Our discussions of race in the office are really fascinating, particularly since descriptions of race seem somewhat arbitrary, anyway. (Another plug for my new favorite museum — check out the Wright Musuem's exhibit on race.) Today we're going to talk about skin color among Latinos — a recent study found that light-skinned immigrants to the United States earn more than their darker-skinned counterparts — and divisions among Latinos themselves run deep. If you're Latino... how do you understand race in your community?
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Color discrimination is absolutely an issue in the Latino community. As a fair-skinned Latina, I was called "blanco" or "wedo", both spanish slurs for "whitey". Yet, caucasians recognized my ethnic background and also berated me. A true Catch 222, not white enough to "pass" but not dark enough to be accepted as a Latina.
I am a white Puerto Rican (born and raised in PR). My mother once attended a conference of a Hispanic organization in which one of the sessions discussed the racial diversity of Hispanics/Latinos and the next session lamented the absence on television of people who "look like us". Ironic.
This study is very interesting. Given the results of this study, I wonder whether light-skinned Hispanics should be excluded from affirmative action initiatives for minorities.
"You are too white to be latina". This is the typical comment from latinos who have been raised in the US and that I have served as a Social Worker in San Francisco and San Mateo County.
My mother was born in Uruguay in a German refugee colony. She lived there until age 15 when she and her family moved back to Germany. But later lived in Bolivia for several years. She now lives in Central Kansas. I think she may just take pleasure in throwing people off, but whenever she gets the chance, she fills in the box Latino, on forms.
I caught my Mexican in-laws telling someone that my daughter is very cute because her skin is very white--unlike 'so an so's daughter' who came out dark brown.
My inlaws are light skinned latinos from Mia/Central America. Some of members of the family are extrememly bigoted and deny that they are bigoted. Yet, they label the darkest member of the family as "Negritos", and look down upon anything that maybe Indigeous.
Within the Mexican community there is also a degree of prejudice between generations of immigrants. Second and third generation immigrants look down on new immigrants to the country regardless of racial make-up.
I want to know if there's a course in New York where indigenous language Mixteco is taught. Where I live there's many people who speak this dialect and don't understand spanish. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Jose
The color difference btw light & dark in the Hispanic community is almost identical to the stereotypical dilineation btw the house-servants in colonial American and the field workers. In the Hispanic community I was raised in, the Hispanic landowners were tall and fair. It was common for the landowning families to have green or gold eye coloring. While the field hands looked like indigenous peoples, short, stocky and very dark. Light-skinned siblings were always favored and often considered to be the family's best hope for "social promotion" within the community
I want to mention a case of discrimiation that is never talked about and that is beautiful v.s. ugly. I am NOT beautiful. Over the years I have earned less money, even though I have knowledge beyond what more beautiful persons have. I would love to see this topic discussed on your NPR program.
We should all refuse to look at color or hear accents when people apply for jobs. People should be treated with the respect and dignity they deserve, regardless of race or ethnic background. If it was possible to change what we are perceived to be by just inserting OTHER when asked our racial affinity...we should all be OTHER. Maybe it would put everyone on the same starting level for jobs, education and other opportunities that some are denied because they are not white-caucasian in their appearance or speaking accent. I include Native American Indians, and stress that they have been the longest discriminated against race, in the USA and in the Latin American xountries, as well.
I am a Sociologist.
racialization of class in Europe preceded enslavement of Africans and emergence of merchandise economy. What is now Spain and Portugal were part of African kingdoms for over 800 years. Until 1810 people of African origin still constituted 2/3 of those coming across the Atlantic to the Americas, and that includes Central and South America. Making sense of the racialization of class requires putting it in the coontext of economic history which was not done in today's program.
Hi. Important topic. Thanks for presenting it today. Hope you do it again soon.
When I took out a mortage five years ago, I checked "Hispanic." But when the papers were typed and ready for closing, I was identified as "White." Gee, guys, I thought you'd be proud to be serving a member of an underserved minority.
And if we of this light skin color were honest, most of us would be "Pink," save for a few of our albino friends who truly are white skinned.
Oregon proclaims its openess, but our marriage application asks for race. Ten years ago, I carried a petition to our then-governor asking that race be stricken from the application. A number of prominent Hispanics signed it. I never got the favor of a reply, but the application now says race is "optional." Still I see no noble purpose in asking the question, and given Oregon's racist history, this request still offends me greatly.
Our traffic citations still ask the officer to judge the race of the client. This is not to track or prevent racial profiling; it's been a question for many years.
When I taught school, each student was identified by race every year. Most years this was done by our office staff. If these data were used to improve our serving minorities, I could at least stand it. But we have decades of data showing that our minority kids don't do as well as the majority.
