#don't even get me started on my maternal family with Somali REFUGEES

[umbralwaves]

I'd love some (more) literature about "Latinidad."

For starters, most mestizaje still aspire to whiteness. Most hold racist views of other "races." Most believe their nebulous heritage/the places their ancestors settled give them a claim to Indigeneity and no amount of explanation will make them quit that.

My boss is a white cishet mormon man who was a literal missionary, who exclusively hires "Latinos" for our South of the Border work ethic. He has fired three Latinas in the past 6 months, including one he callously knew was only permitted to work for his company. "I don't know if she's even still in the U.S." Everyone still clamors to please him.

My mestizo manager is (aspirationally) married to a white woman. He believes in white feminism. Black and Brown men and wolves threaten his pretty blonde wife. He is delighted to know I support universal basic income because he voted for Andrew Yang!

My other (white-passing) coworker is autistic, so it's perfectly cool he particularly hates "the Chinese" for "eating dogs" (his favorite refrain) and that the Confederacy Had a Point. No, he doesn't think slavery was cool, but Black people are So Sensitive. His best friend is white and he would toe that line from here until forever.

The rest are women of the mestizaje caste who believe themselves unusually talented and lucky. There are many reasons they are not wrong. Some are wrong. They refuse to greet me and think their work superior and far more important than mine, even if it gets them paid. They believe it is "feminist" that they refuse to work, and collectively, they don't get punished the in ways of me and the youngest.

There is not a unified "Latino" identity, and most are happy to throw you and everyone you love to the genocidaires if it meant a fragment of favor. Latinos born in the U.S., in particular, feel superior to anyone who has to crawl their way to a better life. They'll spit at you as you struggle up the ladder and laugh when you hold them to their "values."