Scholarly Commons

Race and Colorism in the Latinx Community

Afro-Latinx people in the United States have long been rendered invisible due to lack of representation in media produced in both Latin American and mainstream American culture. As they come into visibility through the use of social media and popular culture spaces, specifically Hip-Hop, they face particular challenges and negotiations surrounding their claims and performances of both Blackness and Latinidad. This is largely due to the structural binary that posits Black and White as the two poles of race in the United States, notions of racial/ethnic authenticity, and how colorism operates within the Latinx and Black communities which influence how Afro-Latinx people may identify. By using Afro-Latinx people, who are associated with Hip-Hop Culture as a case study, and Twitter as a virtual field site, I seek to understand the distinct negotiations that Afro-Latinx people face surrounding their blackness in the United States.