You know half of what I had to read on the news today? In comments of articles and from thinly veiled racist reporters? That a man who did the same damn thing as killers who get treated with sympathy by the same people. The only difference? This man spoke spanish like my father and my grandfather. This man was Puerto Rican,like my father and my grandfather. You know the words I had to read again and again today? The slurs? The words of how we should make it illegal for Puerto Ricans to serve in our military. How we should just be culled and replaced by white settlers. How our culture is the same as Mexico's, and that we like them should stay to "our own country". That man doesn't have darker skin than my father or my grandfather. Many Boricua can trace roots back generations and generations, all to Puerto rico. We are American. We are not African, not all of us are afrolatinx and those who are not still experience the same racism as other POC. We're not less POC because within the states we've largely assimilated. We're not less POC because our cultures have been ruled by other, whiter nations. Just because many of us are mixed doesn't mean were not cultures of color, it means were a series of cultures traditionally forgotten about, traditionally swept under the rug, taken advantage of, our blood mixed with the colonizers who destroyed many of our native lands, languages, religions, our blood often times historically, intentionally diluted. We are not less of a series of cultures of color for our mixing, our mingling, for paler skin. And while afro-latinx people are important, their representation and support just as much so, we are cultures outside of African heritage as well. And we are rich outside of it. To only speak of afro-latinx people you ignore the racism that is directly aimed at latinx people. You ignore our independence as cultures of color. You contribute to a micro aggression, to racism. so fucking stop.
