The Austin City Council recently decided to extend a $750,000 “forgiveable” loan to the owners of Las Manitas, a downtown restaurant that is going to be displaced by a hotel. “Forgiveable” means that if the restaurant’s owners make their payments on time for five years and fulfill a few other conditions, they will not have to pay off the rest of the loan, as much as $697,000. The money comes from a fund meant to help businesses that “enhance Austin’s unique urban cultural fabric,” but Las Manitas is the only business that has applied for the money. In a city facing a $27.5 million budget deficit for 2008, you might not be surprised to find that many Austinites are annoyed by this giveaway of their tax dollars.
But according to one of the owners, demands for fiscal responsibility mask something much more sinister. In an article in the Houston Chronicle, Cynthia Perez, who owns Las Manitas with her sister, Linda, lays out the nefarious agenda of the anti-forgiveable loan crowd:
“[Perez] blames the uproar on a ‘negative corporate-owned press’—and on race. ‘It’s exacerbated because we’re people of color,’ she said. ‘It’s very dangerous to have an educated Chicana,’ she said the other day outside the modest restaurant.”
It’s an assertion, offered, naturally, with no evidence. Las Manitas is located just down the street from the State Capitol, and is frequented by state and local politicians. It’s as establishment-friendly as it gets. But Perez realizes that if she portrays herself as an outraged victim of racism and the “corporate-owned press,” there’s a very good chance, especially in a left-leaning city like Austin, that her critics will retreat in embarassed silence.
I’ve often thought it odd that so many people want others to see them as victims, but then a Cynthia Perez (or a James Frey!) comes along and I remember that victimhood can be a highly lucrative racket.
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