"Latino" is an umbrella term originating in language coined by French colonizers to talk about people in Latin America that spoke Romance languages.

Its meaning has changed over time, but "Latino" is not a racial identity. It may connote cultural, linguistic & geographic commonalities that can help foster community or solidarity in the U.S. -- but using it to ignore the racial diversity within the Latinx community is erasure.

There's a difference between acknowledging the similarities among Black/Asian/white Latinx communities and saying "we are all the same." The latter is often used to erase or deny the existence of racism within our communities (I hear this from relatives in PR often).

The language surrounding ethnicity & Latinx identity is imperfect. I've had to unlearn a lot I was taught or assumed about terms like "Latino."

But even if you mean well, using an ethnic umbrella term to insist our experiences are "all the same" is the same logic used to excuse anti-Blackness or erase the realities of racism anong people of Latin American descent.

Sure, ppl of Latin American origin are "all Latino/a/x" -- but we do not all move through this world the same way because of it. Things like gender, race, class and nationality differ among us and impact our existence differently.

Real "unity" is acknowledging those differences as valid, and impactful, without thinking they should be valued less or matter less within Latinx spaces.