Can you be white and Latino? Yup, yes you can. It’s totally possible. Just like you can be black and Latino. No, for reals, I’m not making this stuff up, you can totally be black and Latino and you can totally be white and Latino.
I know it can be very confusing to people, but just consider it a plot thickener, okay? It’s complicated and we tend to prefer uncomplicated and easy to define, but that’s just not how life is, that’s just not how people are.
I have to say that the video below that tackles the subject of things white Latinos are sick of hearing , humorous as it is, brought up an irritating issue for me that I often have when filling out forms. I hate those freakin’ little boxes I’m supposed to neatly check off when it comes to race. I personally do not identify myself as Caucasian, but more often than not forms are trying to push me into the Caucasian category and that bugs me! I keep coming across forms that make me check off that I’m Latina in one section and then want me to choose between being Caucasian, Asian, African-American and so forth in another section. I feel that because of my Mexican heritage, I am a mestiza (mixed race) Latina and I know the form wants me to say I’m “white,” but dang it, I don’t have it in me to check that box, it feels like a HUGE denial of my very brown abuela. Oh, and a lot of the times I’m not even getting the option to check off “other” because other isn’t even on there! Ay ay ay!
ALSO READ: Shit White Girls Say to Mexican Girls
Anyway, enough about me and my mixed identity issues, check out the plight of a white Latina in the video below! It’s funny and it’s real or it’s funny because it’s real, I don’t know, but it’s both just like the woman in the video is both white AND Latina. You think Cameron Diaz gets asked any of these questions?
Image via YouTube
That was great! Oh don’t get me started on those little check boxes! Some of my longest rants have been on this issue. The one that made me really angry was when they put Chicano on the forms. I’m told the meaning has changed, but in my youth that was gang slang and so personally I considered it very derogatory.
Yes, of course you can be Black n Latina/o and White n Latina/o; or Black n Hispanic, and White n Hispanic; just and simply because Latino and Hispanic ARE ETHNICITIES, NOT RACES!… So there can be pple of any race with those ethnicities.
Me, myself, im Black and Hispanic, and thus Latina; and it ain’t like I’m mixed; no!; Black is my race, and Latino and Hispanic are my ethnicities!.
Latino and Hispanic ARE NOT RACES!…
Stop sayin’ “I’m Latino” or “I’m Hispanic” when asked about your race!…. Find yo race; ’cause Latino and Hispanic ain’t…!…