La Cucaracha by Lalo Alcaraz for August 29, 2014

Unfortunately, racism is alive and well; however, it goes both ways…

Cops have to be held to a higher standard. They have to or the “police” thing doesn’t work. And don’t talk about money and settlements when the cop who shot Brown has almost half a million in free money from donations.

Quis custodieat ipsos custodes? (Who keeps an eye on the supposed good guys?)

Wait a minute – not long ago a poster here claimed that the Beandocks character shown is really a dark-skinned Latino, not an African American.Could it be that a member of Lalo’s brigade was actually wrong?

If that’s what the person claimed, then they might be wrong, but they might not. There are plenty of dark-skinned Latinos of African ancestry in the US, coming from places like Mexico (especially Vera Cruz), Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, etc. In other words, you can be both African American and Latino. Or was this just about a “gotcha”?

You guys don’t know the difference between racism and prejudice. This is prejudice. Racism is a system and there is no such thing as reverse racism but prejudice goes both ways.

Racism is a system. Racism is charging blacks/minorities a higher interest rate for loans and credit (this still happens allot). It’s also this, white people use drugs at a higher rate than other races, yet Blacks and Latinos get arrested more often. Racism is blacks getting more jail time for the same crime that a white man commits. Racism landlords charging more rent to blacks than to white (happened all the time in the 20s-70s, still happens but not as often). Again it is a system that strips you of your equal rights granted to you as Americans by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Now that whites are becoming the minority in this country, just wait a while – the tide will turn and we’ll undoubtedly see the reverse racism problems.

What an optimistic view! Maybe instead of fretting over how white folks might get screwed over in the future (though Louis CK has a really funny bit about this), we should work to eliminate racism now. You know, so that nobody has to deal with it in the present or in the future.

Just for fun, here’s that Louis CK bit. Just be aware that it has language some might find offensive:

I’m just saying I don’t think principles will win out over greed.

This, in all seriousness, gives some insight into what’s looking more and more like your overall pessimistic view of human nature. Which I have to say is sort of a sad place to be, and I hope you can someday leave it behind.

“Wait a minute – not long ago a poster here claimed that the Beandocks character shown is really a dark-skinned Latino, not an African American.”

Yes indie, I was the poster that theorized that the Beandocks characters could be Latinos rather than African-American. I based this on the fact that Latinos come in a wide range of skin tones as do all races (yes, even Caucasians). I’m more than willing to admit when I am mistaken – are you?

Thank God a lot of police forces are requiring the officers to video tape all interactions with the public via the cameras they now wear. Complaints against the police are dropping and over reaction by the police are dropping. Leaves no doubt as to what occured.

gotta love sweeping generalizations. from both sides

Yes indie, I was wrong. Here it is again in your favorite writing style I WAS WRONG.

But let’s return to the debate which brought about my (mistaken) assumption – you accused Lalo of being a liar, hypocrite and yes a racist for portraying African-American characters in The Beandocks when he is himself a Latino. Once again, this argument is so flawed that if you bother to follow it to even the simplest conclusion Bill Waterston would not have been able to write Calvin and Hobbes because he is neither a 5-year old boy nor a stuffed tiger.

So once again here’s the score on this subject: don – WRONG for making incorrect assumptions about the race of cartoon charactersindie – guilty of trying to defend one of the most juvenile arguments I’ve ever seen

Well, speak gently to someone, and see what it gets me. Anyway, I was serious when I said that I think such a pessimistic view of the world is a sad place to be, and I hope you’re able to escape it. (I’m serious even when trying to be more entertaining, but in this case I wasn’t even going for effect.) But I can see how you’d take it as a personal attack, and fair enough.

As for giving my arguments a work over, actually, you don’t. Sorry to say, but you simply don’t. The reason that you’re my chief “target” is that you’re the most consistently wrong-headed person on here. Your mission is to silence others, your level of discourse is generally non-substantive and negative for the mere sake of negativity. That you’ve been driven to distraction by me is actually quite amusing, and so why shouldn’t I keep it up?

As to the irrefutable facts of today’s strip, I offered a contextualizing irrefutable fact, which is that it’s possible to be Latino and black (with an afro and everything!) at the same time. Or did you miss that part in your rush to reply. You at least didn’t absorb it. We now have the fact that don57 said that don57 wasn’t taking it that way, and that don57 was therefore wrong. So there’s your win for the day. We however don’t have Alcaraz’s word on the demographic status, and it’s quite possible that our friend from the Beandocks is a black Latino. Or not. We simply don’t know.

By the way, I’ve never claimed to be “open-minded and fair.” I do claim to read a wide variety of sources. But the open-minded and fair thing, that’s something you’ve put on me. So hey, thanks!

