“Race/Ethnicity,” the form reads, asking me to choose whether I am White or Hispanic/Latino. The thing is, I am both. My race is White and my ethnicity is Hispanic/Latino (or, as I prefer to call it, Latine, but that’s an entirely different conversation). My entire life, I have been frustrated beyond belief when people consider Latinidad to be its own race when Latine people come in all races and colors. I thought it would be a good idea to shed some light on this issue for Hispanic Heritage Month, as it is something many Latine people struggle with throughout their lives.
Dictionary.com defines race as “a group of persons related by common descent or heredity” and ethnicity as “a social group that shares a common and distinctive culture, religion, language, or the like.” So while it may seem as though race and ethnicity can be used interchangeably, they really can’t. A group of people could have representations of multiple races who all share an ethnicity, meaning that you can’t equate being Latine to looking like George Lopez or Sofia Vergara.
That leads me to the issue of “looking Latine.” I have been asked on multiple occasions if I’m “actually Cuban,” as if it’s something I would fake, simply because I am also White and it’s very obvious to see when you look at me. Society has this idea that looking Latine means looking like a stereotypical Mexican when, newsflash, Aubrey Plaza, Zoe Saldana, and Kid Cudi are all Latine despite not “looking” it.
Something that’s also not talked about enough is the White privilege many White Latine people, like myself, benefit from. Race is typically (but not always) something that can be judged by appearance, while ethnicity is more cultural than biological. To a random passerby, I am just another White college student among many. They don’t look at me and wonder if I’m legally in this country, or think of me as a criminal, which is something my Latine siblings of color have to go through every day of their lives, even in Latin America. There is a disgusting amount of colorism all throughout Latin America that favors White Latine people over people of color, which could be because of a number of reasons, but that doesn’t make me any less sick.
So, yes, I am a minority, but I’m also not. That’s something that I have to work on balancing because, while my Whiteness doesn’t erase my Latinidad, my Latinidad also doesn’t erase my Whiteness. To all the White Latine people out there, let’s take a step back and really look at how much we benefit from our dual identities, because it’s a lot more than you might have thought. And for those of you who can just check off “White” and move on without a thought, open your eyes and ears to the experiences of others around you, because they don’t all have the platform I do.