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Black History Month: New Generation Of Afro-Latinos Tackles Race And Identity | Fox News Latino
Born on one island and raised on another, Kelvin Rojas grew up with a racial identity that he is still learning to define as a college senior at Columbia University.
Moving to Harlem in New York City when he was 4 from the Dominican Republic, Rojas became bilingual and grew up in both cultures, visiting the island country every summer.
?I consider myself an Afro-Latino of mixed background? Most Dominicans are Afro-Latino,? Rojas told Fox News Latino last week. "They just don't want to see it.?
In the United States, Latino youth are developing a consciousness of their Afro-Latino identity as unique and separate from the strictly black, white and Latino labels that traditionally have defined American racial attitudes.
The racial thinking that has been engrained in older generations of Latinos is not as pronounced in younger generations, who are pushing to recognize, learn about and define what it means to be Afro-Latino.
?I wasn?t conscious until I started listening to a rapper called Immortal Technique. In an interview he said, ?Dominicans are black.? Hearing him say that opened my eyes,? Rojas told Fox News Latino. It pointed out to him the tendency of many Latinos to shy away from their African roots and deny being black.
?Because my skin is very light I am considered ?Trigue?o,?? Rojas said, ?That's someone that is mixed but on the lighter side.?
That kind of categorization of different racial mixtures and skin tones is rooted in Latin America?s colonial history. Guesnerth Josu? Perea, the communications coordinator of the Afro Latin@ Forum, explained that, ?the supremacy that happened produced a process we call pigment-ocracy: Splitting people up socio-economically by skin tone.?
This historical process of separation by skin tone has caused a denial of African roots for many Latinos.
?There is a big difference between the U.S. and Latin America, and this goes back to the one-drop rule," said Edward Morales, professor at Columbia University's Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. "If you have one grandparent who is black, you?re black. In Latin America it is the opposite. If you have any white, you are not black.?
The slave trade lasted longer in Latin America than it did in North America, so more Africans were brought to the region. Morales pointed out three key distinctions that contributed to the development of Afro-Latino identity: Greater opportunities to buy one?s way out of slavery, the development of a large number of towns full of freed slaves that served as de facto centers of African culture and, finally, the lack of laws banning interracial relations.
?In the U.S., Afro-Latinos have the dual problem of not being accepted into either community [black or Latino],? Morales said.
The marginalization of African roots in the U.S. may reflect an attempt to fit in with the dominant white racial category.
?Some Latinos lean towards the white side of society ? to become the model minority,? said Perea. ?They say they are trying to ?better? the race or ?improve? the race, but really they are just saying they want to pull away from blackness. And I think that is tied to a lot of self-hatred."
Groups like the Afro Latin@ Forum are trying to promote the visibility of black Latinos in the U.S. and raise awareness about the issues that the community faces.
One of the places in which Afro-Latinos find receptive audiences are college campuses. The Afro Latin@ Forum responded to the news that "Hispanic and/or Latino" would be available as a racial category on the 2020 U.S. Census with a campaign to exhort Afro-Latinos to "check both" black and Latino so that a more accurate count of Afro-Latinos can be made and issues facing that specific community can be better addressed.
?We have to do better in terms of self-educating about the diversity within the Latino community,? Perea said.
Rojas pointed out that many groups on and around campus at Columbia that are now promoting education and awareness of "Afro-Latinidad," which is for him a welcome change.
?In a lot of conversations with my family about it, they would firmly reject that they were black,? Rojas said. ?I asked my older brother why he thought this way and he said in school he was taught that Haitians were inferior to Dominicans because Haitians were of African blood and Dominicans were of Spanish and Ta?no blood. It?s very taboo to acknowledge you have African roots.?
Those sorts of attitudes toward race will continue to be challenged as Afro-Latino youth continue to explore, and establish, what it means to be mixed race.
Rojas remains optimistic about things improving, but cautiously so.
?I feel with the generations it gets better," he said. "The youth are not so adamant against [African roots] ? but they aren't so proud of it either."
Born on one island and raised on another, Kelvin Rojas grew up with a racial identity that he is still learning to define as a college senior at Columbia University.
Moving to Harlem in New York City when he was 4 from the Dominican Republic, Rojas became bilingual and grew up in both cultures, visiting the island country every summer.
?I consider myself an Afro-Latino of mixed background? Most Dominicans are Afro-Latino,? Rojas told Fox News Latino last week. "They just don't want to see it.?
In the United States, Latino youth are developing a consciousness of their Afro-Latino identity as unique and separate from the strictly black, white and Latino labels that traditionally have defined American racial attitudes.
The racial thinking that has been engrained in older generations of Latinos is not as pronounced in younger generations, who are pushing to recognize, learn about and define what it means to be Afro-Latino.
?I wasn?t conscious until I started listening to a rapper called Immortal Technique. In an interview he said, ?Dominicans are black.? Hearing him say that opened my eyes,? Rojas told Fox News Latino. It pointed out to him the tendency of many Latinos to shy away from their African roots and deny being black.
?Because my skin is very light I am considered ?Trigue?o,?? Rojas said, ?That's someone that is mixed but on the lighter side.?
That kind of categorization of different racial mixtures and skin tones is rooted in Latin America?s colonial history. Guesnerth Josu? Perea, the communications coordinator of the Afro Latin@ Forum, explained that, ?the supremacy that happened produced a process we call pigment-ocracy: Splitting people up socio-economically by skin tone.?
This historical process of separation by skin tone has caused a denial of African roots for many Latinos.
?There is a big difference between the U.S. and Latin America, and this goes back to the one-drop rule," said Edward Morales, professor at Columbia University's Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. "If you have one grandparent who is black, you?re black. In Latin America it is the opposite. If you have any white, you are not black.?
