General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I am Latina but pass as White [View all]Prism
(5,815 posts)My sister-in-law is Mexican, with darker skin and tapered eyes. However, she has an odd first name and my brother's Irish last name. She worked very hard to learn English over the last seven years and has largely eliminated her accent.
The result? Everyone assumes she's Filipina. It is the strangest thing. And, living in a somewhat rural area where there are enclaves of Mexican immigrant communities, people will complain to her in a racially insulting way about local non-English speakers. In this regional area's eyes, there are locals and Mexican immigrants. She's considered a local. The stories she tells about the racists she encounters and how they try to enlist her as a co-conspirator.
Now her kids, my niece and nephew, have her skin tone and dark coloring, but they don't have her tapered eyelids. So, they look more traditionally latino. And, yep, people have no problem assuming the kids are Mexican (despite being half-white).
To add stupidity to ignorance, I have dark hair and eyes while my brother is blonde/blue. When he and I have been out together with the kids, people always assume they're mine. And in making the association, on several occasions it's been assumed I'm mixed latino. I'm the whitest white Irish person ever. Sunlight and I do not get on. I have freckles across my nose and cheeks. But put in a confusing racial situation, people start making assumptions.
There's this bizarre needs to categorize and associate some people have. To create their in groups and out groups. I wish they would just knock it off already. People are people. That's all the assumption we need ever make.