TIME to Think in Full Color About Race & Ethnicity |
TIME to Think in Full Color About Race & Ethnicity
Marcia Alesan Dawkins, Ph.D.
2012-02-25
Marcia Alesan Dawkins, Visiting Scholar
Brown University
TIME Magazine’s latest cover story (Feb. 2/24) is called “Yo Decido. Why Latinos will pick the next President.” It reports that about 9% of all voters in 2012 will be Latino, up 26% from four years ago. While the Latin@ vote is definitely an important and interesting and game-changing political development, the most interesting thing about this story isn’t the headline or the article’s statistics. It’s the cover (left).
The cover claims to feature 20 portraits of Latin@s with captions. Some are individual or occupational descriptions like dancer, DREAMer, nutrition undergrad, car aficionado and immigration activist. Other descriptions are nation-oriented, like Mexicans, Hondurans and Guatemalans.
Here’s the problem: In reality, the cover features only 19 portraits of Latin@s and one man who passes as Latino but actually identifies himself as multiracial—half Chinese and half White. According to Michelle Woo at the OC Weekly, “That man is Michael Schennum, is the short-haired gentleman in the top row, center, behind the letter ‘M.’ He is half Chinese and half White. Not Latino. Not even a little bit.”…
…Sociologists have identified two patterns emerging in US multiracial communities. Asian / Whites and Latin@ / Whites tend to acknowledge and celebrate all aspects of their backgrounds but live life as Whites, especially if their fathers are White. Black / Whites and Black / Asian, Black / Latin@s tend to celebrate all aspects of their backgrounds but live their lives as Black…
Read the entire article here.
Tags: Marcia A. Dawkins, Marcia Alesan Dawkins, Marcia Dawkins, TIME Magazine