‘Leaning into the whiteness’: journalist Paola Ramos on why some Latinos have turned to the far right

Paola Ramos on racist Puerto Rico remark at Donald Trump’s rally: ‘If you were already supporting Trump, I don’t think this is a comment that will make you reconsider that choice.’ When the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made racist and disparaging comments about Latinos and referred to Puerto Rico as “ a floating island of garbage ”, at a Donald Trump rally in New York on Sunday, it was met with outrage from many Latino politicians , voters and celebrities . Still, those comments did not deter some Republican Latinos from affirming their support for Trump.

“If you were already supporting Trump, I don’t think this is a comment that will make you reconsider that choice,” said the journalist Paola Ramos, the author of Defectors: The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What it Means for America.

However, Ramos said that she has talked to some Latino voters who are now realizing that Trump’s xenophobia could include them: “The question is for those that are independent, or those that were flirting with the idea of voting for Trump. The biggest difference is that the narrative, for the first time in a while, shifted from being targeted at immigrants to suddenly being […]

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