Camouflaged among the white cards
All Americans (White & Black, Indigenous, Person of Color (BIPOC)) have internalized various components of white culture in their everyday life and this is coined as “white supremacy culture”. Since white culture is “normal”, people who are white live in an environment that protects them from race based stress. This is white privilege, to NOT feel the race based stress.
I remember the day that I traded in my brown card for a white card.
I somehow convinced my parents to fudge our address to be within the school district of a new school opening up. Even though I was handed a brown card, I felt stuck, unhappy, and an outsider. So when my parents agreed, I so willingly traded my gold hoop earrings, red lipstick, black basketball jersey for a white pukah-shelled necklace, a pink Abercrombie & Fitch shirt, and a denim American Eagle skirt. I saved up all my hard earned pennies, going from house to house cleaning homes, and selling peaches on the corner to buy a fresh identity. I dropped $100 on ONE shirt. That’s the price for “The White Card”.
The White Card:
Being able to move into a new suburban high school and be accepted, NOT harassed, made to feel welcomed
My skin color alone doesn’t make other people hate me, and when I smile, I am loved even more
I get to pretend that I’m not “the only one” of my ethnicity in a class, at a party, in a job interview, soccer team, etc.
No one has ever questioned my intellectual capabilities or attendance at an institution solely based on my skin color
I never get blindsided when trying to enjoy a meal by a well paid faculty member’s patronizing and racist assumptions
I never have to be on the receiving end of a bosses prejudice uninformed “I see no color” or tell me their lack of experience in mentoring students of my race
I never have to mask the fruits of my success in fear of microaggression
I get to go to a protest, and NOT get arrested
I never have to question the shade of bandaids to match my skin tone
I get to live like a hippie, without the consequences
My new identity was a peace loving, hippie, vegetarian, who put on high school rallys, proms, dances, lunch activities, football spirited events, what I once considered “white people things”. I tried starting a Latinos only club but that failed, I was too white, students didn’t know I was Latina, the only time people questioned my whiteness was when I would say Maiz- MaHHHHH-EEE-ZZ, instead of MAYYY-ZZ-E.
I guess, I have always had the white card. I was too white for my LatinX family/friends. And they would make sure of it. I was nicknamed guera, blanquita, gringa (sometimes poncha 😒). Brown skinned Latinos always made me feel different than them, like I was the colonizer and didn’t belong in the culture. Latinos are notorious for having PIGMENTOCRACY; this is where one’s status within a society is determined by skin tone. Lighter skinned folks have more privilege, which means more access to jobs, education and other opportunities. Whereas darker skinned folks, the more Indigenous or African, the less privileges they have. This is also synonymous with colorism-- where people of the same ethnic or racial group are prejudiced or discriminatory against individuals with darker skin tones. This behavior can be demonstrated by giving light skinned babies compliments like “Aww, que linda, toda bonita, y blanquita”, whereas it's silent or shameful to be darker skinned. Notice how political leaders in Latin American countries look like colonizers, yet the few Afro-Latino politicians downplay their family roots.
We see color. For example, just strolling in LA, Spanish speaking Latinos go out of their way to speak English to me. When I respond to them in Spanish, it goes either one of two ways: 1) They thank me for speaking Spanish, “¡Que bueno que hablas español! ¡Que dios te bendiga!” Or 2) They would get slightly upset that I made them struggle in English for so long, “Y por que no me hablabas asi mas antes?”. But this is still a privilege. It doesn’t flow in the same direction for my cousins. Some of my cousins don’t speak any Spanish, but stereotypically look like they could. And the same people would get really upset with them “Ehhh, por qué no hablas español? Desgraciado! Coco!”. Which translates to coconut, so yeah, you see color.
