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You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation

Book by Julissa Arce · 3 quotes · Mexican, Mexican American, Latino

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You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation Quotes

“...lies...drive immigrants, and people of color...to change who we are in order to make us palatable, or at least tolerable, to white America. I didn't find freedom in assimilation because there is no freedom in racist ideas. Assimilation requires that the story we tell about the United States and about white people is an uplifting, inspiring, sugarcoated version of the facts, in which the whip, guns, and racist motives must remain hidden. But it was the truth about this country, the knowledge of its ugly dirty secrets, that set me free.”

Immigration American History Mexican Assimilation Poc People Of Color

Book:You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation

Source: You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation

“I learned the language, at the expense of my Spanish, only to find that in English I didn't exist. I read the American history textbooks in school that erased any trace of the deep Mexican roots in this country. Still, I forged ahead.”

Immigration Mexican Mexican American Chicano

Book:You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation

Source: You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation

“These nativists—these racists—imagine a U.S. utopia of white people that has never existed. We've been here. Mexicans, and more broadly Latinos, have have never invaded Texas. Our land was stolen, and now we're the ones who are viewed as thieves. White supremacy doesn't care if we are here legally, or if we were born here, or if our families have roots in America dating back centuries, perhaps even longer than theirs. The fear many white people have is not whether we will assimilate, but whether our Latino bodies, and those of our children, will roam this land.”

Immigration Mexican Latino Assimilation

Book:You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation

Source: You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation