Can You Really Be a 'White Woman of Color'?

At Clutch magazine, Britni Danielle challenges cultural appropriation in a piece about a woman who grew up white in Mexico but was seen as a woman of color when she moved to the U.S. But "being white excludes her from being a woman of color. Period,"ย she writes. Suggested Reading The Real Tea Behind Tina Knowles,…

At Clutch magazine, Britni Danielle challenges cultural appropriation in a piece about a woman who grew up white in Mexico but was seen as a woman of color when she moved to the U.S. But "being white excludes her from being a woman of color. Period,"ย she writes.

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I recently stumbled across an interesting essay by Ana Cecilia Alvarez about being aย โ€œWhite Woman of Colorโ€ย that once again highlighted the complexities (and complete arbitrary and socially constructed) issue of race.

Although the two identities seem at opposite ends of the racial spectrum, Alvarezโ€™s experience โ€” growing up White in Mexico, but later being seen as a โ€œwoman of colorโ€ on the basis of her nationality and language once she immigrated to the U.S. โ€” was both eye-opening and frustrating โ€ฆ

Sadly, Alvarez seems to fall victim to the notion that race = nationality. And like many (particularly Americans), she seems to have bought into the thinking that being Latino automatically makes her a minority. For instance, she says her mother is โ€œbiracialโ€ because she was born to a Mexican (which isnโ€™t a race) father, and Anglo-American (read: White) mother. While Alvarez gives no details about her grandfatherโ€™s actual race (is he Mestizo or a descendantย of Europeans like her father?), she seems to once again be muddling the terms.

But hereโ€™s rub: being White excludes her from being a woman of color. Period.ย 

Read Britni Danielle's entire piece at Clutch magazine.

The Rootย aims to foster and advance conversations about issues relevant to the black Diaspora by presenting a variety of opinions from all perspectives, whether or not those opinions are shared by our editorial staff.

Britni Danielle is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and novelist. She has covered pop culture, politics and race for outlets such as Essence, Jet and Clutch. Follow her on Twitter.ย 

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