The Problems With The “I’m Not White, I’m Latinx” Claim
By: Fernanda Laertez
Tags: White Privilege, Mexico, Culture, Latin America, Racism

In terms of identity, I always say I’m Mexican. Sometimes, when Mexican is not an option, I choose between Latina or Hispanic just because I have never lived outside Mexico.

I never pondered on the issues that my identity choice could entail until recently when I found a few Latinxs on TikTok calling out white Latinxs for making excuses about their whiteness.

I completely understand why. There are some problems that white-skinned folks spawn when they defend their Latin American roots:

You are implying that Latinx is a race when it’s not

When Latinxs that live in Latin American countries travel to the United States or Europe, they often try to fulfill some sort of stereotype to make crystal clear they are different from White Americans or Europeans, and when they are classified among them, they feel outraged.

They say things like: “No, I’m not white. I’m Latinx.” As if being something different than white made us more interesting while abroad.

Despite the US attempts to make Latinxs a racial group, Latinx is not a race but an ethnicity. Latinos can be black, white, Asian, brown, anything.

Being white doesn’t strip away our culture. We shouldn’t reckon on our race, ethnicity, or nationality to come across as “interesting.” What makes each person compelling and fun is simply their personality.

You deny your white privilege

We need to understand that when we, white Latinxs, deny our whiteness, we are denying our privilege. We deliberately want to be deemed as a minority while having white benefits.

When we take offense to being labeled white, we are not acknowledging the diversity in our own countries. The same diversity we yearn the world to see. We don’t recognize we have had it easy. We diminish the struggles of people of color who are oppressed and demonized every day.

You fail to notice the complexity of “race” in Latin America

Refusing privilege as a white folk is problematic, yes. And while it’s essential that non-white Latinos call us out when we behave this way, we need to pay heed to the complexity and vagueness of the concept of “race” in Latin America.

Edward E. Telles explains in Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil, that:

Concepts like race vary in their connotations in different languages, as they evolved out of distinct cultural contexts. For example, color is more commonly used in Brazil, while race is more common in the United States. Choosing race instead of color is understandable in English but clumsy in Portuguese and Spanish.

Understanding race in Latin American countries has more to do with understanding social, cultural, historic, and somatic contexts rather than just understanding ancestry.

Latinx and Hispanic identity signifies common cultural practices like language and shared histories, and those don’t easily map onto skin color. — Victoria M. Massie explains in Vox.

We technically can’t assume one’s identity based on skin colors. Spanish colonizers mixed with indigenous peoples of Latin America, and they also brought African groups as slaves. We are a hodgepodge of genes.

Latino identity is a concept that was created to preserve white supremacy anyway

The concept of Latino was invented by the french to support white European supremacy — to ascertain its power and control in this part of the world. So the word Latino or Latinx is rooted in colonialism and served segregation purposes at the end of the day.

Having said so, it still doesn’t mean that I can call myself a minority just because I was born and raised in Latin America. People are not going to dig into my DNA, they are simply going to judge how I look.