaning whites.

Ordinary Jamaicans, to be sure, also could be extraordinarily complicated about race.

"P-F-W” was one expression they applied to light-complexioned and upper class Jamaicans who, they complained, tried to “Pass for White.” They joked about whether those P-F-Ws could pass for white in America.

My Jamaican girlfriend, who looked something like the beautiful actress Angela Bassett, once referred to a fellow employee as “the woman with very African features.” I was a bit surprised, for my girlfriend had some African features of her own: sensuous lips that were far more beautiful than what any thin-lipped white women could get from a plastic surgeon. I never learned at what point sensuous lips morph into “African” lips, although it was one of many instances I encountered of blacks making seemingly harmless distinctions or judgments among themselves, based on racial features.

Interestingly, my girlfriend’s beauty opened doors throughout the Caribbean, though not in Cuba. There she was interrogated every time she tried to enter a Havana tourist hotel she was visiting

“Well, you look just like a nice Cuban girl!” the hotel manager of Spanish descent told her sympathetically, after she had vented her outrage. It’s a common complaint – one that left-leaning Jamaican and black American elites, curiously, never complain about.

When retelling her story of being wrongly “profiled,” incidentally, my girlfriend displayed none of the venom and insecurity one often finds among members of minority groups in America, when relating similar incidents.

For my part, I was surprised a Cuban doorman didn't find my Jamaican girlfriend as captivating as I did. But what constitutes beauty or “blackness” can be complicated, I realized. The same can be said for racism. You’d think decent people would know it when they see it. But I’m not quite so sure anymore – except to know that today in America it’s overused more often than not due to our hypersensitivity about race. There’s also no doubting that our ideals are simply much higher than in other countries – though we never get as much credit for those ideals as for our failure to consistently reach them.

As to Mexico, I’m withholding judgment on whether the country has a serious “race problem.” Despite that ambivalence I won’t be buying any of those postage stamps.