By now you’ve probably already seen Donald Trump’s “Cinco de Mayo” tweet, and if you haven’t then here it is:

This tweet is obviously very offensive, everything from the fake Mexican food (taco bowls are actually American) to the cringe-worthy last line “I love Hispanics” screams pandering. Specifically, this tweet falls into the category Hispandering which is the act of pandering to Hispanics. Now, Donald Trump isn’t the only candidate to engage in Hispandering, in December of 2015 Hillary Clinton drew similar fire when her campaign released an article titled, “7 Ways Hillary Clinton Is Just Like Your Abuela” in which pictures and GIFs are used to compare the candidate to a Hispanic grandmother. These are just two examples of many that have come from this election alone.

Candidates usually try to excuse this behavior by either denying it or claiming that they are only trying to reach people from these demographics. There’s nothing wrong with candidates trying to reach voters of different races/ethnicities, that’s the way that elections are won. However, the best way to reach voters is to engage them and speak to them about issues that affect them and that they find to be of importance. The problem with pandering is that it relies on stereotypes, generalizations, and misinformation. Pandering is surface-level engagement, it allows candidates to create the illusion of caring while they are supporting policies that negatively affect the communities they claim to care for.

It’s easy to say you love Hispanics while trying to actively kick out and keep out of the country a large portion of the population. It’s harder to actually find out what are the issues affecting Hispanics and trying to do something to fix them. But if candidates want our votes, then they need to put in the work and do things the hard way.