Now, you can read this or this if you really want to dive into why this whole Latino/Hispanic Census White silliness is so complicated, just watch this:
This video is important, but also complicated. 1) It certainly suggests what many of us know to be true: that Latin Americans (and here Mexicans are mostly representative) have racism/prejudice against “los indios.” However, the interviewing method seems flawed. I wonder if the people that were interviewed knew exactly what was being asked? Do they understand what “nativo americano” actually means? That it is the equivalent of “indio” or “indigena”? I seriously wonder whether things may have turned out even a little differently if they had understood that they were being asked whether they identified with “indio” when given the options. 2) The interviewer seems to work off of the assumption that these categories actually *mean* anything. They don’t. “Race” doesn’t exist. It’s a social construct. Racism does exist, however, and it’s a problem. But the interviewer is shoving categories at people to make a point about their prejudice, when these categories themselves have been historically oppressive and continue to be so. 3) The categories are problematic in their nature, and obviously in their execution and function since Latina/os can’t find themselves in the census. That should be a huge red flag that something is wrong; it’s understandable that these categories are used to track the progress (or the lack of it) of certain demographics in an attempt to reverse the effects of injustices. However, it doesn’t make any sense to brainwash these folks into thinking about themselves in categories that are foreign to them. THAT’s oppressive. The lede for this video, in my opinion, should have been something like “Interviews demonstrate the irrelevance of US census racial categories for Spanish-language dominant Latina/os.”
This video is important, but also complicated. 1) It certainly suggests what many of us know to be true: that Latin Americans (and here Mexicans are mostly representative) have racism/prejudice against “los indios.” However, the interviewing method seems flawed. I wonder if the people that were interviewed knew exactly what was being asked? Do they understand what “nativo americano” actually means? That it is the equivalent of “indio” or “indigena”? I seriously wonder whether things may have turned out even a little differently if they had understood that they were being asked whether they identified with “indio” when given the options. 2) The interviewer seems to work off of the assumption that these categories actually *mean* anything. They don’t. “Race” doesn’t exist. It’s a social construct. Racism does exist, however, and it’s a problem. But the interviewer is shoving categories at people to make a point about their prejudice, when these categories themselves have been historically oppressive and continue to be so. 3) The categories are problematic in their nature, and obviously in their execution and function since Latina/os can’t find themselves in the census. That should be a huge red flag that something is wrong; it’s understandable that these categories are used to track the progress (or the lack of it) of certain demographics in an attempt to reverse the effects of injustices. However, it doesn’t make any sense to brainwash these folks into thinking about themselves in categories that are foreign to them. THAT’s oppressive. The lede for this video, in my opinion, should have been something like “Interviews demonstrate the irrelevance of US census racial categories for Spanish-language dominant Latina/os.”
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