The Party of the United Race?

Wow, talk about racial politics writ large.

Many Latinos have become disgruntled with both political parties...
Now I hear from people in their 20s who, in their disillusionment, are pining for something that had its heyday before they were born: the Raza Unida Party.
...
"The legacy of the Raza Unida Party is the concept of independent thought and that we can speak for ourselves," (party co-founder Jose Angel Gutierrez) said. "No ventriloquist needed."...
These days, Gutierrez's hobbies include tweaking nativists with comments about how Anglos are losing sleep over the browning of the United States.
"They think this is a white country," he said. "And when someone says the opposite, then that's the demon."

Just...wow. How sickening. "When somebody says the opposite, then that's the demon." Yes it is. And it's EXACTLY THE SAME THING when a white person says it too. For the life of me I cannot understand why so many blacks and Latinos in positions of "leadership" within their respective communities think racist statements and actions automatically become race-neutral when said or done by someone who's the "right" skin color. Maybe Jose Angel Gutierrez and his acolytes don't have white sheets and hoods in their closets, but that really doesn't make their racial politics any less odious. It only makes said politics less dangerous, at least over the short term. Over the long term, though, that's a different story, as has been said here before. We know what they want, even if they don't come right out and say it -- practically open borders, people coming to the United States who don't know English and have no desire to learn it or to assimilate into American culture, etc., which is going to -- as it always does -- lead to balkanization and tribal war.

And what about that whole "concept for independent thought" and "speak(ing) for ourselves"? Somehow I don't think that's so cut-and-dried, considering the ideology of the folks we're dealing with here. I would bet that just as with the two major political parties, the party bosses of this Raza Unida party are going to dictate the official positions of the party, and while certain factions might be allowed voices they won't have any real effect. Honestly, does anyone really think those assimilated Latinos would be allowed to have any say in the policies the party would advocate? It seems to me that such would be contrary to the Raza Unida's prima facie raison d'etre -- to advocate for policies that benefit a certain race, or even a certain other country. (Which makes the whole "independent thought" thing ironic, as it's not about thinking on an individual level, just a smaller group level -- which really isn't that independent, or thinking for oneself at all.) I suppose that might sound racist to some, but based on my own observations of the political scene I just can't come to any other conclusion.