One year, it was up to each homeroom teacher to choose each kid's race. My students were comfortable with our making this a group activity. They understood what it would mean if I had been teaching in Germany in 1935 and had reported each student's race. After much discussion, we tallied up the races. Each student looked pink to me, but one identified as "black." I always wondered what the administration made of the fact that our school now had three black kids instead of only two.
As you may have guessed, I am old enough to remember the tragic deaths of JFK, RFK and Dr. King. In the mid-60's, I truly believed that the US would learn to ignore race by the year 2000. Silly me.
Hey, not to get on your case, but are you sure that the yard sale stories have as much social value as a discussion of race?
Keep up the good work, Paul
i from COSTA RICA MAY FATHER IS FROM PANAMA AND MAY MOTHER IS FRON COSTA RICA AND WE NO HAVE RASISM I WHISH ALL WE SEE LIKE BROTHER AND SISTER IN GOOD NO RACES LEARN THE DIFERENCE OF COLOR MAKE MORE BEUTIFIL THE WORD
If you want to see racism in the Latino community, all you have to do is tune into Univision or Telemundo. From telenovelas to variety shows, it's one long parade of blondes and light-skinned Eupoean types. Latin America right now is seeing an influx of Asians. Neither network is doing anything to reflect in their programming this changing reality.It's ironic that Latina actresses that have been successful in Hollywood such as America Ferrera, Gina Torres, Jennifer Lopez, and even Rita Moreno could not get work in Telemundo or Uniivision because the're considered too dark
Anyone who has a European phenotype should be classified as "white" - or drop racial classifications altogether! Drop the nonsense about "passing for white." There's no such thing!
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I understand that studious youths trying to get ahead with education in urban environments are often put down by their peers as "acting white." How inane and destructive! The indigenous peoples of Latin American (Incas/ Mayas/ Aztecs) had a grasp of sophisticated engineering allowing them to design and construct grand monuments, accurate calendars and so forth. Education has always been prized by natives of Latin America as well as the European Spanish. Education is ultimately the key to success of Latin peoples and acceptance in the mainstream of North America.
The latino community is very color struck and racist, which is funny since when you go to many latin american countrys many of the people are of native or african origin.
Many latinos have begun an almost unspoken campaign to lighten their skin by marrying light or white and continuing to do that over years will lighten the skin of your kids etc.
In puerto rico, if one has a blonde haired blue eyed baby the town and neighboring towns will shut down so the family can parade the child through the streets and gifts will be given to the child and family because it is believed that the family birthed an angel. Forgive me but how horrible is that.
Latinos don't hate your beautiful black skin, or your white skin. All races and cultures are awesome, so instead of the racism get a grip and realize its not the outside that counts but the heart and that which proceeds out of the that makes one beautiful or ugly!
Racism is a universal issue. People should be judged for their character, behavior, and words - not their ethnic background or color. In addition, too many people from any race are quick to assume they know someone's background instead of asking if they are truly interested.
Great topic! I am a PhD candidate in sociology. I am a fair skined Chicano with hazel eyes and this characteristics have been the basis for a lot of heart ache. I often feel like an outsider among most Chicano or Latino groups. It is assumed I think that I don't speak Spanish nor travel to Mexico.
I sometimes find myself having to prove my Chicanoness among many of this population.
My family comes from the Northern part of Mexico my father's side is fair my mother's isn't.
Race and color.... The people from Central and South America have been been and are still trying to come to terms with these obnoxious and on going issues. The 'conquistadors' being white from European descent (Spain and Portugal especially), brought these ideas of superiority, The Catholic church had it's own influence with their images and the indiginous people were "domesticated" or "trained" to believe that they were not good enough for any good job except to be servants/farmers. Examples: In Argentina it is better to be white,slim and with some (Italian/Spanish) name. In Brazil, the TV programs have Xuxa and others, a almost platinum blonde lady from German descent. In Bolivia, there are almost continious beauty contests held in the tropical area of Santa Cruz which is surreal, (80% of the population is indiginous). Chile, well, what indiginous population? They have been nearly wiped out and most of the population immigrated from European countries (U.S.A. anybody?) Peru has private beaches "for whites only".
Cuba, before Castro, the white population had the upper hand for plantations and various industries. And on and on.... This is very significant in the countries we all came from, but once in the US, there is "leveling effect" where the work ethics and the subsequent substancial pay changes the perceptions amongst us. But even then, there are subtle findings: As a physician and having a more brown toned skin, some colleagues regardless if Americans or Latin Americans, as well as some "whiter" latin patient try to act condescending. This does not matter to me, I tell them out right that that behavior is completely irrelevant and ridiculous. Easy for me to say because I am where I am, because I also understand other people do not have as easy.
