Publishers Weekly
05/02/2022
Fordham University law professor Hernández (Multiracials) debunks in this tightly focused and persuasive study the notion that “Latinos can’t be racist.” Spotlighting prejudice against Black Americans from Latinos who consider themselves “white,” as well as the stigma faced by Afro-Latinos, Hernández contends that “negative attitudes toward Blackness in general and Black Americans in particular develop long before immigrants land in the United States,” and that Latinos in the U.S. can be more racist than even native-born whites. Drawing on recent legal cases, she shows that Afro-Latinos have faced similar struggles to African Americans when seeking equal access to public spaces, educational institutions, workplaces, and housing, and that many incidents of discrimination were perpetrated by “white” Latinos in places like Miami and Puerto Rico. Hernández also claims that Afro-Latinos suffer more negative health outcomes than Latinos “socially perceived as more European descended”; details episodes of racialized violence committed by Latinos, including Peruvian-American George Zimmerman’s killing of Trayvon Martin; and describes how her own mother’s “darker skin tone and African tresses” were disdained by her Puerto Rican family. Lucid case studies, diligent research, and the author’s willingness to tackle controversial topics head-on distinguish this distressing examination of racism’s insidious effects. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
Lucid case studies, diligent research, and the author’s willingness to tackle controversial topics head-on distinguish this distressing examination of racism’s insidious effects.”
—Publishers Weekly
“An important book that reveals the many ‘interwoven complexities’ of American racism.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Hernández’s critical investigation of a sensitive topic that is often overlooked by many scholars of racism—and which is often ignored by many Latino Studies scholars themselves—is much needed and commendable.”
—Ethnic and Racial Studies
“Hernández has not only written a much-needed book for judges and attorneys; she has also written a book for readers like me… Hernández has written a book where people like me feel like whole human beings rather than bifurcated versions of ourselves."
—Yalidy Matos, The American Prospect
“This is a revelatory book for those surprised by Latino leaders of white supremacist groups, racist comments from Latino Los Angeles City Council members or the colorism of In the Heights. It is painful vindication for Black Latinos and African Americans who, like me, experience Latino racism in their personal and professional lives.”
—Ariana Curtis, Smithsonian Magazine
“A critical race theory tour de force for understanding Latino anti-Black bias, from the most important Afro-Latina voice on civil rights today.”
—Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
“Profound and revelatory, Racial Innocence tackles head-on the insidious grip of white supremacy on our communities and how we all might free ourselves from its predation. Tanya Katerí Hernández is fearless and brilliant, and her work is exactly what we need in this challenging times. And that final chapter! What fire!”
—Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
“Dr. Hernández is a brilliant scholar who provides critical analyses of the complexities of race and anti-Black bias as it operates throughout the Americas. Her insights are essential for understanding our contemporary sociopolitical landscape.”
—Imani Perry, author of South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
“Tanya Hernández is one of the nation’s foremost scholars regarding racial beliefs among Latin Americans, here and abroad. With nuance and care, her latest book drags into the light the explosive and critically important topic of Latino anti-Blackness.”
—Ian F. Haney López, Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Public Law, University of California, Berkeley
“The racial fantasy is over! In this wonderful yet painful book, Professor Hernández skillfully exposes Latinos’ anti-Blackness. With an impressive command of sources, data, and cases, she stitches together the thick story of racial exclusion, maltreatment, and discrimination against Blacks by people who claim to be racially mixed and ‘color-blind.’ Her book made a Black Puerto Rican man like me cry and get angry (too many memories) but also realize that airing our ‘dirty laundry’ is vital to fight this unacknowledged racism. Bravo, Professor Hernández for daring to address this taboo subject!”
—Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, author of Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States
Kirkus Reviews
2022-06-04
An expert on comparative race law lifts the “cloak that veils Latino complicity in US racism.”
In her latest sociolegal study, Hernández—a Fulbright scholar and professor at Fordham Law whose previous books include Racial Subordination in Latin America—shares personal stories and legal case studies to expose the often overlooked or ignored racism within the Latinx community in the areas of schooling, housing, employment, and public spaces from the 1960s to today. As an Afro-Latina, the author is keenly aware of the ignorance surrounding this taboo subject, and her narrative is a satisfying mix of academic research and illustrative individual anecdotes. “Anti-Black racism that arises outside the unfortunately familiar US frame of White non-Hispanic versus African American bias can be mystifying for many people,” she writes. “This is in part because US Blackness is primarily conceived of as embodied solely by English-speaking African Americans….This skewed vision is only compounded by how Latino communities themselves marginalize or entirely erase the existence of Afro-Latinos.” Hernández works incrementally through many cases demonstrating the deleterious effects of “externally perceived racial status,” exposing how Afro-Latinos are often subordinated and excluded in areas such as restaurant dining, school attendance, appearing before Latino judges, seeking jobs, and finding housing. Hernández also examines how the mechanics of the national census reflect not only elements of anti-Blackness on the part of Latinos, but also an “overarching Latino exaltation of Whiteness.” Throughout, the author’s examples are startling, and she concludes with a poignant chronicle of her own family story. In the end, she writes, “many Latinos deny the existence of prejudice against Afro-Latinos and any ‘true’ Latino racism against African Americans. This denial is rooted in the Latino mestizaje (racial mixture discourse) cultural notion that as a uniquely racially mixed people Latinos are incapable of racist attitudes.”
An important book that reveals the many “interwoven complexities” of American racism.
