You’re Second-Class Citizens
Dear Puerto Ricans:
I feel your pain. Yes, I really do. Because I was born in the Caribbean where annual hurricanes are deadly facts of everyday life. Its not if they will come but when and how horrible and tragic the aftermaths. Hurricane Maria took direct aim at you when you were least prepared to do battle with this Category 5 storm – the most powerful in your history. And the glacial pace of the United States Federal emergency response and President Donald Trump’s attitude have all of you taken aback, stung by his political hyperbole, and perceived lack of sensitivity to your suffering. He played golf, like Nero fiddling as Rome burned, even as you had no electricity, limited food and water. He then said that you, the victims, and American citizens to boot, wanted “everything done” for you. But you should not be surprised. Because you’ve been living in a kind of insulated self-delusional bubble for the past 119 years believing that your bequeathed and bestowed “Americanness” made you better than the rest of the Caribbean region.
In fact, you do not consider yourselves having any historical links, ties or relationships with the rest of the region, not even acknowledging the fact that an act of geography placed Puerto Rico in the blue waters of the Caribbean Sea. Armed with an American passport at birth, you equated that with American citizenship and thus, equality and privilege. Hurricane Maria showed you the essential truth about your relationship with America, and shattered the illusion of equality – you are nothing but a bunch of second-class citizens. Your beautiful island is simply a choice piece of real estate owned by your American overlords. FYI – you are a colony. Period.
Oh yes. You think that I’m being harsh and blunt? But the disproportionate response to Puerto Rico when compared to Texas and Florida, PROVED that you are being treated differently. Why, President Trump is blaming you – the victims – for your own predicament. I know that some of you are going to be offended by my statements and opinions. I assure you that they are based on facts. This is the kind of political medicine that can only help to cure you of the ingrained, false sense of security that your American passport gives you.
On the mainland (United States) you flout that “privilege” of being Americans, presumably equal in every way to the people of Florida, Texas or California. You feel that your pigmentation is also a badge of acceptance since you’re lighter-skinned than may of your Caribbean or African American brethren. You could “pass for white.” As the bastard progeny of both your Spanish and American conquistadors you exhibit a subconscious sense of superiority over other dark-skinned peoples, a situation further strengthened by your distancing yourselves from others. Hurricane Maria has not only destroyed the island but your long-held sense of privilege and prestige because of your juxtaposition to the American mainland and your ease of travel. You labor under the false belief that you are American just like born and bred New Yorkers or Floridians. But a recent Morning Consulting poll of about 2,200 people in the United States shatters that illusion. The poll found that 46% of Americans did not know or think that you are American citizens – after 119 years of American ownership of Puerto Rico.
So please do not be offended by the question: is Puerto Rico a “U.S. colony?” I’ve already answered yes. Here’s fact one: Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States. It became a “U.S. territory” in 1898, when it was acquired from Spain after the Spanish-American War. With approximately 3.5 million residents, Puerto Rico is the most highly populated of all United States territories. Okay. There is very little difference between “a territory” and “a colony.” The common denominator is that of ownership. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory, meaning that while its residents are citizens, they send one nonvoting representative to Congress, and have no say in presidential elections whatsoever.
But wait. There’s more. Puerto Rico’s vulnerability and uneven and warped socio-economic development is a byproduct of years of United States neglect and not just the end-results of natural, uncontrolled phenomenon. Its part of what explains the colonial arrangement, relationship and situation. Today, as the island’s population struggles just to survive in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, the undisputed fact is that Puerto Rico has a poverty rate double that of Mississippi – one of America’s poorest states. And as Hurricane Maria took aim at Puerto Rico nobody believed that the island’s failing and crumbling infrastructure suffering from years of neglect by successive U.S. administrations – Democrat and Republican – and a public sector systematically dismantled in response to the nation’s debt crisis, could survive a superstorm like Maria. The fact is that Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans were already in a chronic, protracted and systemic state of emergency long before Maria came calling.
Nelson Denis, author of “War Against All Puerto Ricans,” in a recent essay earlier this year put it bluntly: “Puerto Rico has been little more than a profit center for the United States: first as a naval coaling station, then as a sugar empire, a cheap labor supply, a tax haven, a captive market, and now as a municipal bond debtor and target for privatization. It is an island of beggars and billionaires: fought over by lawyers, bossed by absentee landlords, and clerked by politicians.”
Finally. A few disquieting facts.
Puerto Rico’s legal s and colonial relationship with the U.S. has hobbled and crippled its efforts and ability to deal with its internal debt crisis. Despite being a U.S. territory, the island is barred from declaring bankruptcy, an option only available to municipalities in U.S. states through the bankruptcy code. This legal conundrum has meant that it is very difficult for Puerto Rico to restructure its more than US$70 billion national debt.
But I just have to tell you this. I admire the majority sentiment of Puerto Ricans yearning to be the 51st US state. However, there is no appetite for independence. The vast majority of Puerto Ricans are comfortable and happy with the colonial status and relationship with the United States. Back in 2012, by a vote of 54-46 percent, Puerto Ricans, in a non-binding referendum, said that they would like to change their present status arrangement with the United States. In a second question, 61 percent said they would support statehood with the United States, 33 percent said they’d like a new arrangement, and just 5 percent said they’d like to become independent. The last time Puerto Ricans were asked about their feelings on statehood a majority opposed becoming a state. That was in 1998.
But Congress, not Puerto Rico, will have the final say on if the country is granted statehood status, any other new arrangement, or to let the status quo continue. That’s what happens when you are a territory, a colony, or whatever.
So why is Puerto Rico not so important to the Trump Administration as Florida and Texas? Think the Electoral College that picks the president of the United States. Florida has 29 electoral college votes and Texas 38. Puerto Rico? Nip. Nada. None. Can only participate in presidential primary elections. Can’t vote for POTUS.
Sincerely,
Michael Derek Roberts
and then 