Veronica Velez

Getting beyond the ‘symptom,’ acknowledging the ‘disease’: theorizing racist nativism

An important tenet of Latina/o critical race theory (LatCrit) is to challenge dominant ideologies that mask racist beliefs and practices perpetrated against People of Color in the United States, particularly Latinas/os. In this article we utilize a LatCrit framework to theorize further the concept of racist nativism in the current sociopolitical moment, which is marked by significant anti‐immigrant sentiment. In doing so, we hope to understand better the contemporary experiences of People of Color and Latinas/os specifically. We show how many racial and ethnic groups throughout US history have experienced racist nativism, but argue that those targeted by it today tend to be Latinas/os in general, and Mexican immigrants in particular. In conceptually extending the notion of racist nativism we endeavor to go beyond the ‘symptoms’ of racism and toward naming the ‘disease’ that plagues US society – white supremacy. We argue that the legacy of white supremacy not only remains with us today, but profoundly informs our racialized perceptions of a white American identity, whereby white Americans are perceived as native to the US and all others as non‐native.