Thanks for the topic. I am not latina, but just in the last 2 weeks, I have been assumed to be either Mexican or Chinese from two different people. I am neither. It's really sad that complete strangers just think they know who I am and where I came from. America is all about labeling people. I understand that we need words to describe each other, but it really goes too far. If your not one thing, you're another. This stretches throughout all aspects of life as well, not just race. Why can't we just see each other as people?
These issues raised by the current Latino community in the USA is not so new nor unique - consider the Italian immigrants at the turn of the century who lived through very similar experiences. My grand parents and their family and friends were Calabrians, many short and dark skinned. They were the targets of criticism from inside and outside their Italian community. Some were were called the n-word, among other derogatory terms; denied work, told to leave stores and called "dirty". Like the modern Latino immigrants, there was internal bias toward the taller and lighter skinned Italians. My Norwegian mother tells me her mother-in-law didn't really accept her until the birth of her light-skinned first grandchild. These days we just don't care, la familia is la familia, we are thankful that we have a diverse group of flesh in many colors, light to dark - and all are healthy!
Great topic! This is an age-old issue in the black-American and Caribbean communities as well. Just watch the current R&B and hip-hop videos and you'll note that the "IT" girl is always fair-skinned. Recently, she doesn't even appear black anymore, but more often hispanic or even asian. It's interesting to read these comments because I've always felt that this was a "black" issue.
My work in the Church puts me in touch with many Latinos. So it shocked me when I first felt the wrath of women who looked like me, a black Caribbean. After being threatened and having fingers wagged in my face it became obvious that they resented taking orders from a woman of color. Growing up in a Union family in New York we joined protestors from California, not eaten grapes, and lettuce and followed closely all immigration issues. I was prepared to assist our Latino clients as much as possible but they make it impossible to do so because of their attitude. Where on earth do they get the idea that blacks are inferior or whatever? If this behavior continues they will certainly be on the receiving end of some very negative press. The murders of those students in NJ are already raising a lot of questions. Many in the community think there are some racial overtones and while i've developed a thick skin whenever a Latino client sits in my office it still shocks me silly every time they show their ignorance. Hurling insults believing no one understands is a common response to no!. Hello! my family came from Africa, Venezuela, Ireland so what does that make me? A strong black woman who is proud of being BLACK.
I am a dark-skinned African American male, married to a dark-skinned African American woman, with dark-skinned African American kids -- all of us college educated. We used the following techniques to overcome racial prejudice within the African American community and outside of the African American community, especially when it was based primarily on skin color.
--We first observed how immigrants to America handled the American culture. We noticed that they emphasized education and good neighborhoods for their domiciles. Even though we had decided on these directions beforehand, this observation supported our decision.
--We concluded that it was most important to first of all avoid skin color based discrimination in the African American community, discrimination that we deemed more painful and more harmful to our children and ourselves than that within the white community.
--We determined that to minimize white prejudices, we should carefully choose the whites we would integrate with, primarily the highly educated, the upper middle to upper income, and those who are liberally and socially conscious. We joined the Unitarian church, with the idea that since we were committed to integration, we would integrate with the best of the whites.
Another factor that helped us overcome racial prejudice within and without the Black community was that my mother taught me not to be "color-struck" -- favoring one color over another. She taught us not to put others down, but more importantly, not to over aggrandize a group (e.g., because of their light, or dark skin), because doing so, in essence, puts the other group down. Other examples are we never use the term "good hair"; nor do we use the "n" word or the "r" word (for redneck).
I was taught that I had to be twice as good, and therefore I feel that I am, relative to my position in most situations. I attended an all white university in the mid 1960's, and quickly learned that I could easily out perform most of them. And then along came the Black Consciousness Movement, which only boosted my esteem.
One thing I have noticed is that the dark skinned off-spring of my family have tended to outperform the lighter skinned off spring, just minorly, but still so -- perhaps due to the twice as good principle. But regardless of the reason, they still have tended to do better, albeit, with seemingly harder work.
One last thought -- a teaching I recently encountered -- and that is "if you teach the peaks of one group then you should teach the peaks of the other. If you teach the valleys of that group, then you should teach the valleys of the other" For example, do not teach the slavery of the Africans and the Renaissance of the Europeans. Teach the peaks of both and the valleys of both, to equalize the negative and positive impacts -- e.g., .African slavery and European serfdom.
Yes, color discrimination is rampant, but there are ways to successfully minimize its negative effects.
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