Sarahi Franco-Morales - Beyond the Meme: Understanding the Latine Vote

The 2024 election results disappointed Harris supporters and Donald Trump opponents. What surprised me most was the shift in Latine voters. I didn’t need the news to dramatize this; my TikTok was flooded with videos of Latines expressing their disappointment. An example on the left reads: “Apparently, most of our generation 3 forgot everything our parents had to go through,” showing what many Latines would feel connected to. As a daughter of immigrants, this broke my heart. Sharing it with my Latina roommate, whose feed mirrored mine, we felt embarrassed by our generation's political shift. Over time, the videos became vengeful memes against the Latine Trump supporters, portraying the community as disconnected from its roots. But as I scrolled, I realized this couldn’t be the whole story—Latines for Harris existed too. Yes, as a Latina who doesn’t see Trump as an ally to the Latine or the immigrant community (valuable to the United States), it was disappointing to see 45% of Hispanics vote for him (Varela, 2024). However, these memes frame Latines as solely responsible for Trump’s win, suggesting that hope and empathy in our community are lost—and that’s not true. My feed went from advocacy to defeat. It wasn’t about how to fight mass deportations but about accepting them when they affect specific individuals. These memes can be dangerous because they eliminate discussion space and divide the community. They forget about the much-needed understanding of why Latines voted for Trump, something necessary to learn how to build a better future. 

This wave of political memes against Latines for Trump is an example of what Drenton describes as “social surveillance,” where “everyone online is both a guard and a prisoner, constantly consuming online content and producing content for others to see. This always-on dynamic works to control behavior” (Drenten, 2022, p. 3). Posts that mock or shame Trump-supporting Latines aim to police political expression based on identity and create collective cultural expectations. It pushes this expectation that Latines should be pro-Harris, creating norms for communicating with the outliers. After watching so many of these TikToks, I, too, fell for the idea that there was no reason to engage with Latine Trump supporters since, according to TikTok, they were traitors. Instead of staying true to my ideals of education and dialogue, I closed off and felt the need to participate in this pattern of surveillance against members of my community. This social surveillance through memes attempts to pressure others, expecting to change their behavior. Latines voting for Trump could be a result of disappointment by the Democratic party, falling for misinformation, or lacking education about the presidential candidates; social surveillance disregards the importance of teaching, and rather than addressing root issues, it judges in hopes of silencing the other side, having no real long-term impact.

Social surveillance isn’t unique to TikTok. On X, memes about Latines no longer united with larger communities of color went viral. These memes thrive due to the algorithm, which prioritizes engagement over education. Instead of analyzing why Latines voted for Trump, these memes become the trending topic, distracting from the real issues. The virality of these memes is explained by what Sophie Bishop defines as “algorithmic gossip,” describing it as “communally and socially informed knowledge about algorithms and algorithmic visibility” (Bishop, 2019, p. 2590). We all hypothesize what content is likely to go viral, and memes—unlike educational posts—are believed to spread more, which explains memes being recreated and re-posted more often. Virality is at the core of social media. This focus on virality drives the creation of content that fits the algorithm’s rules, amplifying these pessimistic memes. Interestingly, many of these memes are consumed by Latinos who didn’t vote for Trump, which could be seen as a sign of hope for Latine Harris supporters, given the high engagement these videos receive. However, chasing sensationalism has ethical consequences; it oversimplifies complex issues and fuels polarization.

An overlooked factor in these memes is that over 80% of Trump voters were White (Clement et al., 2024), but in these social media spaces, it feels like Latines are a majority of the Trump supporters. Memes have much power in constructing our reality, but it’s important to stop and analyze all sides of the story, especially in unprecedented moments. As Limor Shifman (2014) explains, “although they [memes] spread on a micro basis, their impact is on the macro level: memes shape the mindsets, forms of behavior, and actions of social groups” (p. 18). Memes are how we create solidarity or lack thereof; the language used, and the amount shared have consequences. Hostile memes towards some Latines can be what sparks xenophobic actions and carry the risk of overgeneralization. Memes become cultural information that spreads from person to person, gradually becoming a social trend. As Marwick and Lewis (2017) explain Poe’s Law, the tricky part about them is that the line can be blurred between an “expression of sincere extremism and a parody of extremism” (p. 5). It’s scary to see so many memes about being calm or happy about deportations because how or when can we tell if it’s become sincere extremism? These memes could be the start of normalizing deportations for ‘convenience’—a Trump stance. Should I feel worried that comments about deporting all Latines can now rise on social media, passing as jokes? 

