Wk 6 The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

When I sat down to write this week's entry I knew exactly what I was going to write about. But, my little tweet alert sounded off and within three minutes my entire blog post had changed.

We could discuss any incident involving bias, including those on television, books, movies, etc., and much to my distress, social media had provided me with an immediate illustration of racism, 2013.

On Tuesday, June 11, 2013, a handsome, 11 year old boy dressed in a traditional Mariachi outfit stood proudly before the San Antonio Spurs v. Miami Heat NBA Game 3 crowd and sang one of the most beautiful renditions of the National Anthem I have ever heard.

A proud native of San Antonio, Texas, young Sebastien de la Cruz sang for his team, his state, and for his country.

Twitter lit up with heated excitement as the racists ranted that the National Anthem was for Americans only! How dare San Antonio allow this Mexican the privilege of singing the anthem. There were even tweets demanding the boy go home. Back where he belonged.

Sebastien has never crossed the Mexican-American border. He was home.

Running counter to the hate, were tweets of love and support. People cheered Sebastien on and spoke of being proud to be a Mexican-American or Hispanic.

In what way did the specific bias diminish equity?
The only thing these people saw was the color of Sebastien's skin. They did not take into account that he is as American as they are and that it is a privilege for anyone to be invited to sing the National Anthem; when did it become a "whites only" song? He was not treated fairly nor justly. He was immediately discriminated against because he is brown, his ethnicity is Hispanic, and his racial identity is Mexican-American. Had those ignorant people taken one minute to listen to his voice they would have realized they were listening to a truly gifted and amazing child, blessed with a big, powerful voice.

What feelings did this incident bring up for you?
My first emotion was anger. I am with children all day long, so my primary instinct is to protect children. I have heard so many professional singers screw up that song so many times in my life that finally, someone knew all of the words and actually sang the song. I could not believe that so many adults took the time to stop watching the game and go straight to Twitter to spew hatred on a child.
An 11 year old child.
I remember being 11. I can remember not enjoying taunts, teases, or being laughed at. I can remember not taking criticism well. Yet, this child had to stand in the face of racism and speak out against the hatred of others. And he did so, quite eloquently, I must say.
I also thought about how there is never a shortage of racist incidents. For those who do not live with racism or are unaware that they do, racism is something to hear about on the news or read about online. For those of us who live with racism, we know it to be as common as the sun rising and setting each day. It is a part of our lives and who we are. Nothing surprises or shocks me. I wish something would surprise or shock me. But, no, I have yet to be shocked. Only hurt or saddened that here we are-still.

What or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?
Sebastien de la Cruz appeared on Good Morning America and had one message for the racists who posted on Twitter: "To the people that do have hatred in their hearts, I just want to tell them that they should think before they say things."
The San Antonio Spurs invited Sebastien back on Thursday to sing the anthem again before Game 4.
The opportunity was provided for people to hear how talented and wonderful this child truly is and for the racists to take time and appreciate Sebastien for who he is, not his skin color or their stereotypes of Mexican-Americans.

While Sebastien, the Mayor, and the San Antonio Spurs all changed in some way by presenting a united, positive front, in their reactions to racism, I think we all need to change. Most viewers did not think of hateful remarks as they watched and listened, but how many of us watching him sing truly appreciated his dress as a sign of cultural pride or did we see it more as a Mexican costume?

I didn't notice the outfit too much, but I'll be honest-I immediately noticed the number of Hispanics present and my first thought was, "Oh, yeah, they're in San Antonio". Was I aware that San Antonio is 63% Hispanic? No. I assumed it was a Hispanic majority based on the name-San Antonio.

We all have to change.