The Race wars: The Latin American Social Experience in the United States

Miguel Vega

The Race wars: The Latin American Social Experience in the United States

Race in the United States can open up a lot of opportunities or can close many doors to the American dream especially when talking about Latino immigration within the United States, in this blog I will talk about how race in the Hispanic community is socially affected within the United States.

A good example that shows how race in the United States is a driving factor in social hierarchy are the Brazilian immigrants. These immigrants have set their own standards of race identification compared to what the United States quota of racial identification. A Brazilian living in the United States might look physically Black but they might consider themselves as white that is because most Brazilians racially identify themselves based on their past relatives rather than on phenotype, so for example if an Afro-Brazilian had a white grandmother they will identify themselves as white. This is an advantage to this group of Hispanics because their assimilation within U.S society is much more fluent since they start off identifying themselves as either black or white so the part that makes them foreign quickly disappears. This might provoke a racial dilemma in the United States since race and who identifies themselves within a race stirs up a lot of controversy since immigrants often have a different view in who can be considered a certain race, this notion is talked about in the article To be or not to be (Hispanic or Latino) Brazilian racial and ethnic identity in the United States by Helen Marrow¹ , Marrow states “New immigrants enter the USA with their own notions of race and ethnicity, formed by different historical processes in their countries of origin. Upon their arrival, they ‘learn’ and react to predominant US notions of race and ethnicity, quickly figuring out where the USA and its natives ‘see’ them.”¹

In the article To be or not to be (Hispanic or Latino) Brazilian racial and ethnic identity in the United States by Helen Marrow¹ a study was made in which immigrants where asked about how they fit into U.S society when they assert their race and culture, what resulted was that race and ethnicity is the one force that determines how high or how low you are put in the social hierarchies of the United States. Marrow also explain how Hispanics or Latinos have tried to whitening themselves by mixing in with the white populations she explained that the main reason for inter race coupling is to better assimilate into society. This example is very important because Latinos in the United States begin to lose their racial identity and ultimately their culture. This also happens because of how much more whites make compared to Hispanics in terms of money, the website http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/12/racial-wealth-gaps-great-recession/ states “the wealth of white households is now more than 10 times the wealth of Hispanic households, compared with nine times the wealth in 2010.” This fact supports why many Hispanics would want to racially identify themselves differently to be better off in society. the illustration shows the median net worth of households in 2013 which has Hispanics at the very bottom. 

An example of losing your racial identity is seen Within U.S born immigrant children where race becomes a questionable thought since most people born in the United States tend to leave behind their roots and identify themselves within the race they are most comfortable with when growing up.  As explained by the article To be or not to be (Hispanic or Latino) Brazilian racial and ethnic identity in the United States by Helen Marrow¹ children leave behind their culture because they spend most of their time in school and do not experience the same knowledge language and customs as their parents once did in their home countries this provides a lot of explanation to why race isn’t enforced when talking to U.S born immigrant people. 

The website http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/04/04/when-labels-dont-fit-hispanics-and-their-views-of-identity/ states “U.S.-born Hispanics (who now make up 48% of Hispanic adults in the country) express a stronger sense of affinity with other Americans and America than do immigrant Hispanics.” This evidence further supports the claim that Hispanics born in America are losing their identification.

Social change in the Hispanic community can be directly correlated with racial identification, as I informed you race is the force that will open doors but can also impact a person in a negative way if they identify themselves within the low levels of the social Hierarchy that is found in the United States.

¹Helen Marrow. To be or not to be (Hispanic or Latino) Brazilian racial and ethnic identity in the United States. Sage Publications: April 12, 2015. Web. 

Source for Illustration: http://www.pewresearch.org