Is Marty Peretz a Racist?
Or do his critics just want to feel better about themselves? The only reason why this is a topic for discussion among pundit-dom at all is because of the recent JournoList leak, in which enlightened pompous JournoList members can be seen tearing Marty Peretz apart for ranting on Mexican-American relations and evincing what they termed “crazy-ass racism”.
Well, I am technically a Mexican, although I don’t have the papers to prove it because I was born in the States (which technically makes me an American citizen, which I am also in my heart). But both my parents are Mexican and that makes me a Mexican citizen under Mexican law. I was also raised in Mexico and half of my family remains Mexican nationals. My childhood friends, with the exception of a few, are all Mexican. So I think I’d know whether Peretz is on the money or not and whether he’s being racist or not.
First of all, there is no Latino race. There may be a Latin culture, but if you catch my drift, racism just doesn’t apply here. I think some people on the Left want it to apply so they can put down those with whom they generally disagree or – in the case of the Journolist crowd – just so they can feel they are better than Marty Peretz.
More specifically, it is a fact that modern Mexico is the product of almost 200 years of unchecked, centralized government power, elitism and – despite its diversity – a culturally enforced conformity that demands homogeneity and unity even as it promotes and practices classist exclusionism (sounds like old Europe, no?). Also, until recently, Mexico operated with an incredibly unfair and ineffective judicial system that made justice rare and jurisprudence not even worthy of the name. All of these structural problems – the legacy of Spain and France (which through Napoleon III installed a puppet regime in Mexico in the 19th Century) – have resulted in endemic cynicism, corruption, widespread inequality, and armed groups. Anyone who thinks Mexico is the way it is because it is a poor country would be wrong. Mexico is not poor. It’s mismanaged. Would a poor country produce 10 billionaires?
The rest of the countries south of our border that we generally think of as “Latin” suffer from similar structural problems. Together with Mexico, they generally possess the same traits that Marty Peretz listed. That is no accident. They were (with the exception of Brazil) founded by Spain. So I think calling Peretz a racist, crazy-ass or not, based on how he described Latin culture is simply inaccurate.
If I take issue with anything Peretz said it’s his statement that people in Latin America have “near-tropical work habits”. I think they should perhaps be called Iberian work habits (many people in Spain do close shop for hours on summer afternoons, from what my sister in Seville tells me: siesta time). I also believe – from experience – that Mexican people are typically some of the hardest working in the world. However, I can understand if in a society like Mexico’s some people just decide that they are giving up on working altogether.
But generally, I think Peretz is right on the money. And so would be anyone who defends his views. Finally, Latin America is very diverse and it is crawling with Caucasian people of – mostly – Spanish origin, i.e. Europeans. Mexico itself is similarly diverse. To think that so-called Latinos are a collection of oppressed, marginalized, indigenous-like peoples is a mistake. In so far as any self-appointed paladins of political correctness think they are standing up for poor, little, weak Latino folk south of the border when they attack Marty Peretz, the prejudiced ones are the paladins themselves.
