By: Jaclyn Batts
Love and Hip Hop Miami shined a light on the issue of colorism and racism in the Latino community when up-and-coming Latina rapper Amara La Negra got into a heated argument after producer Young Hollywood disrespected her for being an Afro-Latina (watch the scene on Twitter here). Amara made headlines again after Charlamagne Tha God questioned her about being Afro-Latina during an interview on The Breakfast Club.
Amara is a Dominican rapper who is proud of her blackness. Young Hollywood mocked her blackness and made derogatory comments stating an Afro is not elegant. He called her a “Nutella Queen” and told her “at the end of the day the music industry is looking for cookie cutter poster child”. She responded by saying not all Latina’s look like J.Lo or Shakira, where are the women that look like her in the industry.
In every industry and facet of business, there is a lack of diversity. Black women are constantly ridiculed for their appearance and told to conform to Eurocentric beauty standards. Social media has even accused of her wearing blackface in her live interview with Shade Room. It is sad that she must justify her Latina heritage existence by uploading baby pictures and photos of her dark-skinned Dominican parents.
The Dominican queen is on her way to greatness as she recently signed a multi-album record deal. I hope that her storyline is not only going to consist of battling microaggressions and ignorance. She should not have to validate her blackness in 2018.
Check out Amara’s videos for “Se Que Soy” here.