Puerto Ricans (Spanish: Puertorriqueños; Taíno: boricua) are the inhabitants or citizens of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds. As a result, some Puerto Ricans do not treat their nationality as an ethnicity but as a citizenship with various ethnicities and national origins comprising the “Puerto Rican people“.
Despite its multi-ethnic composition, the culture held in common by most Puerto Ricans is referred to as mainstream Puerto Rican culture, a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Western European migrants, beginning with the early Spanish settlers, along with other Europeans arriving later such as the Corsicans, Irish, Germans and French, along with a strong West African culture which has been influential.
Puerto Ricans commonly refer to themselves as boricuas. “The majority of Puerto Ricans regard themselves as being of mixed Spanish-European descent. Recent DNA sample studies have concluded that the three largest components of the Puerto Rican genetic profile are in fact indigenous Taíno, European, and African”.
Before going on to this post, I must say a few words.
I have relatives and friends in law enforcement.
Some think that I hate the police. Some have even asked me. My answer to that is no … I don’t hate the police.
I know that, as in every profession and walk of life, there are good and bad individuals.
What I do know is that I have been following the events since the Trayvon Martin shooting and there’s no denying that something is more than amiss here.
The incidence of black shootings and killings continue to increase.
There is a systematic and epidemic series of events that can’t be denied.
Doing so would be like trying to cover the sky with one hand.
There’s no denying that there is something really wrong with the current system. Those that are being oppressed, persecuted, disenfranchised, negated and ignored can’t and won’t take it anymore.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.
Pastor Martin Niemöller
When it comes to race issues, many whites have a very special kind of obtuse insensitivity.
They have a blindness that makes them say things like a choke hold wasn’t really a choke hold.
They don’t really feel black people’s pain so much as they blame them for causing it.
They have a defensive deafness that prevents them from hearing any other truth than the one they already believe.
They love to taste black culture, but without appreciating its complexity and texture.
And they can’t really smell their own hypocrisy.
In this video Mathew Cooke takes a thoughtful, intelligent and provocative look into the history of Racism in the United States. He explains how America created a three caste social order, so that poor whites could ensure the rich elites would stay in power.
Cooke breaks down concepts like “systematic racism” and “white privilege,” things that many whites deny the existence of.
Cooke also makes it perfectly clear that he is not an “apologist” or bears any self-hatred for being white.
~~GALLERY~~
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Instead Cooke gives an impassioned appeal for all people to unify and rectify social injustice. This was a very well done video which only the most hardcore racism defensive deniers will take issue with.
Matthew Cooke (born 1973, Washington, D.C.) is the writer-director of How to Make Money Selling Drugs, a documentary film which criticizes the war on drugs in the United States. Cooke was also the narrator, editor, cinematographer and visual effects artist. Cooke was the producer and editor of Amy Berg’s Oscar–nominated documentary Deliver Us from Evil, his first feature film, and writer, director, editor and actor on Fuel TV’s Stupidface. He produced Adrian Grenier’s 2010 HBO documentary Teenage Paparazzo which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Cooke also contributed editing, motion graphics and cinematography work to the picture. He is producing American Race, an upcoming documentary directed by Amy Berg, who Cooke previously worked with on Deliver Us from Evil.
It Is What It Is 