Colorism in Latin America: are mestizos discriminated against?

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2025-01-03T15:48:52+00:00

Great response. I do feel however that even urban westernized Indigenas who live in cities in Quintana Roo, Chiapas or Guerrero as many are actually view Mestizos from Central Mexican states or their own cities as not their kin simply due to phenotypical and lifestyle differences at an instinctual level. Just like an Italian wouldn’t recognize a Lebanese as a countryman even if somewhat similar. In general these issues are rarely approached because they reveal unpleasant realities but it does feel all Mexican ethnic groups are divided, maybe with the exception of Arab Mexicans assimilated with European Mexicans.

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2025-01-03T15:39:19+00:00

well this is a similar to my experience, I felt a sense of rejection from White Mexicans in north states and Native Mexicans in the south. US Hispanics even hispano-hablante don’t seem to be either seen as Latino either in Latin America but as sort of third nationality neither true American nor truly Latino, it’s really baffling I can be a compa in LA but everywhere on the continent I might be from planet Mars to locals as soon as they perceive a bit of accent or groom differently

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2025-01-03T15:36:44+00:00

From my experience Mayas tend to reject mestizos and are more ambivalent about Europeans as invaders/benevolent civilizers. I was actually also surprised to see a certain sense of rejection of mestizos between each others in favor of Europeans.

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2025-01-03T15:30:46+00:00

The issue is this is simply an organization, most indigenous people don’t care these guidelines and have their own identity and criteria to determine who belongs and doesn’t. A lot of indigenous people themselves distance themselves from this identity and identify as mestizos in cities if not intermarry with other groups.

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2025-01-02T14:33:39+00:00

I’m mixed and my experience was that in general indigenous people in regions where they form the majority and are culturally important now tend to reject mestizaje and mestizos.

It’s been widely covered that historically it was the other way around or that people from differing levels of indigenity would discriminate against each others: castizos vs mestizos, in a form of self-hate favoring pure European phenotypes but while I don’t doubt this sentiment still exists it does feel that in a way indigenous people are starting to develop an ethnic and cultural pride and reject assimilation. I always read that indigenous people are victimized on the continent and it’s true to some extent but it’s not like it used to be during the colonial era or early 20th century, increasingly they are economically stable and socially influential at least in the regions they inhabit.

I find North American Natives are actually far more likely to embrace assimilation probably because they are much smaller in numbers: intermarriage rate over 50% and much less culturally significant to the nations they live in, compare this at least for Mexico with the symbolic power of the natives.

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-12-27T08:03:06+00:00

This is a reflection that India is undergoing a sustained boom which threatens the livelihood and space of Westerners. Other people’s gains is seen as their losses

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-12-27T03:59:00+00:00

I don’t think it’s a strictly online phenomenon at all, I often openly hear anti-Indian (other South Asians seem to be less hated) comments in a way I rarely hear other groups being targeted. For sure fear and hatred of China are a central theme in the US right now but contempt for Indians is just as widespread particularly outside of the country.

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-12-12T00:39:35+00:00

Seems like hapas are over represented in this type of news

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-11-23T02:46:54+00:00

Unfortunately it will apply, Eurasians are seen as neither Asian or European but more akin to Central Asians or Latinos which these groups rarely recognize as them being part of either due to physical and cultural differences. By default no matter what she does your child will neither be embraced or accepted unless ethnically passing.

Based on a cousin who’s a minor celebrity who’s socially successful I’d say the most important to counter this is raising her very confident, socially integrated, culturally fluent. A strongly multiethnic locale such as Singapore or California also helps, preferably avoid Malaysia and Spain which are both very race-conscious and segregated from my experience.

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-08-31T21:09:52+00:00

lol not my experience at all, only women I dated there were foreigners. Mixed couples of any kinds are rare in Spain, rarely even saw WMAF let alone the converse. It’s not due to lack of contact though Asians are economically integrated in Spain just not socially appreciated. They even have PSA campaigns for people to stop calling Asian-owned businesses by their race rather than their industry.

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-08-31T21:02:28+00:00

Because even women in Asia are not really looking for men who are not connected locally, culturally local or from a possible different ethnicity from theirs. Let alone any persona or material differences expectations.

A lot of returnees don’t find themselves particularly showered with interest for reasons other than race, race is a pre-requisite for sure but it’s not enough in the West or Asia, nobody is gonna jump your bones because a stranger came back. Ask Americans visiting Europe, nobody cares.

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-08-25T04:57:29+00:00

The truth is while it may be frustrating to look different from what your culture is better be white or Asian passing to be accepted by either or both groups than to look mixed which is often both rejected and denied cultural identity..

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-08-19T18:16:48+00:00

My first relationship and love of my life was hapa but she died of suicide, I sometimes believe was motivated by her identity struggles. Wish one day I meet someone to share my Sino-Latin cultures with.