Memes can be dangerous when they spread only one side of the story. Although spreading memes could feel like political action, it's essential to understand that instead of blaming Latines for Trump’s victory, this election should be a lesson in how to better connect with the Latine community moving forward. If anything, this election proves more work needs to be done by the Democratic party to understand how to meet the needs of Latines. As we enter the next presidential term, staying united in fighting for marginalized communities is important. Using Trump’s ideology against our people could be the distraction that costs our community our peace.

References

Bishop, S. (2019). Managing visibility on YouTube through algorithmic gossip. New Media & Society, 21(11–12), 2589–2606. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819854731 

Bishop Talbert Swan [@TalbertSwan] (2024, November 6th) There is no Black/brown coalition. Stop saying “Black and Latino.” Latinos voted on the side of white supremacy. [Post] X https://x.com/talbertswan/status/1854125020034875525?s=42

Clement, S., Guskin, E., Keating, D., & Júlia Ledur. (2024, November 8). What the 2024 election tells us about Trump’s voters. Washington Post; The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/08/trump-voter-demographic-shifts-election/

[Coach Aaron]. (2024, November 7) My mood for the next 4 years this is what you voted for enjoy it. [TikTok video] Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@coachaaronaponte/video/7434573859178827050?_r=1&_t=8rQ6CWgVaal

Damien [@6inchlena] (2024, November 7) while i am extremely disappointed in latinos for trump, the amount of racism and xenophobia towards the community these last 2 days has been so uncomfortable…[Post] X https://x.com/6inchlena/status/1854674053543739454

Drenten, J. (2022, May 8). West Elm Caleb and the rise of the TikTok tabloid. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/west-elm-caleb-and-the-rise-of-the-tiktok-tabloid-175485 

[Jes_Armygal].(2024, November 10) #MemeCut #Meme #latino #election #hispanic #hispanictiktok [TikTok video] Retrieved fromhttps://www.tiktok.com/@jes_armygal/video/7435341303895952682?_r=1&_t=8rQ6W2vcTEc

[jjessica_4]. (2024, November 6) #fyp #immigrantparents #latina #mexico [TikTok video] Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@jjessica_4/photo/7434332069632789802?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESPgo80OtnHfe%2BJLxk9zsSKI5rkTQ1%2FCY7Pwj%2BvLMSFuw7Eaqq3sWUGxxfNSWUhewbvZ%2Fs1%2BO7DEC7vUi5XBDBGgA%3D&_r=1&checksum=5200699c49091a110acc59eaf5e2ff2d4e8a2fbe98fc82dc742a5701395f6b75&enable_clips=1&link_reflow_popup_iteration_sharer=%7B%22profile_clickable%22%3A1%2C%22follow_to_play_duration%22%3A-1%2C%22dynamic_cover%22%3A1%2C%22click_empty_to_play%22%3A1%7D&preview_pb=0&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAX2LOhGc0kDRKGtcklmCW00W96jkZAQ_fLi-bJzmkImaWcBzy4CdY-rS2cBQgcIPy&share_app_id=1233&share_item_id=7434332069632789802&share_link_id=50F9DB75-1B43-4F5A-A90B-8AE534413F78&sharer_language=en&social_share_type=14&source=h5_m&timestamp=1731691035&tt_from=sms&u_code=db30e65e1i6ef8&ug_btm=b5836%2Cb2878&ug_photo_idx=0&user_id=6796417708311397382&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=sms

Kion.[@MrFlyyyGuyyy] (2024, November 6) Me watching Trump remove the Latinos from my apartment building [Image attached] [Post]. X. https://x.com/mrflyyyguyyy/status/1854241507072413857?s=42

Ricardo Varela, J. (2024, November 8). How Trump got more Latino votes than any Republican presidential candidate before him. MSNBC. https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-latino-voters-economy-mass-deportation-rcna178995 

Shifman, L. (2014). When memes go digital. Memes in digital culture (pp. 17–35). MIT Press.

Marwick , A., & Lewis, R. (2017, May 15). Who is manipulating the media? Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online. (pp. 4-37) Data & Society Research Institute.