Race in America: "For Millions of Latinos, Race Is a Flexible Concept"
[and comment]
Note by Hunterbear:
The attached is an intriguing article indeed -- but no surprises. This
opening comment of mine is not especially extensive but, regardless of
whether one is on the good side or the bad side of race and racism, that
complex is still always good for discussion in America and a few other
places. At this historical moment, with human catastrophe looming on
virtually every side, it's probably a momentary relief area, subject-wise.
At about every bend in the river, the American kaleidoscopic racial
thing -- despite the circuitous trend toward increasing rationality -- is
very, very strange. Let's take that once-then-always exaggerated version of
American irrationalities -- Old Mississippi and other hard core Deep South
settings -- as a mirror:
Forty years or so ago in places like that where race was at the fore
in every socio/cultural/political sector [even though power structure
economic self-serving was still, however masked, always the basic agenda],
there were essentially only two "colors." [And, in those days, even the US
Census often tried to function in that fashion and sometimes succeeded.]
Anyway, in Mississippi and environs, Native Americans -- especially if they
lived off-reservation -- were frequently called "white" and so were Chicanos
generally and often the Mississippi Chinese. [However, there was certainly
no "white privilege" accompanying any of that.] On the other hand, if a
predominately white person had any known degree of Black ancestry, however
minute, that person was always classed as "Negro." But, again, on the other
hand, a Southern Indian with some African ancestry [frequently found in all
Southern tribes save the Eastern Cherokee in the North Carolina mountains],
was usually called Indian or white -- often depending on residency.
And it wasn't just Mississippi etc, either. In those times, a friend
of mine, a Minnesota Chippewa [7/8 Indian], and a resident of the White
Earth Reservation, was always classed as "white" when he got an
off-reservation state trapper's license. He kept those as souvenirs. An
affable soul, he commented that "they may have been trying to be nice."
Arizona tended to classify almost all Native Americans -- full or
substantially mixed-blood -- as "American Indian." Black classifications
consistently followed the Southern standard. "Orientals" -- mostly Chinese
or Japanese -- were classified as Oriental. There was considerable
classification variance with the "Spanish" population which included, in
addition to a large number of Chicanos [Mexican-Americans] some "Hispanos"
[ostensibly full-blooded Spanish] and Spanish Basques. One of the
Southwestern reasons that Chicanos were sometimes classified as "white" or
"Spanish" involved self-serving Anglo efforts to promote anti-Mexican
discrimination in the "criminal justice" system without becoming entangled
in racial discrimination issues and legal challenges. When this was done,
however, it was never accompanied, of course, by "white privilege." [Cubans
and Puerto Ricans had not yet arrived in Arizona.]
All things being equal [and I say that somewhat tongue-in-cheek]
racial self-identification -- which some American locales have always pretty
much practiced -- is about the only thing that makes any enduring and
sensible sense as long as we think in any racial fashion other than simply
Human. In the final analysis, race and racism are conceptually doomed by
that rationality with, at whatever glacial pace, Humanity is increasingly
exhibiting. Culture, of course, is something altogether different.
Regardless of the many commonalities vis-a-vis the tangible and non-tangible
dimensions of the many, many cultures of the world, there are certainly
significant cultural differences and, although ethnocentrism is slowly
fading in favor of inter-cultural mutual respect and acceptance, culture is
still a very valid identification base, context and perspective.
And social class certainly gets 'way 'way down into its own
contextual roots.
Brings to mind another Mississippi tale -- which was providing a
little humour in that grim and rigidly segregated total segregation complex
when Eldri and I arrived there in the late summer of 1961. A younger Black
man dressed himself up in India/Indian clothing and put on a turban and,
going to the Jackson Downtowner Motor Inn restaurant, seated himself --
obviously expecting service. And he was indeed served.
Hunter [Hunterbear]
For Millions of Latinos, Race Is a Flexible Concept
From the LA Times, 3/11/03:
*****
For Millions of Latinos, Race Is a Flexible Concept
The rigid labels used by the Census Bureau often don't fit the beliefs
of
their ancestral cultures.