The difference is that I’m willing to grant Lalo the editorial voice because as a Latino he shares many of the same prejudice issues that African-Americans deal with. For example: the subject of today’s strip, institutional harassment for “driving while black” is also an issue that Hispanics regularly have to deal with. Obviously you are not willing to concede that groups dealing with the same issues may share the same opinions but quite frankly I’m pretty sure that if the African-American community at large had a problem with the way they are depicted in La Cucaracha they would have made it abundantly evident by now and that has not happened.

Be my guest if you want to try to “speak for the character of don57” (whatever that means), if I have a problem with what is being said I will speak up. Your stock-in-trade seems to be putting words into the mouths of anyone who has the audacity not to share your opinion anyway so have at it.

But when they start speaking policy for a class of people of which they aren’t a member (as Lalo does via Beandocks), it’s presumptuous and offensive.

Do you just revel in being inconsistent for the sake of being negative? You’ve consistently slagged Alcaraz for only doing stuff about Latinos, and now you say he shouldn’t do stuff about people who aren’t Latino? This is simply more evidence that you simply exist (at least as indie) to harass a single comic artist, no matter what, and no matter that it does indeed make it seem like maybe you should stop shoving Billy and take a time-out in the corner.

And no, bringing up very well-known issues does not count as “speaking for” someone else. Lalo doesn’t say, “This is what black people think.” Instead, he says, “This is an issue that very obviously affects black folks in the US.” Unlike McGruder, Lalo does not make cultural critiques of the African American community. But in his homage to McGruder, he recognizes that issues of race are not limited to Latinos. And again, McGruder has never come out against The Beandocks so, especially since The Beandocks is such a long-running and prominent part of La Cucaracha, he’s publicly giving it his tacit approval (or at least his non-disapproval).

And BTW, posting videos is really annoying – they are not a comment, unless Agrestic is claiming to write and produce them.

Oh, how grumpy and whiny you’ve quickly become today, indie! Embedding a video is similar to embedding a link. And since I had already mentioned Louis CK, I figured some folks might enjoy the source.

But maybe this is another key to your “thinking”. Unless something comes fully formed from the mind of a poster, sui generis, it’s not valid. References to outside information are verboten for you, it seems, and your own worldview has become radically constricted as a result. If it were up to this standard of yours, the human race would still be back at trying to figure out what that flickery orange hot stuff is and whether there was anything we could do with it.

Racism is a system of thought.…I’ll stick with krayziehustler’s definition of racism as being a systemic, structural issue, similar to sexism. I agree with you that it’s based on a system of thought. And the structures and system of thought feed on each other to perpetuate discrimination (what an inadequate word!). I also grant that the word “racism” is generally used, especially by white folks, to stand in for race-based prejudice. But the reality of racism is that even if everyone all at once magically stopped being prejudiced based on race, black folks and other people of color would still be feeling the economic, political, and social effects of racism for decades, maybe centuries, to come.

Hmm, I must have a tremendous power for all of you to spend that much time on me.

We just do it because we love you, indie. You’re that disruptive kid in class who needs extra attention from the teacher so that the other children can actually have a productive day learning.

Plus, hey, for me, I find it entertaining to dismantle your nincompoopery. And really, it’s not much of my time at all. Why? Do you spend hours composing these little treatises of yours?

Lalo variations on the SAME theme are so ANNOYING.Why keep beating on a dead horse? Come on, move on. Once is enough!(I come here because I like Vero.)

agrestic: Hello. It is obvious that Mr. Brown wasn’t acting like his parents would have liked him to do. He elected to hang out with the “wrong” crowd, and was part of the robbery as shown on the store video. However, I Do wonder why officer Wilson had to defend himself by shooting someone who was already in his face. What about the others who were also shown in the store video? Did they too, threaten officer Wilson, something which would have made a bad scene even worse? All I am saying is that Mr. Brown was caught in a crime, and therefore was not the angel he was made out to be. All of the facts need to be addressed on both sides of the “fence” (both figuratively and literally).

“…you (me, ORM) imply that Mike Brown deserved (your word, not mine) to be gunned down in the street.” I would never condone something like that. Never. It seems we all need to put ourselves in the others’ feet to lessen the misunderstandings about what is posted.

I wouldn’t call what happened a “public execution.” Specifically because it wasn’t planned. ISIS does that. There is a difference. What really did happen is something that may never be known. But, for semantic’s sake, I would not use the word “execution.” JMO.

“Murder” fits both cases; neither had judges, juries, defense attorneys. So, no “executions”.