The many lenses of racism through which the white imagination sees Mexicans and Chicanos Historically ideas of whiteness and Americanness have been built on the backs of racialized communities. The legacy of antiMexican stereotypes stretches back to the early nineteenth century when AngloAmerican settlers first came into regular with Mexico and Mexicans. The images of the Mexican Other as lawless exotic or nonindustrious continue to circulate today within US popular and political culture. Through keen analysis of music film literature and US politics Whiteness on the Border demonstrates how contemporary representations of Mexicans and Chicanoas are pushed further to foster the idea of whiteness as Americanness. Illustrating how the ideologies stories and images of racial hierarchy align with and support those of fervent US nationalism Lee Bebout maps the relationship between whiteness and American exceptionalism. He examines how renderings of the Mexican Other have expressed white fear and formed a besieged solidarity in antiimmigrant rhetoric and policies. Moreover Whiteness on the Border elucidates how seemingly positive representations of Mexico and Chicanoas are actually used to reinforce investments in white American goodness and obscure systems of racial inequality. Whiteness on the Border pushes readers to consider how the racial logic of the past continues to thrive in the present.