Race and Ethnicity: A Perception of Black and Latino Relations

Who am I?

I am a black man who happens to have been born in Latin America. This makes me a black Latino or is it a Latino Black? Whatever. Anyway, it does make me somewhat “schizophrenic." Especially when I am caught speaking Spanish and people, including Latinos, give me an incredulous look: or when I am classified as Black and Latino to help some employer augment affirmative action figures. Now, if I could only qualify for two full-time salaries, my schizophrenia would be cured or at least rendered useful.

There was a time when I lived in Chicago and became friends with a man from Ecuador. He was a Chinese Ecuadorian, or was he and Ecuadorian Chinese?  In any event, people literally stopped and stared at us as we spoke Spanish on the streets of the “windy city.” They seemed surprised to see what they thought was someone from “China” and someone from “Mississippi,” as some brothers kidded me, speaking Spanish. I remain convinced that they were oblivious to the concept of KwameTuré’s Pan-Africanism or heard of Peru’s President Alberto Fujimori, activist Piri Thomas or intellectual Henry Cisneros.

My father was born in Barbados, West Indies (I blame that one on Christopher Columbus. Remember him? He was lost!), and my mother in the Republic of Panamá where I was born and grew up. Though I experienced discrimination in Panamá, including the United States dominated Canal Zone; I did not become intimately acquainted with racism until I came to the United States a few years later.

The Race Question in Latin America and in the United States

Though slavery visited Latin America better than one hundred years before it became an American “peculiar institution,” and black Latin Americans share a heritage with their Black American brothers and sisters, similarities in skin color does not a tradition make. Issues of color in the United States are generally the same and affect black Latinos in varying degrees, as severely as they affect Black Americans. However, Latinos of color are often reluctant to embrace the anti-racist Black American “cause,” which is, in many respects, foreign to Latinos. Black Latinos who often find themselves discriminated against twice because of cultural/linguistic variables and color, also find themselves (along with other Latinos) left out of many affirmative action plans and competing against Black Americans for a piece of the proverbial pie crumb. Both black and white Latinos, coincidentally, suffer discrimination in the United States because of language and related cultural differences. This common bondage frequently overrides race and acts as a unifying force in the Latino community.

Let us examine some of this reasoning further. Though Latin America, like the United States, was built to a large extent on the backs of black African slaves, the Catholic influence in Latin America, some (e.g. Tannenbaum, and Morner) will argue, allowed for a “slave with a soul” as opposed to the United States’ “chattel” approach to slavery.

This differing view resulted in a Latin America which apologizes for its past and denies discriminatory behavior in its present. Indeed, the whitening-out or mixing of races (“La raza cósmica”—Vasconcelos, or Barbosa’s “el blanqueamiento de la raza”) seen in Latin America, may be a way of erasing the past and “improving” the lot of non-whites in today’s discriminatory world.

The abomination of slavery and its carry-over, racism, are openly discussed and attacked in the United States; whereas, Latin America is still caught up in an embarrassment since “nice Catholics don’t do such atrocious things.” In fact, the resulting whitening-out remedy has been so successful that it is sometimes difficult to find a Latin American, of any color, who has a black ancestor. “?Y dónde está tu abuela?” or “Where is your grandmother?” is a common question posed to those who claim to be or act “White.” With some research an African connection can always be found.

Discrimination against non-whites exists in Latin America as it does in the United States. However, money, hair texture, and education help black Latinos to move up the racial ladder more readily than their Black American counterparts. I developed a diagram (“Racismo al estilo paname?o”) which shows that there are at least nine rungs on the Panamanian “racial ladder” including “Machigua” (Native American), “Trigue?o” (mixed race, usually Spaniard and African), and the bottom rung chombo (the equivalent of “nigger”). The pejoratives “Chombo” and “Zambo”(West Indian and Native American) is used primarily to identify black Panamanians of West Indian heritage (primarily Africans)—the Panama Canal builders. I, a “Moreno,” am a lighter complected “Chombo” yet, still a “Chombo.” The diagram is not unlike the situation throughout Latin America. More moneyed or educated individuals tend to move up regardless of color; of course, never reaching the very top which is reserved for the espa?ol or europeo or blanco (“rabi blanco”)—Spaniard, European, White or Anglo).

On the other hand, the powerless and poor always seem to be darker in complexion. An examination of the “haves” and “have-nots” in Latin America will verify this observation. In the coming months, Americans visiting Cuba for the first time may find a more West Indian mix of people due to its location. Africans were first brought to the West Indies to be indoctrinated in preparation for their future servitude in the Americas.

