The Cactus that Must Not Be Mistaken for a Pillow: White Racial Formation Among Latinos

Abstract

Latinos are choosing to become white in the same manner as Irish, Jewish, and other immigrants before them. The history of Latinos' political posturing, desegregation efforts, and “assimilation” strategies reveal a persistent, deliberate disassociation with Blacks and an insistence on whiteness. The Chicano Movement and contemporary indigenous identities have not constituted sufficient resistance to whiteness construction. Latinos have recapitulated whiteness in the form of modern anti-Black racism and violence most noticeable in Los Angeles and on the Internet. Although Black–Latino coalitions hold promise for repudiating whiteness, Latinos must critically challenge whiteness and embrace Blackness for these coalitions to succeed.