Latina is Not a Race

Once in a while though, I still come across something I have to share my thoughts on.

Exhibit A.

Now, many people in the comments point out this woman is white, not “light-skinned Latina.” Rosa Salazar is a good example of a light-skinned Latina. You can be any race and be hispanic. That is no issue. My issue is the girl in the tweet calling herself “light-skinned Latina” when she is not. She is a hispanic white person.

This woman in the tweet above is white. When people point out this fact they were met with people accusing them of denying the poor girl’s heritage.

This intellectual specimen doesn’t understand you can be white and Mexican. In one of her other tweets she explains her race is Puerto Rican, not understanding that Puerto Rican is not a race. Maybe it’s how she was raised, tying her skin tone to her nationality. I think this ties into a culture of white supremacy, where white people and light-skinned latinas can still say they recognize “the struggle.” They can also practice anti-blackness by telling darker-skinned Latinas or black Latinas that they are not real hispanics.

Usually, someone who ties skin tone to nationality has only one idea of what a “real” member of their country should look like e.g. Americans who think a real American is a white one. Hispanics come in many colours. Guillermo Del Toro, Zoe Saldana and Sofia Vergara are all hispanic, and all have different skin tones. Hispanic or Latina is not a race.

Jamaica was once a Spanish colony, and if the English didn’t take it back I would have been raised with Spanish as my first language. I, a dark-skinned black man, would also be hispanic.

This person at least understands that Latina is not a race, but they still get offended by people calling the girl in this video white. The girl in the tweet is not a light-skinned minority and she does not get to claim that. She is a white Mexican, and she needs to acknowledge that.