Saw this book recommended, so I'm passing it on!
“Profound and revelatory, Racial Innocence tackles head-on the insidious grip of white supremacy on our communities and how we all might fre
Racial Innocence will challenge what you thought about racism and bias and demonstrate that it’s possible for a historically marginalized group to experience discrimination and also be discriminatory. Racism is deeply complex, and law professor and comparative race relations expert Tanya Katerí Hernández exposes “the Latino racial innocence cloak” that often veils Latino complicity in racism.
As Latinos are the second-largest ethnic group in the US, this revelation is critical to dismantling systemic racism. Basing her work on interviews, discrimination case files, and civil rights law, Hernández reveals Latino anti-Black bias in the workplace, the housing market, schools, places of recreation, the criminal justice system, and Latino families.
By focusing on racism perpetrated by communities outside those of White non-Latino people, Racial Innocence brings to light the many Afro-Latino and African American victims of anti-Blackness at the hands of other people of color. Through exploring the interwoven fabric of discrimination and examining the cause of these issues, we can begin to move toward a more egalitarian society.
The quote at the bottom about Latino leaders of white supremacist groups really is a good one. There's a conversation to be had about how people believe "Latino" automatically means "not white" (even though it's not a race), and that Latinos are incapable of antiblackness due to their own complex relationships with race and Whiteness. Conversations better held by Latinos- particularly Afro-Latinos- than I, but certainly something I feel is a constant misunderstanding (maybe even purposeful) that doesn't help.
