I'm So Whitewashed that I'm Actually White

A friend and fellow blogger brought a new student run news paper to my attention. The publication is TWANAS, standing for the Third World and Native American Students Press Collective. The paper has been brought back to life after it died in the 80's, and in its present incarnation it seems to have expanded from it's focus on Native Americans to any race that isn't white. As one would expect, it contains the typical revolutionary diatribe that can be found in many of the papers around here, focusing on all the terrible and virtually nonexistant injustices you see students of color facing every day here at UCSC.

One of my favorite quotes from this publication, which was originally discussed in my friend's blog (http://evan.branigans.net/), reads as follows:

"For those students of color (SOC) who do not identify as such, you are either ignorant, "whitewashed," or unaware that you are a part of a struggle."

This quote baffles me in many ways, especially as it applies to me. I happen to be partly pacific islander (Guam, specifically), which explains why my last name is Perez. I look completely white. When I was born, my grandfather, who's 100% chamorro (as the people of Guam are called), jokingly (JOKINGLY AS IN A JOKE) displayed me as proof to his caucasian wife's family that "he was white too." My brother, on the other hand, is brown. You don't have to be Watson and Crick to know that I had the same genetic chances of being dark skinned, just as he had the same chances of being white.

In spite of this difference between my brother and myself, Benny feels equally as disenfranchised and cheated by society as I do, which is very little. In fact, he makes fun of me for being white, but that really has nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with him being an indiscriminant jackass.

So what do you say, TWANAS? Is Ben a part of the struggle while I'm not? We're from the same household, the same family, and we went to the same public schools. We both even managed to get into college. So TWANAS? TWANAS, are you listening? Good. Suck my hybrid dick.