The slave trade lasted longer in Latin America than it did in North America, so more Africans were brought to the region. Morales pointed out three key distinctions that contributed to the development of Afro-Latino identity: Greater opportunities to buy one?s way out of slavery, the development of a large number of towns full of freed slaves that served as de facto centers of African culture and, finally, the lack of laws banning interracial relations.
?In the U.S., Afro-Latinos have the dual problem of not being accepted into either community [black or Latino],? Morales said.
The marginalization of African roots in the U.S. may reflect an attempt to fit in with the dominant white racial category.
?Some Latinos lean towards the white side of society ? to become the model minority,? said Perea. ?They say they are trying to ?better? the race or ?improve? the race, but really they are just saying they want to pull away from blackness. And I think that is tied to a lot of self-hatred."
Groups like the Afro Latin@ Forum are trying to promote the visibility of black Latinos in the U.S. and raise awareness about the issues that the community faces.
One of the places in which Afro-Latinos find receptive audiences are college campuses. The Afro Latin@ Forum responded to the news that "Hispanic and/or Latino" would be available as a racial category on the 2020 U.S. Census with a campaign to exhort Afro-Latinos to "check both" black and Latino so that a more accurate count of Afro-Latinos can be made and issues facing that specific community can be better addressed.
?We have to do better in terms of self-educating about the diversity within the Latino community,? Perea said.
Rojas pointed out that many groups on and around campus at Columbia that are now promoting education and awareness of "Afro-Latinidad," which is for him a welcome change.
?In a lot of conversations with my family about it, they would firmly reject that they were black,? Rojas said. ?I asked my older brother why he thought this way and he said in school he was taught that Haitians were inferior to Dominicans because Haitians were of African blood and Dominicans were of Spanish and Ta?no blood. It?s very taboo to acknowledge you have African roots.?
Those sorts of attitudes toward race will continue to be challenged as Afro-Latino youth continue to explore, and establish, what it means to be mixed race.
Rojas remains optimistic about things improving, but cautiously so.
?I feel with the generations it gets better," he said. "The youth are not so adamant against [African roots] ? but they aren't so proud of it either."
"Things are a changin'," and have indeed changed since the original Black Power Movements of yester yore. In a sense, the current Dominican/Haitian racial dynamic is unique today but can, nevertheless, easily be likened to the status quo existent "back in that day." This latter day phenomenon serves as a model and platform for scholarly and mollified discussion of the issues, e.g., the presentations on this thread. "Back in that day" we struggled w/the appropriate vocabulary, much less full blown productive dialogue and, of course, volatility and violence were common outcomes.
Mantener viva la conversaci?n (Google Translate).
Mantener viva la conversaci?n (Google Translate).
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The slave trade lasted longer in Latin America than it did in North America, so more Africans were brought to the region. Morales pointed out three key distinctions that contributed to the development of Afro-Latino identity: Greater opportunities to buy one’s way out of slavery, the development of a large number of towns full of freed slaves that served as de facto centers of African culture and, finally, the lack of laws banning interracial relations.
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This was true in some of the islands, but not in the DR. Early in the 1800's Napoleon deposed the Carlos IV of Spain and put his brother, Jos? on the throne. Then ownership of the Spanish colony was transferred from Spain to France. Then France abolished slavery. There were not many plantations in Santo Domingo, but the owners, who were mostly White reacted to this by packing up their estates and slaves (who were mostly Black) and moving to Puerto Rico, Cuba and other Spanish possessions. The people who were left included a higher percentage of mulattos than anywhere else in Latin America. Slavery was finished in both parts of Hispaniola by 1803 or so.
Slavery persisted in Puerto Rico, Cuba and Brazil. The British abolished the slave trade first and then slavery itself in 1834. In most of the rest of South and Central America, the end of slavery came with the end of Spanish rule. Spain was involved in a civil war between Jose Napoleon and the Spanish royalists and could send very few and then no troops to maintain Spanish rule. The Caribbean was a mixed bag, with British, French, Dutch, Danish and Swedish colonies. There were some massive rebellions and reconquests and reenslavements.
Brazil was last to abolish slavery in 1889. Cuba gradually ended it between the 1870's and 1890's,
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This was true in some of the islands, but not in the DR. Early in the 1800's Napoleon deposed the Carlos IV of Spain and put his brother, Jos? on the throne. Then ownership of the Spanish colony was transferred from Spain to France. Then France abolished slavery. There were not many plantations in Santo Domingo, but the owners, who were mostly White reacted to this by packing up their estates and slaves (who were mostly Black) and moving to Puerto Rico, Cuba and other Spanish possessions. The people who were left included a higher percentage of mulattos than anywhere else in Latin America. Slavery was finished in both parts of Hispaniola by 1803 or so.
Slavery persisted in Puerto Rico, Cuba and Brazil. The British abolished the slave trade first and then slavery itself in 1834. In most of the rest of South and Central America, the end of slavery came with the end of Spanish rule. Spain was involved in a civil war between Jose Napoleon and the Spanish royalists and could send very few and then no troops to maintain Spanish rule. The Caribbean was a mixed bag, with British, French, Dutch, Danish and Swedish colonies. There were some massive rebellions and reconquests and reenslavements.
Brazil was last to abolish slavery in 1889. Cuba gradually ended it between the 1870's and 1890's,
Being proud of your genes is silly: it is not like you deserve praise for choosing them, because, well, you didn't. Living up to one's family's traditions, as the Japanese do, is not the same thing, though. People behave much better in poubli in China, Taiwan, Japan and other Eastern countries because being arrested for antisocial behavior (slugging your wife, for example) would bring disgrace to the entire family.
Thread was on thin ice from the start, because we don't "do" racial threads in the regular forums. Now that it's veering away I'm going to close it before it goes too far OT.
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