It’s Usually Mexican Americans Who Are Accused Of Planning The Armed Insurrections

Right wingers have been frothing at the mouth for years about an alleged plot by Mexicans to reclaim the part of the U.S. that was once part of Mexico.

A Portland man burns an antifa flag during a "free speech" rally on June 4. (Joe Michael Riedl)

Well thank goodness we all survived the attack of antifa super-soldiers that was allegedly supposed to happen earlier this month! In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, a group called Resist Fascism planned a nationwide protest in a number of cities, including Portland, that right wing media outlets quickly spun into a story about antifa super-soldiers partaking in an armed insurrection against white people.

As absurd as the whole situation is, this kind of fear mongering over a large scale attack against white people, particularly conservatives, has precedence for communities of color, who are usually the ones accused of harboring elaborate plans for executing some kind of white genocide. For example, right wingers have been frothing at the mouth for years about an alleged plot by Mexicans to reclaim the part of the U.S. that was once part of Mexico.

Let us examine this absurd idea.

The whole basis for the right wing fear over a Mexican takeover has to do with a place called Aztlán, the mythical ancestral homeland of the Aztec people. There's a lot of arguments over what area constitutes Aztlán; some believe it's made up of modern day Mexico, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nevada and California, although I've seen some maps that include Oklahoma, Kansas, Idaho and Oregon as well. Lucky us!

Then in the 60s a bunch of Mexican Americans began calling themselves "Chicano," a once-demeaning term that was now embraced by the children of immigrants, who were often seen as not Mexican enough in their own communities, but also not considered fully American by society at large.

You might see it spelled "Xicanx," "Chicanx," which is derived from Nahuatl and meant to be gender inclusive. It's also important to remember that not everyone who is Mexican American would consider themselves Chicanx, and vice versa. Hey, it's like identities are complex, or something.

Now during the 60s the Chicanx started talking about Aztlán again, but in a more figurative sense. This bold assertion of identity scared a lot of people, who saw an oppressed group organizing to help their communities and thought it meant death for them and everyone else. Nowadays there's conservatives who think there is some kind of elaborate plot to flood the country with people from Mexico in order to take back the area of Aztlán from the United States and drive all of them out.

As if.

Now, are there some Chicanx out there who actually think sending all the white people back to Europe would be a practical and humane thing to do? I'm sure there are, but I would say that number is very small compared to, say, the number of white people who want to drive all the people of color out of this country. As far as I can tell there's no coordinated, systemic effort to get rid of white people, and I would know because all Chicanx, Mexicans, and Mexican-Americans know each other and we have a giant Slack group where this kind of thing would get hashed out.

All joking aside, groups like the NRA have taken part in the conservative fear mongering over a Mexican takeover by producing pamphlets with sections titled "The Illegal Alien Gangs." The literature includes illustrations of intimidating-looking Black and Latino men, describing how they're invading and plundering the country.

Last August in San Diego, a right wing group staged a protest at Chicano Park, a cultural center and landmark that integral to the Mexican American community. Many supporters of the protest claimed the park's iconic murals promoted Communism, Nazism and anti-Americanism, which are common accusations leveraged against those who claim the Chicanx identity. In spite of all their fears over Mexicans and Mexican Americans invading this country, it's actually the conservative, anti-immigrant right wing who are coming into communities to scare and intimidate people.

So while some of us had a good laugh at over this whole antifa super-soldier thing, it's important to remember that it's usually communities of color who are the ones being accused of planning some elaborate uprising, which is used as justification for stricter laws, vigilantism, more policing and harsher punishments. Thank goodness nobody was hurt over this last scare, but we may not be so fortunate next time.

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