Skin Privilege: From a white passing Latina
What it means to be a white passing Latina
January 9, 2019
Oye mi gente bella! Te extrañe muchisimo! I miss you all! Transforming your minds this Tuesday with some much needed optimism! Disculpen por la tardanza, these holidays have been crazy & filled with love and dysfunctionality from the Quinones & Rodriguez familia!
Here’s a short recap on where I’ve been this entire time! I think this video sums it up! Traveling per usual!
“Estupida, te vas a picar!” -Willian Rodriguez
Feliz Año Nuevo; feliz dia de los Reyes! Merry belated Christmas! Ya tu sabe, for Puerto Ricans, Christmas is not over until the 6th of January! Until then, we will continue with our famous parrandas, singing Latino Christmas songs, knocking on your door, & expecting your ass to open up & provide the fiesta with food and coquito! Consejos: As tempting as the fiesta sounds, don’t open the door unless you want a loud group of Boricuas eating your food and storming into your house with instruments!
Parrandas, also known as Latino Christmas turn up music, consists of a genre called plena. These songs celebrate our culture, food, and craziness! Our people go door to door with our voces, panderetas, and spirits. Once you open that door, it’s over!
Alegre vengo de la montaña,
de mi cabaña que alegre está
a mis amigos les traigo flores
de las mejores de mi rosal
I come happy from the mountain,
To my cabin, how happy it is
To my friends I bring flowers
The best from my rosebush
Skin Privilege:
As promised, we will be diving into “skin privilege.” Ponte incomodo! Privilege is not brought up to make you comfortable. My main purpose for using it today is to highlight controversial issues such as Colorism in the Latinx community, and highlight social meanings attached to skin color. Privilege can be defined as simple rights and advantages granted to certain groups of folks. Booking my trip to Florida to spend Christmas with the crazy parents is an economic privilege. I feel blessed that I’m able to incorporate travel into my lifestyle; that is a privilege that I feel very humbled and grateful for.
Being a white passing Boricua comes with a load of privilege. With that being said, black and brown POC’s face tons of discrimination that I wouldn’t even begin to dissect from their perspective. We live in a world that values whiteness and constantly invalidates the lives of beautiful black and brown bodies. My family, friends, and loved ones who are Afro-Latinx and of darker complexion constantly share their experiences & struggles with me!
We live in a world that will dismiss a white murderer for bail but give a life sentence to a young black underaged womyn who is convicted for self-defense. Evil exists because the world we live in would rather condone the atrocities of a white cis-male murderer with a slap on the wrist while simultaneously punishing a young black womyn who is innocent and trialed for self-defense! This womyn had to spend 15 years in prison, all of her adult life, for self-defense! Modern day slavery or not? Cyntoia Denise was finally granted clemency after serving 15 years. There are racial biases in our police systems and black and brown folks makeup disproportionality higher rates in prison than their counter white parts.
What it means to be a white passing Latina
Being white passing simply means passing as a white person without someone noticing your ethnic identity. Before I open my loud Latina mouth, various people may think I’m white.
My skin is white, y dejame decir que cuando la gente me pregunta, “What are you? Where are you from? How did you learn Spanish?” I tend to get a little irritated. My worst pet peeve, “You don’t look Puerto Rican!” Ay Dios, la ignorancia. What does that even mean? Puerto Ricans are the mixtures of the Native Taino, African, & Spaniard European groups. Entonces, when you look around you, any of these fine papis and mamis can be Puerto Rican. We look good! We are a mixture. We come in all colors. However, it irritates my soul, especially when a Latinx person says, you do not look Latino/Puerto Rican. Y’all– the variety of complexions of Boricuas and other people of the Caribbean, as well as other Latin American folks are a direct result of colonization and genetic diversity.
Anybody who knows me understands that I am in love with my Puerto Rican heritage. I dance Bomba; I love our history, and I am constantly learning and trying to unlearn things about identities and how they intersect. I am a testament to the diaspora: a second generational Spanglish speaking Boricua, with a love for Adobo, Sazón, familia y comida. The musical history of Bomba has been the driving force of my very existence. I created a blog around Latinx identity, love for Latino foods, and body positivity. However, in some regards I feel that I have failed y’all: I have not used my platform to talk about my own privileges & how that has an impact on my audience and how I interact with the world that we live in. I will say this loud and proud; My skin color has never impacted how Latina I feel. I’ve always felt such a strong sense of Latin pride but I would be lying if I say I do not reap the benefits of skin privilege.
Colorism in the Latinx Community
Colorism exists everywhere, but I will be talking about this concept in reference to our Latinx communities. Discrimination based on skin color heavily exists in Latino communities. History constantly repeats itself! Historically, it was more acceptable to be of Latinx descent and have a whiter complexion. It was looked down upon to have darker skin. Until this very day, some Latinos will say some problematic sh*t about their darker counterparts! Y’all, call those family members out! How many of you have cousins, tías, tíos, parents, siblings who want you to get married to a white man and have blue eyed babies. No will do for me I got mad love for my beautiful Afro-Latinx papis.
How can we use our privileges for good when we are supposed to stay shut and respect our elders?! Call those problematic family members out! Call out your friends. We are not perfect! Call out our damn selves! Latinos will fight passionately for immigration rights and stand up against discrimination while simultaneously being prejudice against other groups of people. We all have existing prejudices, however, I am challenging y’all to decolonize your minds. Attempt to unlearn that damage that has been implanted in our brains from systemic racism. Use your platform to educate and bring awareness.
Defend your friends and family when they are being picked on. Educate our youth. Have productive conversations. This doesn’t have to be a TeleNovela! This can be a phenomenal learning experience. In our differences, we can all learn, we can all love. For the love of sweet baby Jesus my successful Latinos, let Black people shine when they are in the spotlight. It is not our job to desire that same attention at that given time! Let them have their moment. Let’s work together and not against one another. Let’s love one another. Bring in the New Year with everlasting love.