Why ‘White-Passing’ Is White Supremacy

Three Reasons White-Latinx Need to Identify as Just White

“Ok, Gayle, enough!” Those were the sharp condescending words of the infamous Miya Ponsetto (a.k.a: ‘Soho Karen’) during her CBS interview with Gayle King. In the same interview, Ponsetto delivered a cringeworthy notion and claimed she couldn’t be racist because she’s Puerto Rican; therefore, a woman of color. Like me, Miya is a white-Latinx person and whom, at the very least, many people would call a ‘white-passing’ person, not a person of color (P.O.C.). There’s an intense denial of our racial identity among several white-Latinx people. That explains why we inevitably reproduce the same racism and anti-Blackness that Ponsetto perpetuated. White-passing Latinx need clarity on our racial identity and need to take responsibility for our whiteness and stop perpetuating anti-Blackness.

White Supremacy is baked into the American psyche, and an anti-Black sentiment is only one of its tenets. As an independent sociologist, I recognize I did not escape this inherent socialization. Yes, I’ve had oppressive experiences caused by the white people around me. Yes, it’s been painful; however, I’ve equally benefitted from my Spanish colonizer whiteness at the expense and underserved disadvantage of Black people. I’ve recently understood myself racially as a white person…