Are Their any Black Latinos?

The existence of Afro Latinos and dark skin African Americans in United States media is non-existent. It is very abnormal to see dark people of color on television shows and movies screens in the United States playing leading roles in a positive way. Jonathan A. Barrera Mikulich is the owner of Latino Branding Power, a web portal dedicated to exploring the ideas, strategies, and insights that deliver cultural value within Hispanic marketing communications and branding. He states “that it is rare to find Afro-Latinos cast in roles for movies and television, even in those that feature Latino characters.” (Jonathan A. Barrera Mikulich) This quote shows how African – Latinos are not currently apart of the United States media or culture because they are black Latinos, and normally Latinos featured in films in United States look white. The exclusion of a certain complexions of minorities has been done for many years  African Americans with lighter skin was given special preference and today Latinos with lighter skin is given special preference in the media. Sociologists say the preference put on people with lighter complexions in the media creates stereotypes and discrimination of darker people because they are seen as less intelligent or villains because they do not look closer to the white majority. (Kimmel and Aronson23) Sociologists says history plays a big role in colorism because it has caused people to degrade darker complexions within their race; this is due to the way that they were depicted and treated by society throughout history especially during the era of slavery and Jim Crow. By breaking down colorism it helps tell the true history of people with Afro descent.

1.       1. Kimmel, Michael. Sociology Now. Custom . 1. New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Boston, San Francisco, Singapore, Madrid, Cape Town: Pearson, 2009. 248. Print.

      2. Mun2tv, , dir. Black and Latina

           So Black Latinos are not able to play Latino roles.

The Perception of African, Native, and Latino American Culture

This week in class we talked about culture in the United States particularly African, Latino, and Native Americans. So, what is culture and who shows the way your culture is portrayed in the world.   In the United States as an African American woman there is certain things in society that our stereotypes of women of my culture. Like there is this thing of over sexuality, welfare, and ghetto but this is also something that Native and Latino Americans face.

Kelis, My Milkshake 

(Video 1) This video shows how black women our seen as over sexual can be something that someone not in my culture can see as a normal thing for African American women.  This of course is not true for many black women. This video does not represent my mom, grandma, or aunts and it does not represent me.

In this blog the two disciplines I am using to analyze this video is history and politics. I used history and politics because history is what started the over sexuality of African American, Latino and Native American women. 

1. Kelis, Milkshake.(C)2003 Arista Records, Ink.

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGL2rytTraA 

No Representation For Latinos in America Media

Join The Movement 

No Representation of Afro Latinos and African Americans in the media divides or community. “Differences in skin tone and phenotype among black people do have meaning in the United States, especially for blacks with the darkest skin tones and the least European phenotypes. Sociology studies indicate that blacks and whites, and perhaps other nonwhites, distinguish among blacks based on skin tone.”(Banks) This quote shows how colorism in the Black and Latino communities do exist and how even people of different ethnicity can see the divide. This divide can especially be seen in the media. Look at the number of dark African Americans and Latino Americans seen in the media playing positive influential roles are just being spot lighted. Wallace Thurman in 1929 in his book, “ the Blacker the Berry” says  In the African American community, skin color, an ascribed status attribute, played an integral role in determining class distinctions”( Thurman) This show how there is a separation based on the complexion of are skin in communities of color. This separation is because the media continues to show people of lighter complexion to satisfy the white majority in the United States.  Allowing dark Latino Americans and African Americans to be seen in the media helps destroy negative stereotypes placed during the Jim Crow era and eliminates colorism. Kai Beasley in her article “Black Students Still Favor Lighter Skin,” shows how even in society today people with lighter complexions are admired over dark skin. Even though many critics say the media business does not discriminate on color but does whatever involves the most money.

Work Cited

       Beasley, Kai. "Black Students Still Favor Lighter Skin, Study Finds." | THE BLACK COLLEGIAN     ARCHIVES. n. page. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. <http://www.black-collegian.com/news/bcwire/bcwire_colorism_0607.htm>.

      Thurman, Wallace. 1929. The blacker the berry: A novel of Negro life. New York: Macmillan.   Turner, R. J., and S. Noh. 1983. Class and psychological vulnerability among women: The significance of social support and personal control. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 24:2-15.