Why ‘White-Passing’ Is White Supremacy
Three Reasons White-Latinx Need to Identify as Just White
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“Ok, Gayle, enough!” Those were the sharp condescending words of the infamous Miya Ponsetto (a.k.a: ‘Soho Karen’) during her CBS interview with Gayle King. In the same interview, Ponsetto delivered a cringeworthy notion and claimed she couldn't be racist because she's Puerto Rican; therefore, a woman of color. Like me, Miya is a white-Latinx person and whom, at the very least, many people would call a ‘white-passing’ person, not a person of color (P.O.C.). There's an intense denial of our racial identity among several white-Latinx people. That explains why we inevitably reproduce the same racism and anti-Blackness that Ponsetto perpetuated. White-passing Latinx need clarity on our racial identity and need to take responsibility for our whiteness and stop perpetuating anti-Blackness.
White Supremacy is baked into the American psyche, and an anti-Black sentiment is only one of its tenets. As an independent sociologist, I recognize I did not escape this inherent socialization. Yes, I’ve had oppressive experiences caused by the white people around me. Yes, it's been painful; however, I've equally benefitted from my Spanish colonizer whiteness at the expense and underserved disadvantage of Black people. I've recently understood myself racially as a white person: precisely, a white-Mexican and broadly a white-Latinx person. Sadly, yet predictably to Black-Latinx, I was devastated to discover that I am racially white. I felt a wave of emotions, including guilt, shame, confusion, and anger—all connected to the notion of underserved advantage. I had never thought of myself as white in the Latin American context, let alone the U.S. context; I thought of myself as ‘Latino/x.’ Brown. Attending Radio Caña Negra’s ‘Anti-Blackness in the Latine Community’ workshop helped me navigate the racial identity crisis I experienced. And with the brilliant firmness of the Black educators' Dash Harris, Evelyn Alvarez, and Janvieve Williams, my racial positioning became clear. I am not Mason and Madison from Minnesota white, but I am still white; It is imperative I racially acknowledge myself as white, not white-passing.
What is White-Passing?
White-passing is socially understood as a non-white person’s ability to resemble a white person. Black, Indigenous, and people of color (B.I.P.O.C.) who have lighter skin tones are typically the people who can “pass” as white. But, when we talk about passing as white, which is an American and settler-colonial state phenomenon, the social implication is that light skin B.I.P.O.C. pass as Anglo-white and white people with ancestral origins in Northern Europe (i.e., England, Norway, Sweden, etc.). Though Spain and Portugal are also white European countries, we usually don't suggest to pass as people from those countries. Due to the contentious colonial history between the Anglican and Hispanic empires and our American Xenophobic attitude towards Latin American countries and people today, white-Latinx with Spanish/Hispanic roots are generally viewed as non-white. Still, there are three critical reasons why white-Latinx, or those that pass, need to identify as just white and not P.O.C.
White-Passing centers Anglo whiteness as the default.
The first reason is that white-passing perpetuates White Supremacy. I understand the sentiment, but this terminology is deleterious. It inherently centers Anglo-whiteness as the default position and as something to aspire to be. For instance, I have a natural light olive skin tone; it’s not the lightest nor darkest. However, it’s overly racialized by the lighter skin Latinx people in my personal life. Their discourse sounds like, “I am more white-passing than you are because I am lighter than you,” and “But I have blonde hair and blue eyes, and you don’t.” One implication I’ve gathered from this pernicious discourse is there’s value in being white(r) and resembling characteristic Anglo-whiteness; therefore, their suggestion appears to be that “I am better than you because I am whiter.” Do you know who else thought it was better to be Anglo-white with blonde hair and blue eyes? Hitler. Although white people have various ethnicities, Hitler and 19th-century American eugenicists deemed the perfect white archetype to resemble actors like Chris Hemsworth and Brie Larson.
Additionally, White Supremacy employs a similar sinister tactic through the use of Xenophobia. This strategy informs Anglo-whites that they are the “pure” whites and Latinx whites are the ‘mongrel’ and ‘other’ whites. In our clamoring for power and privilege, white-Latinx perpetuate the same racialized “Game of Thrones” that erases our whiteness. Consequently, we erase the identities of people who don’t hold as much currency in their color, namely Black and Indigenous people.
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