a few people have pointed out this stat from the episode and said that it's evidence of self-loathing among Puerto Ricans — but it's not quite that simple. https://twitter.com/BakariTZace/status/1253702390420836352

As was pointed out in the episode, Puerto Ricans hadn't had many of the "state rituals" we get about race on the mainland — there's not the paperwork and documentation and systems that reify people's racial identities.

(As I learned in the episode, from 1950 to 2000, there was no race question on the Puerto Rican version of the census.)

which isn't to say Puerto Ricans don't think about race. as @RadioMirage pointed out, Puerto Ricans talk about and *around* race all the time, like when discussing people's skin colors – "mulata" and "blanca" and "negra," etc.

so part of the story of the answers to the Census in 2000 — 81% white — stems from the racial terminology/nomenclature/taxonomy of the mainland fitting awkwardly with the terminology on the island.

but of course, the fact that folks checked white en masse is revealing, too.

Puerto Rico became officially raceless after the governor decided to strip the question from the census in 1950 — his view was that Puerto Ricans were a mix of Black/white/indigenous Taino ppl; that mixed heritage, to him, made them untethered to the mainland's racial problems.

to him, that made the island a kind of racial utopia. and isn't that the very problematic way people often talked about mixed people? as a beige bridge to a multicultural, post-racial future?

but yeah, that 81% got at this thing we see all over the US —  the way formalizing "colorblindness" effectively resulted in fortifying whiteness.

Anyway, y'all should listen to the ep when you get a moment. would love to hear what you think.