#i spent over two hours typing this out please clap and maybe reconsider calling latinos white

[radiumrat]

You know what, I'm kinda tired of people misunderstanding what it means to be latinx so I'm just gonna throw my two cents in as Your Local Mexican-American who can't speak for all Latinos (cause all Mexicans are latinos but not all latinos are mexican) but has some decent perspective

First off, I want to acknowledge that while latinos experience oppression (especially as of late) it is different and in many ways less severe than the oppression faced by the black community

Wanna know why? Cause white Latinos are the result of the pairings of south and central native americans and Spanish colonists! However, not all latinos are white latinos, they may be afrolatinx! But my experience is that of a white latino so I'm going to be focusing on that

For some background, the Spanish were not interested in colonizing the Americas (North, central, and south. The rest of Europe was late to the game) as much as it was interested in exploiting it. It was the violent conquistador campaigns and exploitative mining operations that brought the Spanish to the Americas, a new and dangerous world that was seen as unfit for women. With so many Spanish men in the new world and virtually no Spanish women, the colonists took partners from the existing Native populations, with varying degrees of willingness from the natives. From this came a class system based on how Spanish and how wealthy an individual was

After the colonial era which saw exploited labor from both Native American groups and African slaves, the class system slowly began to be based more on an individual's wealth and power rather than their race, but let's not pretend that those with strong Spanish lineages didn't have a huge leg up there.

What really started to change life for Latinos in the modern day United States was the opening up of Texas to Anglos, due to Mexico's difficulty in keeping the territory stable because of its size, distance from Mexico City, and the resistance of Native American groups. The result was the Mexican-American war which resulted in Mexico losing half its territory and the addition of almost the entirety of the American Southwest. As a result, the Mexicans already living in those areas became Americans. Their new government rarely allowed them to keep the land that their families had owned for generations, and at times had grown fairly wealthy from. Their deeds were tossed out and their land split up for white settlers

The Mexican Revolution in the early 1900s saw warfare between Mexican citizens that at times bled into the United States. Certain revolutionaries like Pancho Villa visited terror amd cruelty upon small border towns. This is why many white Americans associate Mexicans with violence and cruelty, even leading some to say that we had a propensity for it due to our race (ok colonizers) . This was also the justification for the indiscriminate murder of hundreds of Mexicans by vigilante citizens, robbers, and sanctioned authorities like the Texas Rangers in the early 1900s

The border between Mexico and America remained open into the nineteenth century, and even into the eighties only a small fee was required to cross, I'm talking dimes and quarters here

However, Latinos were still greatly discriminated against. Segregation era restrictions called out Mexicans by name but lbr, it applied to all latinos. Segregation restricted Latinos in similar ways it restricted Black people. It dictated access to facilities, restaurants, theatres, scools, and even juror seats

During the world wars, latinos along with other poc were sent to the front lines to die over their white counterparts. Even in death, some were denied burial in white graveyards, leading to organizations like the American GI forum

And that was for citizens. Trying to work or live in the us as an immigrant was a long and degrading process. Immigrants were subjected to physical examinations, public bathing, and many were sprayed with carcinogenic pesticides. My grandmother was given an x-ray as part of the immigration process while she was pregnant. She didn't know it could be harmful to the fetus and no one asked if she was pregnant. It resulted in a stillbirth.

Migrant workers were relegated to "low skill" jobs, often as farm workers. They worked long hours for little pay, and were exposed to pesticides that resulted in cancer, birth defects, and in the worst cases, death soon after exposure. Without access to education or childcare, parents brought their children to the feilds, and the cycle of exploitation continued. Thanks to the NFWA, conditions have improved but still aren't ideal, especially for undocumented workers who are at the greatest risk of exploitation

Even through ALL THIS SHIT, Latinos were STILL at risk of deportation, regardless of their citizenship. The American government rounded up Latinos, some of whom had lived in the United States for generations, and deported them to Mexico or South America, places some had never been.

Being a race of mixed people for over five hundred years means that some people have a lot more spanish blood, so much so that they may be blonde, pale, and blue-eyed, and some people have a lot more native blood, so they have broad or prominent noses, dark hair and dark brown skin. And as unpredictable genetics are, appearances may vary wildly even among siblings

In my family alone, which is to my knowledge exclusively descended from Native Americans and Spanish immigrants (with some german in there), we have curly hair, straight hair, auburn and black hair, thin bodies, fat bodies, heights ranging from 6"2' to 5"1', flat and broad noses, hooked noses, arched noses, flat faces, high cheekbones, shades of skin ranging from off-white to cocoa brown, thin lips, full lips, and a wide array of facial and body hair.

And all of these people are equally Latino! Lineages of Spanish colonialists and of Native groups can both validly claim latino heritage, even if they are not mixed

This is why the oppression faced by latinos can be very different depending on the individual. The more non-white you look, the more this history is attached to you. The darker your skin is, the more likely that you will be profiled, deported, arrested, disregarded, assulted, or exploited.

This is why it's inaccurate to say that Latinos are "honorary whites" or "basically white" (this was also an argument used by Anglos to deny that they were oppressing Latinos lmao) Yes, some latinos may be white passing and get preferential treatment over other more visibly non-white minorities, and some even act as oppressors, but there are also many others that are not afforded that luxury. We have a storied past, we have been subjected to A Lot Of Shit, and to loop me in with my oppressors makes me sick to my stomach.

Tldr: some latinos are white passing, but many aren't. We come in all shapes and shades because of our mixed heritage and those who are visibly nonwhite are still subjected to racism so don't equate us to our oppressors because not long ago having a spanish surname meant you couldn't be a cop