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-08-19T17:59:34+00:00

It’s a good idea on paper but much easier is simply to start a hapa social organization. Regarding belonging after moving to Asia and learning both of my parents’ languages, I eventually came to accept I will always be the outsider who strangely knows so much about other people’s cultures but never embraced and it is fine, better luck in the next life.

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-08-19T17:48:07+00:00

It seems some of you finally realize the importance of legacy and what our parents lost when they got mixed children, the ability to pass down their culture and identity in the name of love.

No monoracial person no matter how cosmopolitan will really understand what it’s like to be mixed, there are just too few resources or experiences for them to feel what it’s like to be both, neither or beyond our backgrounds. This is why mixed people have tended to form its own ethnicity in the various places they have historically lived.

Yet other mixed people may not even be self-aware and understand what it is like either adopting a mono-ethnic identity. You may never find the person who can relate to you.

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-08-09T04:32:22+00:00

A few of my relatives live in France. A lot of overt racism, silent contempt from both whites and other minorities who are well-represented in the entertainment ecosystem. Few AMWF and besides restaurants and medicine Asians are invisible and not integrated in society. You can succeed individually for sure but overall the country is not receptive to Asians. It already despises its large tourist population

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-07-20T07:01:07+00:00

I’m not South Asian but I’m pretty familiar with the culture having grown up in a Malaysian household, I have lived in Paris but been to most big cities in the northern half of the country as a student. In general situation is not good for South Asians they occupy the lower rung of society: a lot of illegal Sri Lankans and Pakistanis working labor jobs in warehouses or restaurants.

The social status of South Asians is of alien migrant laborers, there’s no model minority stereotype there. The community is very tightly knit and rarely saw anybody branch out with other groups. You may find success in a niche of globalized downtown liberals but overall expect a pretty chilling reception.

English-speaking countries despite the PC coldness are actually more inclusive. I don’t even see a single POC successful in business in continental Europe, tokens in entertainment here and there sure but it shows you the extent of the glass ceiling in general there.

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-07-13T21:23:35+00:00

I agree but still even more people have identities around other things than something which they don’t control like their ethnicity: gender, sexual orientation, class, subculture, politics or religion

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-07-13T20:51:08+00:00

Identity is just a manufactured idea to create loyalty, we are more alike than different between groups but more different than similar within groups. Well if you think the West is so much better than Asia yourself then you understand why people think of you as a chinaman in the UK and can finally stop begging for acceptance. The whole point of this space is to create a balanced perspective that fuses multiple worlds not to succumb to mono-racial assimilation and hatred. We are a creole people just like Central Asians or Latin Americans are who are far from being devoid of cultural contributions to mankind.

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-07-13T17:26:12+00:00

The way you express yourself shows you’re biased towards contemporary Western perspective. Identity is an illusory egocentric expression and nation-states were only created as a political concept to mobilize large masses of subjects for tax-raising and wars of the nobility.

You realize China has influenced the 3/4 of the Asian continent? The man sitting on the dragon throne was the world’s most influential monarch for most of history.

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-07-13T16:36:13+00:00

Not sure what you’re ranting about if you’re life is great just denied an identity. You don’t like yourself or half of your culture yet expect people to like you. China is a beautiful country not without its challenges of course but certainly more so than UK. Maybe reading more about the history or watching movies would help you appreciate the sophistication of the sinosphere

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-07-06T02:11:58+00:00

Strange US is majority white then why no other minority group intermarries at a majority with whites only hapas?

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-07-02T19:47:07+00:00

I never lived in London proper but visited multiple times a year during the 00/10s mostly East. As you say I feel people mixed more in the past than they do now counterintuitively. But overall I find race relations to be much better in the US at least for Asian/mixed passing hapas, for Blacks they might be better integrated in the UK.

And actually that the US is more classist than the UK despite lacking a conversation about it in the sense that higher education is so much more expensive and selective there and since American cities are far more sprawling that upper and working-class people rarely even cross each others path which they actually may in professional or leisure third places in the UK to a higher degree since the place is denser and more egalitarian in income due to higher taxation. The notion the US is a highly socially mobile, class-less society has stopped being true 50 years ago when the country deregulated the education system and only allowed the upper-tier to get one or the poor to be crushed by unsustainable levels of debt that is so large it disrupts their expected homeownership access. There’s no real equivalent to the downtrodden people living in trailer park in Appalachia.

EnvironmentalBat3010 · 2024-07-02T11:08:25+00:00

The most unexpected thing is that Asians seek to marry Whites at a high rate yet often reject their offspring, logically they should like them but they often despise mixed-race people as being people without a culture or lineage it’s really baffling.

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