Two reports from the Pew Research Center reveal the problems of discrimination that Latino populations face among themselves, including a percentage of Afro-Latinos who do not even consider themselves Latino.
In addition to this, people born in any of the 50 states of the country are less discriminated against (12%) by other Latinos, unlike those born in Puerto Rico or in another country (32%), that is, immigrants from these populations face greater rejection among their own people.
“Around a quarter of Latino adults say they have personally experienced discrimination or unfair treatment from other Latinos,” says one of the analyzes based on different surveys. “Having darker skin and being born outside of the United States are characteristics associated with a higher likelihood of experiencing this type of discrimination.”
Latino populations reveal that they are more likely to experience discrimination or unfair treatment of non-Latinos, regardless of skin color or country of birth.
In it 23% of Latino Spanish speakers said they had been criticized for speaking Spanish in public, but in recent 12 months, the 20 % of all Latinos acknowledged having been called offensive names, Pew indicates .
“Sometimes Latinos themselves discriminate against other Latinos or make racially insensitive comments or jokes about other Latinos,” it stands out.
Skin color is one of the main causes of discrimination among Latinos, since 41% acknowledged having received unfair treatment for it from other Latinos. The percentage of people with lighter skin with this problem drops to 25%.
The 31% of members of Latino populations acknowledge that they have been discriminated against or have received unfair treatment by people who are not from their communities.
“The color of the skin is also related to the proportion of Hispanics who say that this has happened to them”, it is added.
While the 42% of Hispanics with darker skin were more prone to such actions, the 29% of those who have lighter skin report the same problem.
Refusal to be Hispanic
One in seven Afro-Latinos denies being Hispanic, that is, about 800,, according to the Pew report.
In 2020, there were about six million Afro-Latino adults in the US and they made up approximately 2% of the adult population in the country and the % of the Latino adult population.
“ The multiple dimensions of Latino identity reflect Latin America’s long colonial history, during which there was intermingling of Native Americans, white Europeans, Asians, and African slaves.
It is estimated that, in the colonial period of Latin America, some 15 times more African slaves were taken to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies than to the US
“Around 130 Millions of Afro-descendants live in Latin America, and represent approximately a quarter of the total population of the region”, indicates the report with recent estimates from the Project on Ethnicity and Race in Latin America (PERLA) at Princeton University.
The study indicates that this history has led to the social experiences – and discrimination – of Afro-Latinos being determined by race and skin tone, “in ways that differ from other Hispanics,” it adds.