“What Are You?”: Racial Ambiguity and the Social Construction of Race in the Us Page: 35
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comprised of European (usually Spanish or Portuguese), indigenous or Indian, and African
strains (Roth, 2006; Rodriguez, 2006; Bonilla-Silva, 2002). Blanqueamiento means whitening
and it refers to the Latin American practice of allowing lighter skinned people to enjoy some of
the privileges and status of white people even though they have African or indigenous heritage.
Among some Latin Americans blanqueamiento means that the skin color of potential mates is
greatly determined by whether they are light skinned enough to produce light skinned offspring.
The practice is similar to that used by members of the light-skinned elites among African
Americans to protect their high status through producing light-skinned children. In much of Latin
America, black ancestry goes unacknowledged, and so one can be white or in the elite as long as
one does not acknowledge one's black heritage. In his recent PBS television series "Black in
Latin America," Henry Louis Gates said in Mexico this is often referred to as "having a black
grandmother in the closet," meaning that many people have African ancestry but they do not
speak of it.
A key difference between Latin American blanqueamiento and the way race is
determined in the U.S. is that the Latin American system allows one to claim being white or of a
higher racial status than darker skinned people even if one has a black relative or ancestor. In the
U.S. system of hypo-descent, one black ancestor even several generations back disqualifies one
from claiming to be white. In the U.S. racial classification not only demands that individuals
claim one racial identity and one only, but also places more weight on racial/ethnic minority
group membership than on being white when it comes to determining racial classification. A
person who is black and white cannot claim to be white, he or she must always say he or she is
black. Russell, Wilson and Hall (1992) discuss this contradiction in their book, The Color
Complex, which is about the colorism among black people. They cited the example of late35
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Smith, Starita. “What Are You?”: Racial Ambiguity and the Social Construction of Race in the Us, dissertation, May 2012; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc115163/m1/42/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .