precedent

“precedent: –noun 1. Law . a legal decision or form of proceeding serving as an authoritative rule or pattern in future similar or analogous cases. 2. any act, decision, or case that serves as a guide or justification for subsequent situations. –adjective pre·ce·dent 3. preceding; anterior.”

I promised myself that 2010 would be the year that I rededicate myself to blogging. So, here I am. there’s so many topics to discuss, and I feel like find a focus is difficult. I can always discuss books or poems, but I feel that there are so many things to discuss.

The repression of SB 1070, as well as banning of ethnic studies classes and teachers with accents is weighing heavily on my mind. On the other hand, I am praying for my cousin who works the border patrol and has been in close proximity to officers who have been killed. His job is maintaining the Mexican border who are nothing like the characters “Under the Same Moon”.

In this film, a bright and adorable little boy finds his way to his mother in the United States who is working to support him and her family back home. She misses her son dearly and is blatantly mistreated by at least one boss who threatens to turn her in to immigration. I am one of the people who thinks, if you work, you deserve a chance.

Since my cousin is career military and African American, he has seen more of some people’s criminal background checks than he’d ever like to tell me. He tells me, “It’s not like what you think, Tara.” When he has described the acts of felons and how many times he’s been called the “n-word”, even though he’s one of the few officers who knows Spanish, it reminds me how complicated race has become in communities of color.

It also reminds me that “us vs. them” is a reinforced mentality on a regular basis. This is also evident in the film “American Violet” when the main character (portrayed by Nicole Beharie) cannot find a job after she is arrested at her full-time waitress job and her former employer’s are threatened. The jobs that she applies for, at the lowest income possible, are given to Mexican Americans, and the hostility between the Black and Mexican characters is palpable. All of this revolves around safety and income, and how color, somehow threatens that.

This week, my fiance and I were hoping that the car bomb in Times Square was not set by a Middle Eastern man. Not because we wanted to blame a white man from a fringe group or something equally ridiculous when it comes to avoiding bloodshed, but because we know that every Middle Eastern man will be a suspect again.

I am not excited about the possibilities of racial profiling or the elimination of ethnic studies in any form. I am worried. Because all I can think of is the word precedent. Once the cornerstone is laid for one law, it is a foundation for others to build upon.

When I was in undergrad at Loyola University, I kept warning my classmates that the cut backs on affirmative action were going to impact funding for students of color, and that student loans were going to increase. I kept reading The Chronicle of Higher Education, and I felt the situation getting grim. When I completed my bachelor’s degree, my student debt was $15,000 which I managed to pay off in 2003 with a string of non-profit jobs and a shoestring, no-frills budget. Now, I meet college students who accumulate that much debt in one semester, and there are President Obama’s reforms on student loans going into effect. StudentLoanJustice.org and Reduce the Rate were already talking about this issue, but at least we’re addressing it…now.

This is why I get so aggravated and often quiet. People don’t always see the need to be critical AND pro-active until the concrete of a precedent has been set. Please, don’t be one of those people.