Why “White-Passing” Latinos Need to Stop Distancing Ourselves from Anglo-Whites

The distancing between us and them is not liberation.

Photo Credit: Karolina Grabowska via Pexels

“But they have ‘othered’ me” and “they have discriminated against me” are two of a long list of narratives that “white-passing” Latinos use to remain in racial limbo. “How can I have white privilege when I’ve experienced their racism?” is another narrative we unearth from our tumultuous garden of internal racial chaos.

I was one of those Latinos as I crested the beginning of a new chapter in my antiracism work. Two years into diligently engaging in antiracist education and writing, I recognized I had deep wounds that needed healing. So I sought out a therapist with a solid antiracist foundation. The phrase “Be careful what you wish for” never felt more profound at any other point in my life.

I eagerly discussed my pain with my therapist, and I quickly revealed my itemized list of negative experiences caused by familiar and unfamiliar Anglo-white people. One of the first things my therapist said to me was, "Well, Joey, you do know you have privilege too, right?" That overwhelming yet straightforward rhetorical question shattered me like a neighborhood kid's baseball hitting a glass window. I was extremely unsettled and remember questioning if I was being gaslight. Because my therapist challenged me from the start, my antiracist journey has led me to three crucial principles as a white-Latino: 1) Acknowledging my white privilege is vital. 2) Taking responsibility for my whiteness is equally important even though I'm not Anglo-white, and 3) Understanding and emboding the power of the Black Feminist tool called ‘Intersectionality.’

"White-passing" Latinos, "light-skin" Latinos, "pale-skin" Latinos, "translucent" Latinos, and the like, have equally benefitted from white supremacy in the U.S. and in our countries of cultural origin. Our Black comrades, on the other hand, have been mainly kept out of the country club of whiteness. Though there's a long historical record of white-Latinos in the media who were exotified, “othered,” and "browned," they still benefitted from their whiteness.

For more on this piece please visit medium.com/@joeypierre