Friend 1: I don’t really like what you’ve been saying about Mexicans. We are racialized. We are not white. You can’t just assign US based categories of classification to whole cultures. That’s some academic shit.
Friend 2: What’s your race then? You look white to me.
Friend 1: It’s not just about looking white. I have full Indigenous blood. I don’t have a single European ancestor. When people like you say Mexicans are white, it erases our Indigenous ancestors and culture. You’re no better than the colonizers.
Friend 2: Having Indigenous blood as you say and are so proud of, was not the pure and stable category in New Spain/Mexico that you think it is. Indigenous blood, and specifically the Mexica past was mythologized and exploited by Criollos and Penisulares and eventually consecrated through the project of mestizaje. Indigenous blood was considered weak but at the same time it could be redeemed because of this perceived weakness. Unlike Black blood which could never been redeemed. The mythos of the noble Indigenous past of the Mexica was used to secure cacicazgos, and was a legacy that Criollos used to ensure superiority over Penisulares. The African past was and is forever condemned and feared, and offered zero access to any status or humanity in New Spain/Mexico. To be frank, you sound more like the colonizers, with your obsession of purity of blood.
Friend 1: You can’t compare what happened 400 years ago with what is happening today. I’m not white. I’m Indigenous.
Friend 2: Okay. What ties do you have to any Indigenous community. You’re Mexica right? How are you contributing to the survival of the Mexica people. Besides mythologized ritualistic dancing?
Friend 1: …
Friend 2: When you go to Mexico, do they recognize you as Indigenous? Call you slurs? Are you denied access to institutions?
Friend 1: I’ve never been to Mexico. I–
Friend 2: Get out of my face you antiblack pretendian.