Last year, we had Datin on Community During Chaos. To start off the conversation, Datin explained why he has had to rein back on his comments on social media about police brutality.
Datin grew up in North Jersey. In his childhood area, black, Dominican, and Puerto Ricans all live in the same area and treat each other as the same.
“We all say the n-word, we all do the same things, we shop at the same places,” Datin said. “Where I’m from, it’s all integrated, all blended.”
This blending is not normal in most other communities, to say the least. Datin had no idea racial bias existed out west until he went out there.
“When I went out west and found out that black dudes don’t like Spanish dudes, I was like, ‘what, for real?’ and “yo, this is racism times 10 out here. They deal with that every day. Where I’m from, it ain’t like that.”
So Datin has had to change his attitude and mannerisms in conversations to not offend and prevent misunderstandings.
“As this started to go on and I started to speak up, I would be met with resistance from my white followers and my black followers, like ‘you ain’t black, so mind your business’.”
He still wants to lead and comment on issues. His points of view, however, are not always known or understood by others. So, to prevent unnecessary debates, he has decided to choose his arguments more selectively.
