Is it possible to distinguish between white and racist? An idea has been proposed by a New York professor.
Tanya Hernandez, an instructor at Fordham University’s private Jesuit research school Fordham University has a message for Latinos. A shocking California story prompted the academic to question her thoughts.
You may have heard that Nury Martinez, the LA City Council President, resigned recently. After an audio leak, her resignation was effective immediately.
We reported this last week:
This stunning recording, dated October 20,21, from a Los Angeles City Council meeting, shows Nury Martinez, Council President, using offensive and racist language to describe colleagues, other city officials, and even the baby of one of her fellow council members. Although I don’t usually take offense at people making inappropriate comments, since we live in a culture of “gotcha”, I was shocked by the words this lovely lady had to say.
She called the son of a supervisor a Spanish colloquialism that means “little monkey” called Council member Mike Bonin “a bitch,” and said about County District Attorney George Gascon “F*** that guy.” He’s with Bonin and Gascon. This is horrible stuff.
The Cross Connection on MSNBC tackled the topic Saturday. This is how host Tiffany Cross opened the discussion:
“I see these, I’ve…been close to these things all my life. I grew up in Latino communities …”.
Tiffany identified the problem as white-laced wickedness.
“White supremacy is the common ground. It seems that some Latinos feel that if we are white-adjacent, we might not be subject to the same racism or prejudice. ‘”
The host then displayed a passage from “a great writer in The Atlantic”.
Your “whiteness”, however, will always be relative. You can say as much as you like about Black people. Whiteness is not something you can “achieve.” We don’t have the “gift” of whiteness that Italians and Irish are able to give us. You can discriminate against Black people or Afro-Latinos as much as you like. This won’t make your skin white. It makes you a racist individual of color. A Brown Clayton Bigsby (the blind member of the KKK from Chappelle’s Show). A fool.
Tiffany stated, “I agree with those sentiments.” For more insight on whether racially charged language makes a Hispanic certifiably Caucasian, or just crappy, she turned to Tanya, a professor who self-described herself as a “race law expert”.
The educator instructed viewers:
“I think there’s another layer to it. Whiteness is possible for some people in the Latino community. One, they appear whiter and they prefer our European ancestors. It all depends on the person’s accent, education level, and whether they have a recognizable Hispanic name. All these things can enable them to — I wouldn’t call it ‘passing,’ but — seemingly and seamlessly passing into whiteness. Or white Anglo-whiteness, just like they have whiteness in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Hispanics don’t all contribute to the “browning of America.” Also, white people are not always as white. Tanya threw shade:
“So, I guess I’m trying to say that, despite the idea that all Latinos are brown, you know that some browns are darker than others and some whites whiter than others. It doesn’t matter if they identify as Latinos, there are Latinos who identify themselves as white.”
Tanya, unlike The Atlantic, believes that white privilege can be taken by Hispanics.
“This is their socially-ascribed race, and they have that privilege.”
It’s a privilege America passionately punishes:
It seems that Latinos would prefer to avoid such things.
The Atlantic claims that the Irish and Italians have a “gift” but they weren’t given it during their time in America.
Referring back to MSNBC’s riddle: We’ve reached a point in the country where a person of color’s prejudice leads to the question, “Have these, then, become white?” This is the direction that those in power have chosen and it’s unlikely we will change our trajectory soon.