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- James Jennings, professor of political science and urban
studies at Tufts University near Boston, uses his birth certificate to
teach students a lesson about statistics, race and ethnicity.
Born to a Latino mother and an African American father in New York
City
more than 50 years ago, Jennings is identified on his birth
certificate as
"white," as are his parents.
"I keep it as a great teaching tool to show that official numbers,
hard
data, are sometimes quite inaccurate," said Jennings, who identifies
as
black and Latino.
Recent census estimates for 2001 were widely reported as showing that
Latinos have overtaken blacks as the nation's largest minority group,
but
experts say that may not be the case. The African ancestry of Latinos
is
often underreported in demographic head counts, according to academic
researchers. A statistical modification by the Census Bureau in
producing
the estimates may have skewed matters even more.
"I don't think you can say categorically that Latinos have surpassed
blacks," said Jeffrey Passel, a demographer at the Urban Institute
think
tank. "It depends on how you choose to define black Hispanics."
Demographers classify Latinos as an ethnic group, not a race. On the
2000
census form, respondents were given the option of choosing multiple
ethnic
and racial categories. Thus, people who identified their ethnicity as
Latino could also indicate a racial background, choosing among a range
of
options.
Because many Latinos are of mixed racial ancestry, they do not fit
easily
into the rigidly defined racial categories used throughout most of
U.S.
history.
Those distinctions are further blurred for millions of Latinos whose
ancestral cultures treat race as a flexible concept, social scientists
say.
And in the United States, some Latinos who also have African heritage
may
describe themselves as "white" because they fear the discrimination
that
comes with being identified as black. In this country, many people
believe
that any quantity of African ancestry makes a person black, but in
Latin
America it's not quite like that. "In Latin America, the 'one drop
rule'
doesn't work at all," said Silvia Pedraza, a University of Michigan
sociologist. "The way people define race is by appearance. If you came
out
looking white, you are white - especially if you have money. There is
a
saying: 'Money bleaches.' "
Another popular Latin saying carries a slightly different spin: "Y tu
abuela donde esta" means "Where are you keeping Grandma?" and suggests
that
most people have some African heritage.
These proverbs, sardonically implying that whiteness is preferred,
reflect
a Latin American strain of racism. In daily life, however, the
ambiguity
allows for a broad menu of racial identifications. Entertainer Vanessa
Williams, New York Yankees star Derek Jeter and even civil rights
pioneer
W.E.B. Du Bois - all of whom are thought of as black in the United
States -
likely would be considered "white" in most Latin countries.
State-level data from the 2000 census, compiled by the
Inter-University
Program for Latino Research at the University of Notre Dame, reveal
baffling differences in how Latinos identify racially.
In Texas, 61% of Latinos of Mexican origin said they were white,
compared
with only 40% in California. In Florida, 92% of Cubans identified as
white,
compared with 68% in California. In both states a low percentage of
Cubans
said they were black.
"Race is a subjective category," said Joel Perlmann, a senior scholar
at
the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College who focuses on
multiracial
issues. "The real problem is the slipperiness of the concept of race
for
the millions of people who have chosen not to accept the categories
being
offered."
For Jennings, the professor whose birth certificate says he is white,
the
initial designation of race was made by someone he never met, a staff
person filling out forms at the New York hospital where he was born.
As Jennings grew up, he found similarities between his father's
African
American heritage and his mother's Puerto Rican culture - and affirmed
both.
"I just felt I didn't have to respond to the separations people make,"
Jennings said. "I choose black, and I always add Latino. Sorry, but
I'm not
going to deny either my mother or my father."
For Marta Cruz-Janzen, establishing a racial identity was a painful
journey
that continued into adulthood. She was 17 when she arrived in the
Bronx in
the 1960s, a dark-skinned young woman full of ambition.
"Even though I was an honor student in my school in Ponce, Puerto
Rico, in
New York I was put in the remedial program," Cruz-Janzen said.
She realized that others were judging her potential on the basis of
her
skin color and her ethnicity. "I remember I started getting advice
from
people. Some said, 'Emphasize the fact that you are a Latina,' " she
recalled.
