connoisseur, listen to it all

close friends

smarter eyes

rare Latinx writers

drug war or violence

reinforce stereotypes.

the rejection felt

cut down

Do I have a moral obligation to do anything as a writer?

clickbait-y talking point

stereotypical drug lords, maids, gangbangers,

pushback against this new Trump administration

built on stereotypes about Latinx people

informing very real US policy today

Have we boxed ourselves into stories only about good brown people and better brown people?

by looking away from those

stereoptypes does that make us complicit

weaponizing stereotypes against us?

James Baldwin taught us

respectability politics will not save us

look it in the eye

explore the complexity

of that stereotype

reclaim it.

those stories

are ours

basic truth

we feel cheated by portrayals

as told through the white gaze

It is significant

Look these impolite realities in the eye

Why/ How?

Demand complex stories

You don’t know the lives you’re deporting

You don’t want to know

If we ignore the complexities of our world

we make literature dumber not smarter

we should tell those stories.

 

Why Latinx Writers Should Decenter the Narratives That Have Been Weaponized Against Us