Black vs. Brown: The Color Line

November 5, 2007
By Kevin Alberto Sabio

I remember a discussion that I had gotten into during my college days. I was hanging out with a fellow Latino of a lighter hue, when this person admitted to me that they didn’t like Black people. After I got over my initial shock over the statement, I remember giving this person a funny look. The person paused, and must have read the look on my face, and basically said, “But not you…you’re alright. You’re not one of them.”

HUH?!

One issue that doesn’t get talked about very often when dealing with the Latino community, is the issue of racism within the Latino community. Let us not forget, slavery existed in Latin America just as it did in what later became the United States. A Plantation society existed there, just as it did in North America. Slavery in Latin America may not have been as extreme as it was in the United States, but quite obviously the effects of that past are bound to still be evident in the culture in this day and age. There is this myth that exists that Latinos are one big racially mixed family. To a certain extent we are. BUT…that doesn’t mean that we don’t have issues dealing with race and racism. Look at what the effects of slavery and the plantation system have on American society; you think that it wouldn’t affect Latinos?

I’ve had dealings with other Afro-Latinos who would fight you to the death, if you dare to call them Black. They would claim their nationality as their race, rather than call themselves Black or African. I’ve also had dealings with Latinos who were damn near White, proudly proclaiming their African heritage. In certain parts of the Latino community, you have the issue of skin color; a family member with dark skin is often ridiculed, or treated somewhat as an outcast. Thye say: 'Tienes pelo malo,' which means ‘You have bad hair’ if your hair is naturally kinky. In Latino society, if your African roots are very pronounced, it’s a bad thing that needs to be denounced. Gee…why does that sound familiar…?

Much of Latino society doesn’t embrace its African heritage. They are more than willing to promote and embrace the indigenous parts of their heritage, celebrating the peoples that occupied the lands before the coming of the Europeans. Very few embrace or acknowledge their ties to the continent of Africa. That is quite foolish, since the immense influence that African culture has on Latino culture is quite obvious. Our Indigenous and European heritage will get the bulk of the representation when talking about Latino culture, yet our African heritage gets treated like and unwanted, bastard child.

You have those descriptions that Latino people use when referring to someone of a darker skin-tone, or Black people in general: Moreno/a, Trigueno, Niche, or even the offensive Mayate (which basically means the N-word in Spanish). I would bristle when my lighter complexioned Latino friends would frivolously throw the word ‘Moreno’ around when talking about Black people. They would jovially say, “Oh…it’s not offensive,” and continue to use the word. Basically, you’re calling me ‘darkie.’ I don’t appreciate that. I know a whole lot of Black people and Afro-Latinos who don’t appreciate it, either.

I’m also sick and tired of not being recognized as a Latino because I’m Black. Latinos don’t all look white, or Indian; we come in an assortment of shapes, sizes and COLORS. I know a WHOLE lot of other Afro Latinos who will cosign with me on this issue. I’m proud of my African roots, and embrace my African heritage, but don’t deny me being a part of the culture just based on what I physically look like. I probably know more about your own heritage that you do, just because I read and study. I may not have a great command over the Spanish language, but I make it a point to learn about the history and culture of my people.

Remember the ‘Latin Explosion’ in the late Nineties? Notice how all of the big music stars that got promoted looked very European? J-Lo and Shakira dyed their hair blonde. Ricky Martin and Marc Anthony were the poster boys for that movement; the whitest looking Latinos that they could find. Even with Rock en Espanol, they all had that European appeal to them. They even tried to include non-Latinos in that phenomenon like Penelope Cruz. She’s a European from Spain! Not ONE dark-skinned Latino got promoted during that whole fiasco. Yeah sure, we got lucky with a few Afro-Latina beauty pageant winners getting thrown in, but even that got very little exposure. If anything, it caused more controversy than progress. Even with the crop of Latino film festivals now popping up, you don’t see African descended Latinos being represented in the films. You’d have to go to a Black film festival to see us represented, whether in the storyline, or a documentary about us. Apparently, we have a long way to go.

Before we start hating on others, how about learning to love ourselves first? We need to embrace ALL parts of our heritage. If you have a hatred for Black people, you have hatred for yourself. I would suggest that people learn the true history of Latin America, and rethink these animosities that they have. We need to deprogram ourselves from these lies and myths about us, and truly embrace all of who we are. I think Dr. Joy Leary summed it up best in her book, “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome," how can you expect a people to ‘get over it’ (slavery), when all you did was take off the chains, and never provided any type of therapy for them to deal with the trauma that they experienced?

Source: New America Media