Millennials took some heat this past summer from Australian real estate mogul Tim Gurner for eating avocado toast, saying,“Lay off the avocado toast if you want a house.”

And as unwarranted as his comments were, people are particularly enthusiastic about avocados these days, to the point that it’s viewed as abnormal if you’re not a fan. All for a fruit that is highly overrated. 

Moreover, the texture of avocados isn’t pleasant with certain foods. Cheeseburgers? Shouldn’t be creamy. Toast? Throw some egg or jam on it because it shouldn’t be creamy. Crispy tacos? It’s right in the name, shouldn’t be creamy.

While texture is important to some people, oftentimes a crunchy texture is better than creamy. Replace avocado with crunchy lettuce on your hamburger and tell us we’re wrong.

The taste of avocado also pairs better with certain foods than with others. Avocado tastes fine in sushi because it pairs well with fish. Avocado shouldn’t be mixed in with something savory like beef, the avocado overpowers the meat and throws off the whole dish.

We get a lot of flak for criticising avocados, especially since we’re Latina, which is inadvertently racist since you’re making a stereotype out of the foods we can and can’t like because of our culture.

Also, why is it such a crime that we don’t like avocado in the first place? No one gets screeched at for not liking mayonnaise, mustard or ketchup or anything else that’s paired up with popular foods. Why is that? 

Perhaps it’s because of how avocado has been fetishized by white people in America. Avocados rose to prominence following the decision of some white person to pair it with toast. White people have made avocado their own, and because of the high demand for this green fruit, it’s everywhere now.

The same thing has happened with other foods that are a major part of Mexican cuisine. In fact, last month a woman named Jenny Niezgoda tried to open up what she called a “modern fruteria.” A fruteria is a store that sells fruit cups, raspas and paletas, and they are a  prominent aspect of Mexican-American culture. 

Her store, La Gracia, was set  to open in an area of San Diego, Barrio Logan, that is rich in Chicano history and activism, which earned the video a lot of criticism. Opening up her version of a fruteria, which would have catered more to white people than the Chicano community, would have led to gentrification in the area; something that the people in Barrio Logan have fought against for years.

This is a pattern of white people picking and choosing things they like from the cultures of other people and making it their own, effectively fetishizing it and profiting from it while latino owned businesses are sidelined.