More rant than recipe: Salsa Fresca

OK, so this morning I ended up looking at an article someone had posted on alternet about the portrayal of Asian/ Asian-American sisters and African American men on prime time televsion.

I guess my issue is really what this article implies about the medias beliefs about the other two groups, Asian men and Black women. As a member of one of those two groups, I could feel slighted, unbeautiful, and undesirable in the eyes of prime time television.

I’ve grown up in an era with adequate access to images about underrepresented people. And yes, I have heard every single word of it.

Because:
>I am not White enough, or light enough
> My hair is the wrong texture
> My eyes are the wrong shape
> My nose is a little too wide and flat
> I don’t have the right accent
> I don’t listen to the music you expect me to
> I don’t have the politics you think I should have
> I don’t have the illegitimate children, dependence on welfare, drug and alcohol addiction, sex addiction, boyfriend/baby’s daddy in jail
> I don’t suffer from insecurities that stem from not having a father at home and consequently jump from one man’s bed to the next
> I won’t coon out my uniqueness for a deep belly laugh from you
> I won’t be your sympathetic shoulder to cry on and feel better about yourself
> I am happy with who I am and not angry at the world

I don’t deserve to be portrayed at all.

I suppose I could take this moment to be everything you expect me to be, but instead, I will just say thank you. Given that you refuse to put me on the TV, in a movie, in the newspaper, or on a magazine cover, you leave me only one option.

I must portray myself. If I don’t see me anywhere the only thing to do is to write myself in. How about creating some real reality television? Where real people and their real lives, and real stories can emerge. One might be amazed if you just asked people what their lives were like on a day-to-day basis. I personally have stockpiles of stories. My life and times have been a mouthful. I can only imagine what other people have to say and show the world.

Now for my easy salsa fresca recipe:

4 medium tomatoes (seeded and medium diced)
1/2 cup onions (fine diced)
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
3 green onions (sliced thin)
1 bunsh cilantro (stem removed, torn into pieces)
1/2 jalapeno pepper (seeded, membrane removed and fine diced)
Juice of 1/2 Lime
Salt to taste

Combine all ingredients. Serve with tortilla chips


And for the truly interested, here's the actual website for the article: http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/41857/