Latinos come in many different flavors and colorism is our expired spice. We see color, and we do treat people differently because of it, and breaking each other apart by the literal pigmentation of our skin is divisive and toxic. I may not look like you, but we have a similar experience in that we can trace back our lineage back to a Central or Latin American country in one or two generations. We speak the same language, we eat similar foods, and we have similar mannerisms. We need to celebrate our different flavors, throw out the expired colorism spice, and amplify our brown/black brothers and sisters. Somos familia y familia empieza adentro, y “si tu eres latino saca tu bandera! Ayye”
I am Latina. It runs through my veins, it's in my DNA. I am the daughter of an immigrant, and a granddaughter of undocumented immigrants from Latin America. Growing up in white America came with its challenges. Their accents were so heavy that as soon as I could formally talk people would immediately look down at me, stare, give me this polite, but awkward look, and then would wait for me to repeat what my parent said. My grandparents didn’t speak English, so I translated everything to Spanish. I always ordered, filed complaints, answered/returned phone calls, pretended to be them so they could get appointments, and translated their mail. I would drive my grandma to her doctor’s appointments, translated to her that she had Parkinson’s disease, and that she needed to reduce her salt consumption because of her diabetes. Things adults were supposed to help with, I was 8 years old. As I grew up I assisted in cooking, cleaning, and babysitting. I was taught to just deal with it, with frequent shouts “las mujeres se aguantan!”. Don’t make a fuss or don’t speak out. Don’t disturb the climate. Even though I was afraid of la chancla, el gancho, y el chile, these were forms of punishment to respect authorities; mis nalgas, la chancla, el gancho, y el chile became very familiar, you couldn’t beat the chingona fire out of me.
Even when I gave up my brown card, my first email address was latinbeachgurl@yahoo.com; that person inside of me just wanted a chance to be free. I was too white for the brown people, but at the same time I was too brown for the white people. White people can sniff out that I’m “ethnic or something”, but at the end of the day they think that I am just a diluted version of them, so I still get their benefits.
I am lucky to be in the room and hear things like, “Damn, another mexican is coming in with their minority money and taking spots from qualified graduate students”.
Or awkward classroom situations where we all witnessed and allowed for a racially injustice moment to be okay.
Professor: “The field of community ecology has not progressed since I have developed neutral theory. In the meantime I am writing a screenplay about an African American woman in the Bronx, New York and it starts ...”
… 15 minutes of him dredging on, seriously wondering where this old white man comes up with this stuff, and why it's appropriate for theoretical ecology.
Professor: [Stops talking, proceeds to lift his head up, possibly the first time we have ever seen his face, flips up his lenses to look at the ONLY Black woman in the room]
Professor: If anyone would like to share any experiences on the Black woman, I mean African American culture I would love to discuss further during my office hours...
… 2 minutes of awkward silence, felt like eternity
Professor: [Flips glasses down and proceeds business as usual]
Gross. Not only were those comments racist, but it truly shows how ignorant people within academic institutions are. More importantly how passive the audience was about it, this includes myself. In situations where we are silent, and passive, we normalize that behavior as acceptable, and therefore it will continue to occur. It is unacceptable and it is unacceptable to steal or hypothesize stories of other cultures and ethnicities without the pain associated with it. It is unacceptable to unmindfully share racist ideas in spaces that are supposed to be inclusive. It is unacceptable to be able to talk about other underrepresented groups when it benefits them. By being silent or trying to shush the moment away, we give permission for institutions, or society for that matter, to continually perpetuate racism.
I’ve come to realize that at the end of the day these institutions are driven by the traditions, beliefs, practices, and the attitudes of white people. That does not reflect an inclusive environment, and therefore it is white people’s job to dismantle pigmentocracy / colorism/ anti-black culture within their institutions, within their homes and start making a change.
So, how do we end white supremacy culture/ white privilege/ pigmentocracy / colorism?
Acknowledge that white privilege DOES exist. Treat people within your race and outside with respect and stand up for fair treatment.
Don’t let “jokes”, comments by friends, coworkers, or family slide by without challenging them, and to continually make an effort to put yourself in someone else's shoes,
The goal is to cherish and respect our unique contributions to society as much as we do our common ground, so hire BIPOC.
It begins in the home. We need to tell our darker skinned babies that they’re beautiful, precioso, todo oscuro y bonito .
Ask your workplace if they have had Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training. If not, A WOC Space, LLC does a year long training and consultation program with WOCShops, surveys, and feedback reports gearing you up to make your workplace A WOC Space!