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Always very weird to me when U.S. white Latin Americans “get mad” when they are called white. It’s bizarre. They are always so proud & tout it within Latin America. Wonder if it’s the accountability they are tasked with in the states that makes em mad. I wonder. Any guesses???
Exactly ZERO times I have referred to a blanco/blanquito while in a Latin American country and they “got mad.” Admittedly this reaction of rage from white U.S. Luhteenos reluctant to say that they are white is extremely new territory for me.
I remember my partner walking down the street & he goes “Que bola white!” To a white guy and the guy gives him a thumbs up. And I’m like did you just say “white” the English word? And he says yes. I could not stop laughing. Then I started paying attention to his convos w/friends
He & his friends dead ass in normal lexicon use the English word “white” to refer to whites. No this is not bc I’m from the u.s. This was his normal practice. *waits for nonBlack Cubans/Cubans who haven’t lived on the island/assimilated Cuban Blacks w no culture to butt in*
And I asked about how the white guy gave him and thumbs up and a big smile and he goes “yea he’s proud he’s white. He believes it’s a good thing.”
Thing is saying and using “blanco” in Latin America in daily language isn’t as frequent as they routinely say any variation of African and indigenous descendants. We hear negra, morena, etc everyday all the damn time. Blanco isn’t said as often bc whiteness is the dominant norm.
They don’t have to say it bc they are not the ones being othered. Thats why when these white/mestizos say they “never had to think about their race in their country.” DUH. You’re telling on yourselves. Just like white u.s. Americans don’t “realize” they are white til they’re 34.
It took a few instance of redheads, blonde u.s. children of Latin Americans sitting there saying “I’m not white” & me saying this is a blanca, we call you blanca in all the countries, breaking my head to understand these ppl meant they are not U.S. white. Then I was just pissed.
Y’all center the U.S. for every thing and it’s bizarre bc on a day to day no one in Latin America says “nah yo no soy blanco porque soy Panameño.” The logic is inherently dishonest.
Every instance of anecdotes or stories in my context the questions were “was the person white, Black (Black like *us*?) hispano for the mestizo descendants of the castas who still think Hispanic is a race, Black American for Black u.s. folks. These distinctions are normal for me.
When we used “Hispanic” in my house growing up it was to describe whites & mestizos. When we wanted to describe a Black Latin American we said Black and then their nationality.
While U.S. Black folks are dragging whites for black-fishing, "blaccents" & appropriating. Latin American Black folks are SAYING THE EXACT SAME THING about these whites. What is not clicking for y'all. That argentine "rapper" did a video w/a set-up like she was a Black panther
That person and (I was alerted to) John leguioo98r3mo using "mulato" to describe their white selves. John cos-playing as a Puerto Rican. These rappers performing Black Caribbean spanish in their "music." When we say listen to Black folks we mean to do so GLOBALLY. Da fuq.
Plug in to all Black Latin American folks using social media. I retweet them regularly. Find some on your own. Use that "translate" functions. LISTEN TO BLACK LATIN AMERICANS. Black Colombians on this app are on fire ok? But not only them ALL OF US. PLUG INTO WHAT WE ARE SAYING
These white/mestizos get away w the fuckery they are saying because Y'ALL LET THEM DO IT. Gloria Estefan with her two white Cuban kin as the new season's Red Table Talk is not a "win" for Latin Americans. It is the continuation of white Latinx hegemony & domination. FULL STOP
It is white mestizo hegemony & domination. It is white pathology. Y'all are promoting it, propping it up, and deathly loyal to it bc you can't even imagine yourself outside of these lies. No identity. It is sad. Yet you *can* do something about it. That's the important part.
And y'all continuously tapping these nonBlack AfroLatines, these AfroLatines est. 2018, these "confused" assimilated Luhteenos still heavily invested in mestizaje that historically/ currently denigrates and erases them only serves the agenda of white mestizo hegemony.
Y'all keep pushing this narrative of "new enlightened" Black Latin Americans. That LatAm Blacks are "confused." That we are searching. That we were lost. The one that is "lost" IS YOU! Descendants of the castas who have never interrogated that positionality need to be quiet.
Go to *any* Black barrio in Latin America. Go ahead pick one. Ask them if they are "confused" abt their Blackness. Do it. & this is exactly *why* @afrolatinotrav does EXACTLY this. Clients jaws are on the floor to see a Black neighborhood like any other Black hood on the planet
Y'all will literally point at a blonde Latin American and be like "but they are 'of color'" WHERE BITCH? Where is the "color"? WHERE IS IT? WHERE?
All y'alls Latin American favs are monied and white. Jose Vasconcelos grew up in the U.S. Y'all saying "don't project U.S. race contexts on Latin America." Bitch you 300 years too late. LatAm whites were inspired & collaborated w U.S. & Euro eugenicists. They were friends/lovers
cousins/family/business partners. Coups in the region were allowed/aided by the white elites in Latin America. Most the white leadership of Latin America went to U.S. schools. Stop parroting the same lies & research something for yourselves for once in your lives.
White Latin Americans motivation for this "Latin" identity was squarely rooted in driving out white Anglo domination in the region. They wanted the white Latin domination to remain preserved. They couldn't have white Anglo powr threatening their own power Open your eyes.
Links for our workshops/events where we talk about all these topics. One is TONIGHT at 7:30pm EST. If you want to purchase a ticket DM me. And our antiblackness in the Latine community workshops and events.
1) https://www.eventbrite.com/e/otono-negro-course-on-black-latin-american-history-contemporary-life-tickets-118833717849
2) https://newschool.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMqcuChrj4sH9PjKTwyEUrDnTbA31343eUY
1) https://www.eventbrite.com/e/otono-negro-course-on-black-latin-american-history-contemporary-life-tickets-118833717849
2) https://newschool.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMqcuChrj4sH9PjKTwyEUrDnTbA31343eUY
3) https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dominant-culture-a-virtual-anti-oppression-workshop-tickets-115107660110
4) https://www.eventbrite.com/e/radio-cana-negra-antiblackness-in-the-latine-community-pt-1-2-tickets-123276500331?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
4) https://www.eventbrite.com/e/radio-cana-negra-antiblackness-in-the-latine-community-pt-1-2-tickets-123276500331?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
We show this vid: Carlos Angulo in Bogota saying he is constantly being made late to work bc the police profile him. "200 ppl walk by & yall specifically choose the two "negros" to search. Why not search the others? Bc they are white. Yet we are 'all equal in the eyes' of the
law right? This hypocrite country. All the contributions of Black ppl yet don't respect our humanity. This is what upsets me!" So again I ask, just how is Latin American antiblackness so "different" from the U.S.? Pls stop saying that it is. It is NOT.
