WaPo opinion piece examines the American cultural 'White hegemony' perpetuated by 'White and light-skinned Latinxs' like Lin-Manuel Miranda

So, we’re still doing this. And by “this,” we mean trying to drag Lin-Manuel Miranda through a field of glass shards for the sin of “In the Heights” not being Latinx (gotta use the woke term) enough.

Last week, multiple media outlets reported that Miranda was under fire for failing to have enough Afro-Latino representation in his film, which ultimately resulted in an unnecessary and frankly unwarranted apology from Miranda. Actress Rita Moreno, who had defended Miranda, ultimately apologized for that.

And yesterday, the Washington Post published this opinion piece by Julissa Contreras and Dash Harris Machado:

‘In the Heights’ is just more of the same whitewashed Hollywood, @Jewleesah and @InADash write in an op-ed. https://t.co/RzTGHjWf3f

— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) June 21, 2021

When you read a headline like that, you know you’re in for a treat.

And it’s our pleasure to tell you that Contreras and Machado did not disappoint.

https://twitter.com/charlescwcooke/status/1407315598963625985

See? We told you it was good!

https://twitter.com/charlescwcooke/status/1407317218229161990

Cooke’s not exaggerating, just FYI.

https://twitter.com/charlescwcooke/status/1407318293606801410

https://twitter.com/charlescwcooke/status/1407318404088975361

Lawdy.

https://twitter.com/charlescwcooke/status/1407318576126693379

https://twitter.com/charlescwcooke/status/1407319131737690114

We afrodescendants have always forged our own paths that respond and correspond to our needs. Organizations such as Mujeres Negras RD, AfroResistance, Barrio Alante, Proyecto AfroLatin@, Bx (Re)Birth and Progress, Radio Caña Negra, AfroLatino Travel, Reconoci.do all center AfroLatinos on our terms and without the shallow fanfare. Divesting from the system that synchronously extracts our talents and creations and demands our silence and absence becomes ever more imperative. Latinidad and all of its oppressive, disingenuous trappings is nearing its final curtain call.

*Chef’s kiss*

democracy dies in unintelligible word salad pic.twitter.com/oEiK0jyqBy

— joelgrus 🍺🐝📕 fizzbuzzbook.com (@joelgrus) June 22, 2021

I believe the official name is Latinidad and Lobogo.

— mitrebox (@mitrebox) June 22, 2021

Snort.

It's like they fed 500 Oberlin term papers into an AI bot https://t.co/z5ldQLxJfR

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 22, 2021

PunditBot 3000 can do the work of 200 OpEd workers pic.twitter.com/Gl1vuAbcIE

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 22, 2021

I love authentic academic frontier gibberish pic.twitter.com/JzinRkgNz1

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 22, 2021

What a perfect way to describe it.

Simultaneously pretentious and illiterate argle-bargle.

— Edward Suarez (@EdwardMSuarez) June 22, 2021

If Latinos speaking Spanish is racist now, then literally everything is racist.

— David C (@sicklecow) June 22, 2021

“As a distancing mechanism from their Whiteness.”

Isn’t that a good thing in their worldview? Separating from “Whiteness”?

Or are “white” people supposed to stay passively racist?

— elroy cain (@CainEllroy) June 22, 2021

White people are supposed to hate themselves. And white Latinxs are supposed to be ashamed of their whiteness.

Or something. All you really need to know is that Latinxs who are too white are highly problematic.

Why do these people insist on referring to the Latino and Hispanic communities as Latinx? So many Latinos and Hispanics abhor being called that.

— Melissa (@toastmastermel2) June 22, 2021

The article is obviously looney tunes and it's insane major publications choose to publish such nonsense, but can we also talk about how offensive it is that media organizations keep trying to normalize a term (LatinX) that almost no one in the Latino community actually uses? https://t.co/PyRZQ8BaXq

— AG (@AGHamilton29) June 22, 2021

YES. Thank you. It’s ridiculous.