I feel like I should make a thread on my experiences/generally about the term “white passing Latinx” so here we go bit by bit

First off I don’t think this is an issue that needs to be prioritized but I don’t think that Afro-Latinx people should be the ones to have to continue to address this and I also think it’s a complex issue that lots of ppl mostly white don’t understand

So lemme start off by a lil background to get the girls started — I have one brown (Latina) mom and one white dad () when I was little my parents relocated from what was essentially generations of my moms sides home in Denver to rural Maine (also )

I’m sure anyone who lives in a rural area knows it’s literally like a one drop rule out there. Even if you look like me the community knows ur parents yadda yadda yadda... I grew up being called a poc by my teachers, peers, etc. all the dumb ass outstanding minority cliches

It was only when I went to college and met an ocean of other Latinx people and started taking social theory classes that I was essentially told that the identifier that made the most sense in terms of my racial identity was “white passing”

However this was always distinguished in my mind from being Latinx, because I always knew Latinx was NOT a race. So when I saw people with 2 white parents that were identifying as white passing Latinx people I was so confused? And also felt like, wait a minute??

And I don’t know why it took me so long to realize that all of these people that are using the term white passing Latinx are using it as ... idk the word but like using it TOGETHER, whereas there was always in my mind an invisible & in between white passing and Latinx

And I think that’s what a lot of people, especially white Latinx people, don’t realize? That when you’re saying white passing Latinx and you are literally just a person with no mixed racial identity you are conflating your ethnicity/culture with race

When I was taught the term “white passing” it was in a social/racial justice class that discussed “white passing” as a term to be used for people of mixed racial descent who recognized their privilege in that but still tried to maintain some sort of tie to their experiences

I think the term has been so far appropriated and misused, because honestly mostly all you see now in socially relevant spaces is white Latinx (or god forbid literally just Spanish lol) people with two white parents using the term in a way to squirm away from whiteness

And too frequently it turns into a fight with white people about the label “white passing Latinx”

I know being biracial is a weird liminal space to be in in terms of fitting in, finding your place in your culture, etc. So I imagine it feels a little bit similar for people with 2 white parents who are Latinx, although they still have the white community or whatever u call it

But the thing is, being in a weird liminal space as a biracial person, much less a white person, is not a systemic problem. It’s a personal issue and maybe sometimes a cultural/community issue but in no way does it rival the issues darker skinned Latinx people face

And I think that’s what needs to be considered when decentering whiteness in these discussions about the VERY large Latinx community that has so many labels that get conflated with one another

Like, it’s taken me a while to fully comprehend that the dangers I may have faced because of my proximity to my mother as a brown woman in rural Maine, are not dangers that I face in my day to day life, because like Toyin said, most people can’t look at me and make assumptions ..

About me because of my skin color. So call it the brain not understanding time and stressors/dangers being gone or irrelevant, call it some way to try to rationalize my moms racial trauma I was in such proximity to (as many biracial people are)...

Whatever you call it for yourself personally (other biracial Latinx people or white Latinx people), it’s not a systemic issue we PERSONALLY face now. It’s a systemic issue for others

I know this thread is long and I’m probably rambling BUT I just wish that when I was dealing w these issues in college, when I was younger, trying to fit in, etc., some of these things were explained to me better

Your experience as a Latinx person matters! But that does not mean that you face systemic racism or are not white