Alright, so I just finished Love & Gelato last night, and there were plenty of things to like, but also one thing that bothered me the entire book. The “Mexican knife fight” crack.

There was some muffled yelling and then what sounded like a Mexican knife fight going on between her and her brother.

There’s a point in the novel where Lina is on the phone to her friend in America and there’s a scuffle on the other end, the friend evicting her brother from the room so they can talk, and she describes it that way.

What does that even mean? Like I understand wanting to describe the scuffle. That part makes perfect sense. But why bring Mexicans into it? Knife fights are inherently Mexican? Mexicans are inherently violent? White women are inherently racist? Get the fuck out of my face.
(Also why a “knife fight” in the first place? What does a knife fight even sound like?)

Maybe someone who didn’t grow up with everyone around them making jokes about stabbings every time they dared to show an emotion just because they happen to be Mexican — “Oh no, you’re mad, don’t shank me!” — wouldn’t notice or care about this, but I noticed and I care and I’m so fucking tired of casual racism in popular novels…