3 ms·

I'm a "white passing" Hispanic. There is no material benefit, ever, from me declaring myself to be white. Applying to job? Applying to school? Always Hispanic.

I'm a "white passing" Hispanic. There is no material benefit, ever, from me declaring myself to be white. Applying to job? Applying to school? Always Hispanic. I've even had countless conversations turn around when I'm suddenly allowed to have a particular opinion, or discuss a certain topic, when it is made clear that I am Hispanic. If I were a white person discovering any degree of non-whiteness in my genealogy, I would sure understand the appeal of clinging to it.

JPKab 5y ago
It's almost as if conferring special privileges and innate knowledge on people because of their group identity is absurd and creates silly incentives.
scarecrowbob 5y ago
Yeah, as a person with a diverse racial background from Texas since before it was Texas (relevant cause of the opinion I'm getting to spout), you might be right that there "is no material benefit, ever, from me declaring myself to be white." I personally think race is a wholly made up concept, so it's a bit vexed to add it into how institutions deal with folks. What you're writing made me think about something that's omitted from what you're writing: almost all of the benefits I've had from how folks interpret my race have come from -not- having to say explicitly how my race should be interpreted. So, while I get what you're trying to say, where I live most racism exists in the unspoken assumptions about how people act. As such much of that racial bias is very difficult to point out to people because it's like trying to point out water to fish.
pessimizer 5y ago
You're white-passing. There's no need to "declare" yourself white, everyone who sees you does it for you. Also there's no contradiction between being Hispanic and white, so I'm assuming that you're saying that you have some ancestors who were here more than 600 years ago.
bangkoksbest 5y ago
Don't Americans split off Hispanic status as a separate question? That's what I've encountered when filling in US forms... There's plenty of white people in Latin America, and race is, if anything, much more rigidly stratifying there than it is even in USA. It's not a coincidence that if you visit Miami, you'd imagine Cubans were a fairly white-dominated population, but if you visited Cuba itself you'd find that's not at all the case.

JPKab 5y ago

It's almost as if conferring special privileges and innate knowledge on people because of their group identity is absurd and creates silly incentives.

scarecrowbob 5y ago

Yeah, as a person with a diverse racial background from Texas since before it was Texas (relevant cause of the opinion I'm getting to spout), you might be right that there "is no material benefit, ever, from me declaring myself to be white." I personally think race is a wholly made up concept, so it's a bit vexed to add it into how institutions deal with folks. What you're writing made me think about something that's omitted from what you're writing: almost all of the benefits I've had from how folks interpret my race have come from -not- having to say explicitly how my race should be interpreted. So, while I get what you're trying to say, where I live most racism exists in the unspoken assumptions about how people act. As such much of that racial bias is very difficult to point out to people because it's like trying to point out water to fish.

pessimizer 5y ago

You're white-passing. There's no need to "declare" yourself white, everyone who sees you does it for you. Also there's no contradiction between being Hispanic and white, so I'm assuming that you're saying that you have some ancestors who were here more than 600 years ago.

bangkoksbest 5y ago

Don't Americans split off Hispanic status as a separate question? That's what I've encountered when filling in US forms... There's plenty of white people in Latin America, and race is, if anything, much more rigidly stratifying there than it is even in USA. It's not a coincidence that if you visit Miami, you'd imagine Cubans were a fairly white-dominated population, but if you visited Cuba itself you'd find that's not at all the case.