I’m Puerto Rican and I’m tired.

When comedian Tony Hinchcliffe joked on Sunday that Puerto Rico was “a floating island of trash” at the start of a Donald Trump rally at Madison Square Garden, I wasn’t surprised.

I knew this was just the latest example of a ridiculous American tradition: the use of “comedy” to insult Puerto Ricans. It’s raw and insulting.

Much of the reporting on Hinchcliffe’s racism has focused on next week’s presidential election. The Trump campaign quickly distanced itself, saying, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.” Hinchcliffe almost immediately tried to backtrack by saying he is on vacation in Puerto Rico and loves the island.

Puerto Ricans have heard these kinds of excuses and apologies before. The fact is, Hinchcliffe was at that Trump rally, and anyone who tries to spin it any other way just doesn’t get it and never will.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday linked Hinchcliffe to the former president, saying: “This is not new to (Trump), by the way. What he made last night wasn’t a discovery. It’s just more of the same and perhaps more lively than usual.” Harris and her team hope the comment will work in their favor. The campaign plan for Puerto Rico was made public on the same day as Hinchcliffe’s failed comedy routine.

The Hurricane Maria disaster and the Trump administration’s failed response have prompted Puerto Ricans to become more vocal about their role in the U.S. political system. About 500,000 Puerto Ricans live in the state of Pennsylvania, where the battlefield is located. During Trump’s rally, music superstar Bad Bunny endorsed Harris — along with other Puerto Rican celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin — and shared her newly announced proposals for the island on his social media accounts.

The Harris campaign is doing what campaigns do. But to view Hinchcliffe’s words purely through a political lens is to miss the bigger picture. Puerto Rico, a spoils of an 1898 American war victory, still has a complicated colonial relationship with the US. In the 19th century, images mocking backward Puerto Ricans as savages were the norm in the US. Things have hardly changed since then: To other Americans, Puerto Ricans have always been seen as dirty, backward, ignorant and second-class citizens.

It’s as if Puerto Ricans never broke free from the “West Side Story” stereotypes of the late 1950s, when the Broadway hit became the defining image of Puerto Ricans for most Americans. Puerto Rican characters who sing “Puerto Rico, you dirty island…” have always been wrong. Even when the musical underwent some more modern revisions to clean it up a bit, the damage was already done. This biased portrayal has never left the American cultural lexicon. For as long as I can remember, “jokes” about us Puerto Ricans have always backfired. Americans never seem to learn.

In 1998, during the final season of “Seinfeld,” NBC had to apologize for an episode in which the character Cosmo Kramer burned a Puerto Rican flag because the city’s Puerto Rican Day Parade caused too much traffic. (NBC and MSNBC are both owned by NBC Universal.) The reaction from Puerto Ricans was swift. In fact, that episode was removed from the syndicated show’s TV schedule, although it is unfortunately available to stream on Netflix today.

In 2012, Puerto Rican activists expressed anger over the ABC sitcom “Work It,” when Puerto Rican actor Amuary Nolasco’s character said, “I’m Puerto Rican. I would be great at selling drugs.” Ultimately the show was cancelled.

Puerto Ricans are still calling out those who continue to denigrate us. And we are exhausted. Nothing has really changed when it comes to respecting Puerto Ricans for who they are and what they have done to contribute to American democracy, even if that same democracy has perpetuated a relationship that may offer us American citizenship, but still always keeps a colony.

This isn’t about how many Puerto Ricans have died in wars for American causes, or the fact that some of the country’s biggest celebrities are Puerto Rican.

There is something deeper here that we, as Americans, do not want to face.

More than 125 years after the American empire conquered their island, Puerto Ricans are still a punchline. The Trump campaign would like to see all of this go away, while the Harris campaign will use it to turn out more Boricua voters. But this is much bigger than Republican or Democratic support and the question of who will win Puerto Rican voters in 2024. Both parties have consistently supported a colonial system that has done little to improve Puerto Rico’s fortunes. For too long, other Americans have viewed Puerto Ricans as a joke. Now we demand respect.