Counter Racist Male
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Opinion | Puerto Ricans' Miss Universe response shows racism isn't just for white people
Puerto Ricans' Miss Universe response shows racism isn't just for white people
That our community's colorism is no longer a secret between us is a good thing because it forces us to confront our own ugliness.
Madison Anderson, of Puerto Rico, and Zozibini Tunzi, of South Africa, the final two contestants hold hands in the Miss Universe pageant at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta on Dec. 8, 2019.Elijah Nouvelage / Reuters
Dec. 15, 2019, 4:30 AM EST
By Susanne Ramírez de Arellano
Thousands of Puerto Ricans glued themselves to their various screens last week to watch what is a national sport. But it wasn't baseball - the other national obsession; it was the Miss Universe pageant. While it is true that Miss Universe is seen in the United States and in Europe as anachronistic and frankly a bit embarrassing, in Puerto Rico it is a reaffirmation of national identity and national pride. In short, for an island colonized and deeply divided by political ideologies, the pageant unites all Puerto Ricans under one banner — Miss Puerto Rico.
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Most of them hoped to see Miss Puerto Rico, Madison Anderson Berríos (who doesn't use her last name in competition) capture a sixth crown for the island. Anderson's own crown, though, hadn't come without controversy. The Puerto Rican public initially didn’t see her as Puerto Rican when she entered the pageant because she was not born on the island, didn’t speak Spanish and looked "American" with her light skin and fair hair. Her father also happens to be a bondholder who brings investors to the Caribbean, a sore subject as the island languishes under the weight of a $74 billion debt to Wall Street bondholders.
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Yet, among the awful postings, there also came a backlash, mostly from the younger generations, who will no longer stand for the discrimination, racism, and colorism in their midst.
“We were not born racist, but if we do nothing to unlearn everything we have been taught for years, we will get nowhere,” Puerto Rican feminist and activist Aliana Margarita posted on her Instagram Con-Sentimiento.
Such a backlash has been a long time coming. In 2013, the Bronx-born Puerto Rican community organizer, journalist and hip-hop activist Rosa Clemente wrote about being told that she is "not black" because she is Puerto Rican: “Many times I am asked why many Boricuas refuse to affirm their Blackness. I attribute this denial to the ever-rampant anti-Black sentiment in America and throughout the world, but I will not use this as an excuse,” she said.
Racism and colorism — a form of prejudice from members of the same race treating people differently based on skin color — doesn’t begin and end in Puerto Rico.
“Often Puerto Ricans who assert our Blackness are outcast by Latinos who identify more with their Spanish Conqueror than their African ancestors,” she added
She is right, but, of course, racism and colorism — a form of prejudice from members of the same race treating people differently based on skin color — doesn’t begin and end in Puerto Rico. It is endemic throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, ingrained in the culture since colonial times when the Spanish ran their colonies with racial codes that organized the Spanish Western Hemisphere into more than a dozen different racial classifications.
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OPINION
We want to hear what you THINK. Please submit a letter to the editor.
Hispanics have a very important question to ask themselves: How do we eradicate racism and colorism within our communities? We need to teach our girls and women that beauty has many shades and that a woman’s worth does not reside in her looks. We need to stress education for women and open spaces for them to define their own lives. And finally, we must debunk the western standards of beauty and success and champion our diversity.
The fact that this truth of our community's racism and colorism is no longer a secret between us but as public as possible is a good thing because it forces us to confront our own ugliness. Isn’t it ironic that it a Miss Universe pageant, designed to determine who is the most beautiful, that has opened the door to this conversation?
Puerto Ricans' Miss Universe response shows racism isn't just for white people
That our community's colorism is no longer a secret between us is a good thing because it forces us to confront our own ugliness.
Madison Anderson, of Puerto Rico, and Zozibini Tunzi, of South Africa, the final two contestants hold hands in the Miss Universe pageant at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta on Dec. 8, 2019.Elijah Nouvelage / Reuters
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Dec. 15, 2019, 4:30 AM EST
By Susanne Ramírez de Arellano
Thousands of Puerto Ricans glued themselves to their various screens last week to watch what is a national sport. But it wasn't baseball - the other national obsession; it was the Miss Universe pageant. While it is true that Miss Universe is seen in the United States and in Europe as anachronistic and frankly a bit embarrassing, in Puerto Rico it is a reaffirmation of national identity and national pride. In short, for an island colonized and deeply divided by political ideologies, the pageant unites all Puerto Ricans under one banner — Miss Puerto Rico.
Want more articles like this? Sign up for the THINK newsletter to get updates on the week's most important cultural analysis
Most of them hoped to see Miss Puerto Rico, Madison Anderson Berríos (who doesn't use her last name in competition) capture a sixth crown for the island. Anderson's own crown, though, hadn't come without controversy. The Puerto Rican public initially didn’t see her as Puerto Rican when she entered the pageant because she was not born on the island, didn’t speak Spanish and looked "American" with her light skin and fair hair. Her father also happens to be a bondholder who brings investors to the Caribbean, a sore subject as the island languishes under the weight of a $74 billion debt to Wall Street bondholders.
Related
Yet, among the awful postings, there also came a backlash, mostly from the younger generations, who will no longer stand for the discrimination, racism, and colorism in their midst.
“We were not born racist, but if we do nothing to unlearn everything we have been taught for years, we will get nowhere,” Puerto Rican feminist and activist Aliana Margarita posted on her Instagram Con-Sentimiento.
Such a backlash has been a long time coming. In 2013, the Bronx-born Puerto Rican community organizer, journalist and hip-hop activist Rosa Clemente wrote about being told that she is "not black" because she is Puerto Rican: “Many times I am asked why many Boricuas refuse to affirm their Blackness. I attribute this denial to the ever-rampant anti-Black sentiment in America and throughout the world, but I will not use this as an excuse,” she said.
Racism and colorism — a form of prejudice from members of the same race treating people differently based on skin color — doesn’t begin and end in Puerto Rico.
“Often Puerto Ricans who assert our Blackness are outcast by Latinos who identify more with their Spanish Conqueror than their African ancestors,” she added
She is right, but, of course, racism and colorism — a form of prejudice from members of the same race treating people differently based on skin color — doesn’t begin and end in Puerto Rico. It is endemic throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, ingrained in the culture since colonial times when the Spanish ran their colonies with racial codes that organized the Spanish Western Hemisphere into more than a dozen different racial classifications.
Related
OPINIONWe want to hear what you THINK. Please submit a letter to the editor.
Hispanics have a very important question to ask themselves: How do we eradicate racism and colorism within our communities? We need to teach our girls and women that beauty has many shades and that a woman’s worth does not reside in her looks. We need to stress education for women and open spaces for them to define their own lives. And finally, we must debunk the western standards of beauty and success and champion our diversity.
The fact that this truth of our community's racism and colorism is no longer a secret between us but as public as possible is a good thing because it forces us to confront our own ugliness. Isn’t it ironic that it a Miss Universe pageant, designed to determine who is the most beautiful, that has opened the door to this conversation?
I read the shyt and learned nothin
