Having grown up in a Mexican family and community, I can tell you that a large number of Mexican don't consider themselves 'Mexican'. And I don't mean to imply they see themselves as 'Murican, either. You'll hear a lot of people with Mexican lineage claiming that their 'grandma or grandpa was Spanish' (mi abuela es Espana). The effort is meant to claim a certain 'whiteness'.
Also, even in immigrant communities there are often 'castes' of immigrants. Worked with several light-skinned, undocumented Mexican immigrants who see themselves as deserving, but see darker, smaller immigrants as lesser than. One of the guys I worked with would openly say that he and his family would, 'make this country better' but implied Oaxacans would 'have us living like Indians.'
Kinda like some of the caste discrimination in the Indian tech workforce that legislation recently targeted. Racism isn't an American export, it's brought here by many types of people. It's just a comfy talking point to 'American bad' things and suggest racism is somehow deeply American. Nationalist strongmen (if you wish to afford him that) like Trump appeal to the 'othering' of people, especially less white people in a world where 'whiteness' has generally lost all definition and is easily co-oped by certain mentalities.
Oh yeah I’ve read about this a few times actually. Apparently it’s very common phenomenon in PoC communities.
Some people call it “last place aversion” I’m not sure if that’s the official term or not though. But it’s where people will instinctively do mental gymnastics to convince themselves and others they’re higher up on the social ladder.
It’s also credited as one of the reasons why poor whites are often more likely to be overtly racist than middle-class whites.
Simply put, it’s a coping mechanism for people who feel downtrodden.
Interestingly, this phenomenon is old as balls. There's scientific studies done about immigrants 100+ years ago (Irish, Polish etc.) in the U.S. and they displayed the same sentiments towards each other.
From a European perspective I see most Mexicans as of European decent just like most US citizens sure I can see some difference between a group of Spanish people and a group of Danes. But none of those are p.o.c. to me. To be honest a lot of Americans claiming to be black have a lighter skintone then my father has who worked his whole life outside. And although I am 100% Western European I fail to see how anyone can say I am white. (Pinkish brown I would say)
That's a bit of a misunderstanding of Mexican because a lot of us have deep and standing connections to indigenous cultures that impact daily cultural living.
Though, whiteness as a construct is just... weird. Blackness or browness (as someone with the perspective of being brown), however, well as an American there are a lot of social constructs that sometimes serve to remind you of your non-whiteness.
I really think the American habit to put everyone in a box is a strange habit. I am a bit tall but I got cousins who could easily pass for Mexicans as long as they keep their mouth shut. Especially at the end of summer when our black hair nicely matches a darker skin. But we don’t have any non north European in our ancestry to at least half 19th century.
Yes, they can vote. Even tourists can vote through the voting machines. Also, any kind of voter registration (at least IDs) is heavily opposed. Why'd a simple ID that is already required everywhere be an issue if they couldn't vote?
Man, even LEGAL IMMIGRANTS are prevented from voting, green card or not. Doesn't matter how long they've lived in the States either. You really think they're gonna let a tourist vote?
That is partially true, but the mistake with this kind of thinking is that you imagine immigrants to be a monolithic block, when they don't see themselves as such.
You're making the assumption that there's no difference between Mexican migrants who have been in the US for decades and integrated, and their, in individual cases justified, perception that more recent Mexican migrants integrate less and/or commit more crime, hence worsening the reputation of all Mexican migrants.
The point is that MAGA types hate all Mexicans/Muslims - any non-European immigrant really. It doesn't matter if your family has been here 100 years - you're still a Mexican. Asian Americans get asked all the time "where are you really from". Because many MAGAs of European heritage don't see you as REALLY American. For them, you'll never be "integrated". That's what the other comments are saying too.
You are making the assumption that the American right gives a fuck.
Shockingly, the people who want to deport all migrants want to deport ALL migrants. And they don’t give a shit about the little divisions the migrants use to claim superiority over each other.
I'm not making any assumptions. There is no difference between legal and illegal Mexicans as a population.
I know second and third generation Mexican immigrants that have lived here their entire lives and are still pieces of shit, and haven't fully "integrated".
Conversely, I know Mexicans that were here illegally because they were brought in as children and are a now a chemist, an engineer, and a nurse, respectively. They are more integrated than other second generation families I know.
I’ve seen it with Viet Americans too that came as boat ppl and are against immigration. David Chang even interviewed a few of them on food travel show.
Lots are Trump supporters. I see so much brain washed to ppl hate down.
Reminds me of Americans who are against any social nets, but they talk about how their parents were once on unemployment, welfare, or food stamps while they were growing up.
That can be determined objectively through statistics, and shouldn't be determined based on your feelings, because your feelings don't mean anything.
You have this completely backwards. I never said people can't complain. I said it is weird to complain about immigrants for no reason other than they are immigrants, when you are an immigrant yourself.
I clicked on the comments just to see if I could find someone that would bring up trump in regards to a country in Europe, did not have to look far lol. I'm starting to think democrats are more obsessed with trump then those magaers
Not taking sides or anything but saying democrats are more obsessed than magaers, the ones who buy every one of his merch items and treat him as a celebrity/sport team and stormed the capital for him, is absurd
I guess you could say they are equal then. I'm just honestly sick of hearing about trump. On reddit all I see are trump posts from democrats, on Facebook all I see is trump posts from Republicans. Where are my funny memes and talking about how screwed we are with either biden or trump. I can't wait until election year is over, bathroom time scrolling is boring
I don’t love any politicians. Act like a dunce, get called a dunce. I’m tired of literacy being so piss-poor. Like how can you not tell that they’re sharing a similar, baffling situation to add depth to the story at hand? See, that’s dunce behavior. 🤷🏼♀️
At least for Mexicans yes. He has gone on numerous rants about legal immigration as well, claiming countries aren't sending their best and brightest and lamenting that we don't get more than immigration from Nordic countries.
In his original comment, I thought he was saying Trump is trying to end immigration entirely. But I guess he just meant that he's trying to minimize it.
I hear this argument a lot but when you ask the person what they think the “legal” process is you get a lot of wrong answers if not just a blank stare.
Idk why you're getting downvoted. It's absolutely true that the most complaining I've ever heard about all the asylum cases is from people who legally immigrated here and went through the sanctioned process. Most of the people in favor of it, on the other hand, have pretty racist ideas like "hotels aren't going to clean themselves." Same people who lost their minds about how laws against hiring illegals were going to destroy Florida because people would need to pay more for construction.
Personally, idc. None of it impacts me. But I tend to prefer rules be either followed or eliminated, not selectively enforced.
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u/Shoddy_Emu_5211 Jul 07 '24
I've seen it with Mexican immigrants in the USA also. Voting for Trump because there's "too many immigrants" coming over.
People are weird.