Biracial Panel To Hispanics: Choose A Race

Organizers for Orange Country, Florida schools’ biracial committee have told Hispanics that they can participate once they have selected a race: black or white. We’ve said it often: Latino is not a race! It’s an ethnicity! But this has got us thinking: Can’t it be both?

Hispanics who are hoping to join the committee call its decision ridiculous. Says Emilio Pérez, president of the Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida and Shiny Copper Man:

What color do I get to pick because I’m more like copper-toned? And how would we include an Asian person in this debate?

And while there are plenty of white, black and people descended from all over Asia who are copper-colored - not to mention people of Middle-Eastern descent who are considered neither black nor white in American society - Perez’s question made us think. 

It’s always been easy for us to assert that “Hispanic” is not a racial category, that it’s an ethnic group comprised of people from different races, because we have the luxury of seeing things in, well. Black and white. We’ve always “looked white,” most of our ancestors came directly from Spain to Cuba or from France to Haiti without spending too much time on these islands (not that time is ever much of a factor when it comes to… involuntary racial blending). We suspect we may have a great-great-great-great-great grandfather out there who may have crossed into Spain from Morocco with some new vocabulary and a dream, but, for the most part, we’ve never had a problem checking “White. Like, translucent.” when it comes to surveys. 

But what about those members of the Latino community who have never seen a black person and whose only white ancestor wore a helmet and traveled by ship? These are people who are descended from those who trekked across the Bering strait wondering when McDonald’s and La Quinta inns would hurry up and get invented and who fall into the “Mongoloid” (Cállate, ok?) racial category. But so many of these “indigenous” Latinos are the result of generation upon generation of unknown and possibly unwanted biracial unions that it is impossible to shove them into any group other than, as our copper friend Emilio up there put it, “Multiracial.” Or, quite possibly, “Hispanic.” Or, if that’s a Eurocentric term implying that this particular group ever wanted to speak Spanish or pray the rosary or wear bowler hats, “Latino.” Or… 

"No one's winning this race." "Ay, Gloria. I really hate your stupid puns."

It’s tough. It’s tough to categorize people because people, wily things that they are, have a tendency to defy expectations and categorization. At one point does one stop becoming “black” or “white” or “Asian… but, like, not South Asian and also maybe your family hasn’t been in Asia for like three generations.” At one point do the pat, neat categories of Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongoloid stop being meaningful in terms of biology or society. Or have they been devoid of meaning for some time now, if they ever were?

We’ve often found ourselves struggling with the term “Latino” because we’re not sure what it means when it applies to such a broad and varied group of people who aren’t necessarily bounded by a common language, religion, race or way of life. Do we have anything in common other than the fact that, once upon a time, some Spanish and Portuguese guys couldn’t keep it in their pants? (No disrespect meant to our relatives currently living it up in Asturias and Galicia. We know most of y’all were farming and shepherding at the time, praying for central heat.)

Maybe Hispanic isn’t a race. But it is most certainly a racialized group and the xenophobia aimed at those who fit into this category doesn’t care how you define “Latino” or “Hispanic.” If people want to band together as a “Raza” of Latinos, who are we to tell them some increasingly outdated definitions on racial grouping can stop them?

To join biracial panel, choose a race, Orange tells Hispanics [Orlando Sentinal]