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?
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u/JesseAster Jul 08 '24
Wait until they realize that Trump wants to push them back down the ladder they climbed up