Author and instructor Prof. Tanya K. Hernández talked in her book about the illusion that Blacks, Latinos, and Afro-Latinos are always allies when the opposite is what occurs today.
During the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, many minority groups joined in “support” for BLM: LGBTQ_ communities, immigrants, and Latinos. But the support hid the unknown truth.
“Black Lives Matter is not just about somebody else’s struggle that we get to dip in and out of when it’s convenient, when we’re not otherwise busy, etc.,” Hernández told the outlet. “It’s got to also be about the ways in which we are also part of the problem of racism and also part of identifying with Blackness.”
Hernández shed light on the issue that there are some Latinos who are truly anti-Black in her novel “Racial Innocence: Unmasking Latino Anti-Blackness and the Struggle for Equality.” The book exposes how Latinos practice racism against Blacks, from education and employment to housing and dating.
“Latinos themselves don’t like to admit that we harbor anti-Black bias, that we are part and parcel of systems of racism both within Latin America, the Caribbean, and in the United States,” Hernández explained.
Her book not only provides examples to educate but includes real-life stories, including those that were in the news, about how Latin people are racist toward Black and Afro-Latinos. One story she added to her book is the 2020 incident where a Puerto Rican woman physically attacked a Black Puerto Rican boy, falsely accusing him of stealing her cell phone.
“Within the United States, discrimination is a very particular narrative,” she stated. “The narrative is this is something that white, Anglo, English-speaking Americans do to African-Americans, not anybody else.”
Similar to America during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade times, Africans were sent not only to America but also to Latin and Caribbean countries. So, the Latin community participated in the enslavement and mistreatment of Blacks in their respective countries.
“Within Latin America, in the Caribbean, there was Jim Crow segregation,” the author said. “It was customary law…the state dedicates financial resources to policing and regulating white-only spaces.”
Hernández added that racism even exists among Latin families with darker family members. One example she used was the Latin phrase “Pelo malo,” which means “bad hair,” regarding the curly hair texture Blacks have. Hernández said that her source of inspiration for bringing up the matter came from her Black ancestors, revealing she’s of Puerto Rican descent and proudly identifies as Afro-Latina.
In bringing light to the hidden issue, Hernández hopes more people address the issue to put an end to it.
“These are the people who are excluding folks from being able to purchase homes, from getting pay raises, from being hired,” she clarified. “Those are systems of racism. And when Latinos are actively engaged in excluding Blackness, whether it’s from Afro-Latinos, African-Americans, Africans or other persons from the African diaspora, they are part of the problem of racism.”
