Listen. I’m a Puerto Rican raised in New York like many with the narrative, we are all the same, we all have mixed racial heritage. But I was also raised amidst anti-Black narratives. And both narratives are strong and have deep historcal roots. (A thread)

This narrative of we are all equal was employed by governments, elites and intellectuals at the start of independence and beyond in Latin American & Caribbean countries. It has long been a strategy to erase blackness, hide racism, & silence black resistance

And it is powerful. It’s powerful because if we really look at anti-Blackness...if we really get honest with racial realities then we have to acknowledge racism within our Latino communities and our own anti-Blackness. Many Latinos are afraid to do this

So they fall back on this, “we are all the same” defense and Latinos in the US feel further comforted by this narrative because they too have experienced marginalization. So it’s ok to engage in anti-Blackness & deny that by saying we are in the same struggle

But it’s is NOT the same struggle. My experiences are NOT those of a white Latina and it’s time folks stopped hiding behind “we are all equal” and had real conversations about WHY we don’t see the black folks in our communities.

Stop doing the work of our racist founders and national “heroes” and let Black folks lead the conversation.

@BLKCLatinasKnow