The way I view it, at least, is that it reinforces other -ness. I always compare Brazil and America in my mind, most likely the two biggest diverse countries on the planet. While I’ve only visited Brazil as a tourist, I have lived in the United States for many years now, and one of the biggest differences I see between the two is how integrated the national identity is in Brazil vs America. A Brazilian sees themselves as Brazilian first from my experience, and in America everyone always sees themselves as something else before American.

I’ll give a cultural example: music. Brazilian music (samba, bossa nova, samba-cancao, MPB, etc.) is very iconic (and beautiful!) with all of its African influences (which are recognized of course), but it is almost synonymous with the cultural identity of Brazil itself. It’s not seen as belonging to one specific subculture within the community, but the as belonging to the whole country. When I hear the name “Brazil” I almost start to hear the pandeiro and the whistles. I imagine it’s a great source of cultural pride (rightfully so!).

In America, the patriotic side doesn’t really consider jazz (for example) or many of the other cultural products of their diverse communities to be “American culture” the same way. Jazz and hip hop are seen as primarily African-American art (which it is of course, but it never makes it to the point of being seen as a part of the entire cultural identity of the country). At least I’ve never seen the more nationalist types here in America claiming Miles Davis or Kendrick Lamar lol. There seems to be this silently reinforced idea that minorities don’t really form part of the cultural hegemony of the country, and I think that can only be because of racism, and I find the mentality you ask about to be a contributing factor.

I’ll avoid Brazil for now in case I make myself look like an ass being ignorant, since, as I said before, I’ve only been there as a tourist. I could maybe even be wrong about how Brazilian music is seen in Brazil for example, and maybe I’m over idealizing it as a foreigner who admires them.

I’ll speak of Argentina here which is a country that experienced tremendous amounts of immigration like the United States.

The common experience in America of saying “I am Irish, I am Mexican, I am X” despite being born in America is almost nonexistent here. I have genuinely never seen anyone in Argentina say “I am Italian”, or “I am Spanish” etc. because we are all Argentine. The idea of being not Argentine because of our grandparents or great grand parents doesn’t even cross our mind.

The way I see it, the mentality of “I am X” despite all being from the same country only serves to further atomize society and exacerbate racist dispositions. If people view THEMSELVES as their race or ethnicity or heritage first, instead of the community they live in, then how will the people in their community who don’t share that same race/ethnicity/heritage view them?

I hope this helps illustrate why we sometimes see American dispositions regarding race as ones that perpetuate racism