I got into an argument recently with some Puerto Ricans and I am convinced that what they are passing off as progressive acknowledgement of their ethnic heritage is thinly disguised anti-blackness.
I say this because I pose the question, "are you black". And they refused to answer the question with anything other than well I am black and Puerto Rican. There point was just answering they are black requires them to negate or ignore their Puerto Rican Heritage. I say that's bullshit because that assumes that blackness is separate and distinct from being a Puerto Rican when we know that the ethnicity Puerto Rican can range from white, native to blackness and a mix of them all. So to say I don't consider myself black, I consider myself black and Puerto Rican, I can't get pass the first statement (I don't consider myself (just) black). As if there is something wrong with being just black.
And this isn't just a minor quibble. I see this attitude associated with a fixation on color and hair texture and phenotype in general among certain Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and even Haitians. I am sure its all over the Carribean and Latin America but this is what I have seen first hand. Like it was said, the same thing happens here but I think the discussion is light years ahead in many regards. I think the more progressive crowd here figured out the way to deal with racism and colorism is not colorblindness, but embracing and acknowledging your African roots. Yeah its reductive to see everything in black and white and I am not clinging to any one drop rule, but I can't believe conflating race with ethnicity to avoid discussing race is the answer either.
I remember this discussion here about this and revisited and I don't know if I noticed the excellent points made in 13# and 25#.
********** "Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson