Hey, Mark Halperin, I’m Latin-American, too! Yes, I’m ultra-fair-skinned and freckled (Scottish genes on the paternal side), but with my Peruvian-born mother, I qualify to be America’s first Latina president exactly as much as Barack Obama qualifies to be America’s first black president.
So count me surprised (well, actually not) and amused (because it’s so stereotypically liberal) that you, who don’t, as far as I know, have a drop of Hispanic sangre pumping through your tiny corazon, to read about your “Exactly how Cuban are you?” grilling of Texas GOP Sen. (and presidential hopeful) Ted Cruz the other day for Bloomberg.com Politics . As syndicated columnist Ruben Navarette put it :
He told Cruz that people are curious about his "identity." Then, the host asked a series of questions intended to establish his guest's Hispanic bona fides. What kind of Cuban food did Cruz like to eat growing up? And what sort of Cuban music does Cruz listen to even now?
I've known Ted for more than a decade and I could tell he was uncomfortable. But he played along, listing various kinds of Cuban food and saying that his musical taste veers more toward country.
I kept waiting for Halperin to ask Cruz to play the conga drums like Desi Arnaz while dancing salsa and sipping cafe con leche — all to prove the Republican is rally Cuban.
Just when I thought I'd seen the worst, it got even more offensive. Earlier that day, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, had entered the presidential race. So, Halperin said: "I want to give you the opportunity to directly welcome your colleague Sen. Sanders to the race, and I'd like you to do it, if you would, en español.
Cruz had the class (and sense of humor to respond), “"You know, I'm going to stick to English, but I appreciate the invitation, señor."
The Twitter commentary on this exchange has been hilarious. Among the best tweets directed at Cruz: “How often do you yell "YOO got a lot splaining to doo" at your wife?”
Of course, the most telling thing about Halperin’s condescending treatment of Cruz wasn’t his assumption that you can’t be a true Cuban unless you make like Ricky Ricardo and reach for a pina colada, but his assumption that you’re no true Latino unless you vote Democratic, play the victimology card, call ceaselessly for an expansion of the welfare state, and gripe endlessly about “white America.”
That’s why most liberals can’t believe that I’m a Latina, either. Not just because I’ve got freckles but because I don’t toe the La Raza political line the way I’m supposedly expected to. And that, in my opinion, is a worse racist stereotype than expecting me to do a Mexican hat dance with a rose clenched between my teeth.