What I Learned about Racism

I first learned about slavery in Panamá when I was a senior in high school. This information was shared by a white Panamanian teacher who for ten brief minutes talked about “Africans being brought to Panamá to work the fields because our native Indians refused to do the work.” This information left me with a bitter feeling which was not resolved until I began graduate school in the United States a few years later. I discovered that not only was there slavery in every Latin American country, but more amazingly, the town of Portobelo in Panamá was a key port through which much of the Latin American slavery activity occurred. This realization of my common background with Black Americans forced me to embrace the “cause” with the Reverend Jessie Jackson and others in Chicago and elsewhere. I guess I always did feel discriminated against even in my home town of Colón. Somehow I felt a bit inferior to my white or straight-haired, Caucasian-looking compatriots. It seems I have been fighting discrimination all my life.

My first full encounter with racism U.S. style was experienced during the time I sought an apartment in, what was unbeknownst to me at the time, an all white Evanston, Illinois development and was turned down. I later found out that a white applicant with inferior qualifications was accepted for the apartment. I litigated and won the case, largely pro se, after four years. Thus, desegregating the apartment development; yet, the reality of racism in the U.S. was carved into my soul. The experiences related to this incident are chronicled in my book I Might as Well Move to the Moon, for those of you who may need convincing that housing discrimination is still alive and well and living in the U.S.A.

Recommendations for Improving Black American and Latino Relations

If Black Americans (“African Americans”) and Latinos are to enjoy better relationships, it is imperative for both groups to discuss and understand the following issues.

1. Latinos must realize that the United States’ culture historically operates on a two color (black/white) discriminatory basis as opposed to Latin America’s variables of hair texture, fluency in Spanish, complexion, education and money. These differences are not as significant in U.S. culture. By so doing, Latinos will understand how others see/treat them—black or white.
2. Black Americans should understand that the major stresses in the life of Latinos (black and white) are not necessarily color. Many who live in a tri-ethnic/racial (black, white and Latino) existence, are not even aware of the discriminatory forces acting against them. The major stresses are often issues of immigration, assimilation (or culture shock), their identity in a predominantly black and white society, language (Spanish vs. English), poverty and communication (or lack of) among the various Latino groups represented in a given area. These groups, with their unique idiosyncratic differences, include Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Cubans, and at least a dozen others. The term “Hispanic,” which is not used in this discussion, incidentally is an American concoction designed to label several distinct groups of people. The designation began with “Spanish American,” Spanish Speaking,” “Other…”
3. Latinos must recognize the racist factor which not only oppresses them but pits them against Black Americans and vice-versa. The wisdom of uniting for a common cause—to fight racism wherever it exists—should be the agenda of all people of color.
4. Black Americans must become aware of the fact that because one is black in color it does not necessarily mean that there is a common culture. It often takes a major part of a lifetime for Latinos to assimilate. Black Americans should not expect black Latinos, Haitians, Jamaicans, and others of color to instantly embrace the “cause”; for these groups must be allowed to “settle in” before they are patiently educated about the realities of discrimination and racism in this culture. Clearly, the United States’ variety of racism is more severe than Latin America’s and has to be experienced and or learned.
5. Latinos must study and learn the English language well enough to interact with Black Americans on the racial issues of the day, including affirmative action, systemic racism, and the new racism or so called “color blind” civil rights within the broader scope of critical race theory.
6. Black Americans must realize that when Latinos stick together it is not always because of racial reasons; it is instead because of similar reasons why Black Americans stick together—familiarity, and commonality in culture and language. Further, it is important to note that the term Latino (or Hispanic) is not a racial category, it is an ethnic category which includes race but is more complex. Let me illustrate this further. If Black American were visiting Brazil, he/she would be more apt to make friends with another American visitor, even if he/she were white, than with a black Brazilian stranger who speaks only Portuguese. The similarity here is ethnicity—culture (e.g., language) etc.—rather than color. Most of the world is non-white, but this apparent similarity is lost unless there is communication.
7. Latinos and Black Americans should make a better attempt to trust and welcome those whites who are sincerely committed to the “cause.” Their help can be invaluable in a hostile society.

In sum, it would appear that there is a lack of trust and awareness on both sides; and things will remain the same until dialogue and understanding begin, on racial and related issues, between Latinos and Black Americans; for it is clear that an informed and equitable united front is the true solution to the inequity that is common to both groups.

Lastly, a Spanish sounding surname does not a Latino make. Be very afraid of Latinos who are Republican. In the Latino community, we judge real Latinos by what they say and do regarding Latinos. Listen to activists/politicians Joaquín and Julián Castro, Dolores Huerta, the National Council of La Raza, et al., to learn more of what we need to know about Latinos during the course of the coming elections.