Wrong Way Feldman II

I have to admit that I was completely wrong about Obama's Latino vote. I had made the assumption, from casual conversations from my Hispanic relatives, that there was no way Mexican Americans were gonna vote for a black man.

You can tell I'm a white guy. I use Latino, Hispanic, Mexican American, and Chicano interchangeably. There are differences, I know, but for my purposes, I don't make any distinction...and I don't need to know the difference when I'm walking down Wooley Road in Oxnard at 2:12 AM on a Friday night.

The distinction that needs to be made, however, is of the Hispanics who actually voted. These Latinos didn't care about race. I am glad that a black man was able to garner the lion's share of the Latino vote, and that any inter-minority distrust that I might have personally witnessed was either pushed aside or perhaps that view isn't represented by a large percentage of Latinos. What this does, viewed from my white eyes, is to further believe in the ability of people, any people, to overlook race as a salient point in someones ability to advance.

However, I personally harbor prejudices. For example, I don't think US educated Nigerians make effective electrical engineers. You can say anything you want to me about this statement, but until I work with a good Nigerian electrical engineer, I will continue to hold this position. My experience, background, and interactions with past Nigerian electrical engineers has given me no choice but to assume this.

Because of this bias, am I any less prejudiced than my wife's uncle who "will take the RV and move to Mexico when that nigger is sworn in?"

I don't know. Perhaps I am the same. The thing is, I don't know how to undo the bias I've created. Suppose I was a supervisor...how would I work around this bias if I was trying to fill a position?

These are questions/character issues that I'm honest and candid about yet deep down I know they aren't acceptable. This blog by itself would be sufficient ammunition to keep me out of any supervisory or political position.

I think race and energy are highly related. I earlier blogged that environmentalism is the domain of white people only. A stereotype. Anyone who lives near the Long Beach port and near the 710 freeway is most certainly not white and not affluent. Another stereotype. I have yet to see a black bicycle commuter or a brown Prius driver. An Elk Grove minivan is always driven by an Asian. Filipinos prefer Acuras.

How else am I supposed to value different cultures if I cannot make statements regarding their differences? Stereotypes allow me to accentuate those differences. If I stepped outside my door this morning to get the paper and a loose pit bull was sitting there, why would I act any certain way? Is my decision based on any information about that individual dog, or based on what I've heard or seen elsewhere about pit bulls in general? I would stereotype him; I would not endeavor to gain any additional information about that dog...all I need to know is that it is a pit bull. The cost of trying to get additional information on that particular dog might exceed any benefit I'd get.

I did the same thing with my Latino relatives when I projected their sentiments towards all Latinos in general, but in this case I was wrong. So? Polls are also wrong. With such information scarcity about how any individual Latino was going to vote, I economized with what I did have.