When your own wing disappoints you.
I usually don’t comment on blogs. I see no real value in it. If I feel compelled enough to respond to a blog post, I generally just do it on my own blog. I read blogs to keep up with the times.
Last night I had to comment on a post made over at one of my favorite blogs: Newsbusters. I love Newsbusters so much that despite their 20-30 posts a day, I still keep them on my Google Reader.
That’s why it was such a surprise when one of their writers, Warner Todd Huston, wrote such an ugly, divisive, angry, and misguided post about the Hispanic label when talking about a Rick Sanchez tweet. Mind you, I am no Rick Sanchez fan. When he wrote that tweet, I responded to him with my displeasure.
The ugly part came when Mr. Huston expressed his view that “Hispanic” is a meaningless term to him. Reading the subsequent comments on that post didn’t help either. It’s an odd and bizarre feeling to see members of other races/ethnic groups nitpick what you call or don’t call yourself.
I made a comment refuting Mr. Huston’s claim, and his response to that comment was even uglier than his original post. Thankfully, another commenter came to my defense and did so quite eloquently as I had no real comeback.
That’s the thing with racism and bigotry: it humiliates you and disarms you — strips you of your individuality and, in some ways, your humanity.
I’m friends on Facebook with the Managing Editor, Ken Shepherd, and I sent him an IM explaining Mr. Huston’s nasty attack. He hesitated at the beginning and, to an extent, even defended the asinine “Hispanic is a meaningless label” point. After further explaining myself, all I got from him was a simple “agreed”, and then he signed off.
I could just let it go and not give NB any more of my readership. But I went ahead and sent a Facebook message to NB’s Executive Editor, Matthew Sheffield.
Here’s my message to him:
Hi Mathew,
My name is Randy Haddock. I’m a longtime reader of Newsbusters.
I LOVE Newsbusters. You guys cut through all the BS in the liberal media and beautifully put it out there for the world to see.
This is the reason why I was shocked to see one of your writers, Warner Todd Huston, lodge a nasty attack against me in the comments section. This was in the post he wrote about Rick Sanchez (http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2009/07/26/cnns-resident-whiner-rick-sanchez#comment-985597)
Mr. Huston has a severely misguided approach to race, specifically the Hispanic label. He insists that “Hispanic” is a made-up term with no real meaning.
In my original comment, I politely explained that he was wrong. That I proudly call myself a Hispanic and so do many others. I also informed him how I, as a minority conservative, always like to point out how the real bigots are on the left — where they treat non-liberal minorities with utter contempt.
Mr. Huston’s response to my comment was a nasty attack laced with name-calling and insulting words. According to him, I am a self-loathing, idiotic, ignorant sell-out who doesn’t respect himself.
Thankfully, another commenter by the name of Wisdom made an excellent response to him. Good thing because I was so upset after reading that comment that I had no substantial comeback.
This is the very reason why so many minorities feel isolated from conservatism and it’s a shame. This type of rhetoric, which is rare among conservatives, tends to be used as representative by those on the left to paint the right as inherently racist.
By Mr. Huston’s logic, any ethnic label is “made-up”. The more relevant question is whether or not the label works and whether it is accepted by the people being labeled. “Hispanic” is a very effective label. We are not a race but an ethnic group composed of various races, skin colors, and cultures. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico and later lived in Miami for years. Trust me, we are all Hispanic and proudly call ourselves as such. It binds us. It works.
So for a White man to come along and tell us we are idiotic, ignorant and self-loathing to use such label is not only insulting and offensive, but border-line dehumanizing.
I still don’t know if I’ll continue to read Newsbusters. I’m sure one reader won’t make a difference for you. But I thought, and I still believe, that Newsbusters is better than this.
I remain a strong HISPANIC conservative and I know Mr. Huston is an unfortunate rarity. A rarity that has no place spewing his angry, bigoted rhetoric on a great blog such as Newsbusters.
-Randy Haddock
It probably won’t make a difference but at least I let my frustration out, and it felt good