At other times, "I felt like I was being pushed to the black side,"
Cruz-Janzen said. "But then I would go to the African American groups
and
they would say I was not black enough." Now an education professor at
Florida Atlantic University, Cruz-Janzen has coined a term to describe
herself: Latinegra - black Latina. She said she knows others like her
who
downplay their blackness.
Cruz-Janzen selected "some other race" to describe herself in the 2000
census. "I did not feel any of the racial choices was appropriate for
me,"
she explained.
National 2000 census figures captured a deep ambivalence about race
among
Latinos. Nearly 15 million - 42% of the total - declined to identify
themselves as white, black or any specific race and instead picked
"some
other race," a relatively new category.
That racial ambiguity was overridden by a statistical "modification"
in the
2001 population estimates released in January, the same figures cited
as
showing that Latinos are more numerous than blacks.
The government's protocol for population estimates required the Census
Bureau to assign Latinos who described themselves as "some other race"
to a
conventional category. As a rough guide, they used the proportion of
Latinos who had indicated they were white or black in the 2000 census
and
extrapolated those figures to come up with a final estimate. While
hundreds
of thousands were placed in the "black or African American" column,
more
than 10 million were classified as "white."
"There is an interesting political question about the arbitrariness of
the
census bureaucrats in assigning most Latinos who said they were 'some
other
race' to the white category," said William Darity, an economist at the
University of North Carolina.
Census officials say they were far from arbitrary, using standard
statistical methods to make the changes. Following publication of the
numbers, census officials cautioned against comparing estimates of the
Latino and black populations.
The 2001 estimates showed that in the United States there were 37
million
Latinos and 36.2 million blacks. But, counting people who claimed more
than
one race, there were 37.7 million African Americans. While these
estimates
may not capture the turning point, there is broad agreement that the
rapidly growing Latino population will be larger in the long run.
If there's an ideal population for social scientists studying issues
of
race and Latinos, Puerto Ricans could well be that group. More than
3.4
million live in the U.S. and more than 3.8 million on the island, a
U.S.
commonwealth. Both groups are surveyed by the Census Bureau, yielding
a
wealth of data. Those living here are counted in U.S. population
totals.
Puerto Ricans have long described themselves as a mixed people, with
Spanish, African and native heritage. The 2000 census marked the first
time
in more than 30 years Puerto Ricans on the island were asked to
identify
themselves racially.
Nearly 81% of island residents classified themselves as white, meaning
Puerto Rico would be "whiter" than the U.S., where about 75% of the
population identified itself as white. Puerto Ricans living in the
mainland
U.S. self-identified much differently. Forty-six percent said they
were
white, while 47% chose "some other race."
"The population here on the island describes itself as 'whiter' than
it has
ever been historically, while [in the U.S.] they convert into 'some
other
race,' " said Jorge Duany, a University of Puerto Rico anthropologist.
The figures touched off a debate in Puerto Rico about race, with some
expressing concerns that the island may be turning its back on its
African
heritage.
"These incredible statistics make no sense because they do not
correspond
with even a simple look at the population," said sociologist Palmira
Rios,
who is black, and a member of the Puerto Rican civil rights
commission.
"They are, on the other hand, consistent with a historical pattern of
denying the presence of Africa in Puerto Rico."
If black Latinos do not identify as such, one consequence may well be
that
problems of discrimination against them will never be confronted, she
said.
Denial is also at work among Latinos in the mainland U.S., Rios added.
.
"All Latin American countries have Afro-Latin populations," she said.
"Being Latino and of African heritage are not mutually exclusive."
It remains to be seen whether Latinos will transform the racial divide
in
America.
"Around the edges it is very fuzzy," said Passel, the demographer from
the
Urban Institute. "My own sense of this as we go into the future is
that it
is going to get less clear."
Some see a promising development for the U.S. in racial ambivalence.
"A lot
of us would argue that it could be a very healthy thing," said
Perlmann,
the Levy Institute scholar.
"The 'one drop rule' has not been the legacy of race relations, which
we
want to take pride in in this country," Perlmann added. "Anything that
confuses and muddles up those clear-cut categories and gives people a
sense
of the rich possibilities of intermingling is probably healthy."
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