<\/p>\n
connoisseur, listen to it all<\/p>\n
close friends<\/p>\n
smarter eyes<\/p>\n
rare Latinx writers<\/p>\n
drug war or violence<\/p>\n
reinforce stereotypes.<\/p>\n
the rejection felt<\/p>\n
cut down<\/p>\n
Do I have a moral obligation to do anything as a writer?<\/p>\n
clickbait-y talking point<\/p>\n
stereotypical drug lords, maids, gangbangers,<\/p>\n
pushback against this new Trump administration<\/p>\n
built on stereotypes about Latinx people<\/p>\n
informing very real US policy today<\/p>\n
Have we boxed ourselves into stories only about good brown people and better brown people?<\/p>\n
by looking away from those<\/p>\n
stereoptypes does that make us complicit<\/p>\n
weaponizing stereotypes against us?<\/p>\n
James Baldwin taught us<\/p>\n
respectability politics will not save us<\/p>\n
look it in the eye<\/p>\n
explore the complexity<\/p>\n
of that stereotype<\/p>\n
reclaim it.<\/p>\n
those stories<\/p>\n
are ours<\/p>\n
basic truth<\/p>\n
we feel cheated by portrayals<\/p>\n
as told through the white gaze<\/p>\n
It is significant<\/p>\n
Look these impolite realities in the eye<\/p>\n
Why\/ How?<\/p>\n
Demand complex stories<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t know the lives you\u2019re deporting<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t want to know<\/p>\n
If we ignore the complexities of our world<\/p>\n
we make literature dumber not smarter<\/p>\n
we should tell those stories.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n