When it comes to matters of race and ethnicity, things can get very complicated. Thankfully, Franchesa Ramsey is always ready to decode everything.
In a new episode of MTV News, the host of “Decoded” tackled the question “Are Hispanics white?” The answer is, unsurprisingly, complex.
As an ethnicity, there’s a limitless amount of racial identities that can live within the Latino community. That means Latinos can be asian, black, mixed race and, yes, even white.
“If you ever hear anyone say, ‘This is America and 77 percent of it is white.’ Whether they know it or not, they’re including a very large number of people who identify as Hispanic or Latino,” Ramsay says in the video as she breaks down “Hispanic” isn’t a racial category in the census.
Ramsey also enlisted the help of YouTube vlogger Kat Lazo to help further break down the difference between Hispanic and Latino (or the gender neutral term Latinx), plus explain the differences between race and ethnicity.
“The reason this gets so confusing when we’re talking about Latinx in America is that there’s a broad ethnic Latinx identity that has a complex history with lots of different racial groups living together,” Lazo explains. “Latinx isn’t a race but we’re definitely racialized as a people, which is confusing and I’m the one who said it.”
Indeed it is. Check out their full breakdown of the topic in the video above.
Before You Go
