Racial innocence Unmasking Latino anti-Black bias and the struggle for equality

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.)

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. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.