Mixed Race Studies

Afro-Latino forum fosters dialogue on colorism, lived experiences

The Tufts Daily
The independent student newspaper of Tufts University
2011-12-01

Brionna Jimerson

Gabrielle Hernandez

Academic study and lived experience converged last night at the Afro−Latino Roundtable Forum, where an assembly of over 50 students, faculty and visiting speakers participated in a dialogue about the Afro−Latino experience in the United States.
 
The evening event was held in the Lincoln Filene Center. Associate Professor of Art and Art History Adriana Zavala explained that, although the event was originally planned to take place last year, last night’s event came at a good time, given increased discussion in recent months on the topics of race and ethnicity on campus.
 
“We’re incredibly happy it happened this semester, since we are in the midst of talking about activating race academically on campus,” she said.
 
The discussion took place on the heels of the release of The Afro−Latin@ Reader produced by Duke University, a collection of academic articles, poems, short stories, newspaper articles and personal testimonies about Afro−Latinos in the United States context. The Reader formed the base of last night’s discussion.
 
“The Reader is an attempt to document, at multiple levels, the history of African people of Latino descent in the United States,” Miriam Jiménez Román, executive director of the afro−latin@ forum and co−editor of the Reader, said
 
The Reader aims to look at historical racial hierarchy in the Afro−Latino community while unpacking the lived experiences of colorism — discrimination based on skin tone — according to James Jennings, contributing author of the Reader and Tufts professor of urban and environmental policy and planning…

…”The Reader is an attempt to document, at multiple levels, the history of African people of Latino descent in the United States,” Miriam Jimenez Román, executive director of the afro−latin@ forum and co−editor of the Reader, said
 
The Reader aims to look at historical racial hierarchy in the Afro−Latino community while unpacking the lived experiences of colorism — discrimination based on skin tone — according to James Jennings, contributing author of the Reader and Tufts professor of urban and environmental policy and planning…

…Román shared a real−life example of how race and colorism works within power structures, especially in the context of employment.
 
“In the Carolinas, there are 35,000 Afro−Mexicans working in processing plants,” she said. “Most people don’t understand them as Afro−Mexicans, and they’re ‘passing‘ for Puerto Ricans or Dominicans, because they’re dark enough.”…

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