--- title: Racial Innocence is the Biggest Barrier to Justice description: Racial innocence is not a benign state, but rather a barrier to justice, writes Tanya Katerí Hernández. canonical: https://time.com/6225626/racial-innocence-afro-latino-community/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-11-01T16:05:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:51:31.609Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Racial Innocence is the Biggest Barrier to Justice og:description: Racial innocence is not a benign state, but rather, a barrier to justice, writes Tanya Katerí Hernández. og:url: https://time.com/6225626/racial-innocence-afro-latino-community/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e974e5fc833184d/698a36c8db298706e9268543/Nury-Martinez_Anti-Black-Latino-Bias_2022.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Nury Martinez Anti-Black Latino Bias og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Racial Innocence is the Biggest Barrier to Justice twitter:description: Racial innocence is not a benign state, but rather, a barrier to justice, writes Tanya Katerí Hernández. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e974e5fc833184d/698a36c8db298706e9268543/Nury-Martinez_Anti-Black-Latino-Bias_2022.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # We Need to Talk About the Cloak of Racial Innocence in the Latino Community > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=550fab39-97e9-4b85-bd0e-ce4fedd972f3&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: These Afro-Latino Actors Are Pushing Back Against Erasure in Hollywood [Watch (HLS stream): These Afro-Latino Actors Are Pushing Back Against Erasure in Hollywood](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/MQ9XzmhW.m3u8) (11:29)  _Published 2020-09-17. TIME convened a roundtable of Afro-Latino performers—Gina Torres, Dascha Polanco, Laz Alonso, Amara La Negra and Sarunas Jackson—to talk about their fraught experiences in the industry, and their efforts for increased authentic representation._ by [Tanya Katerí Hernández](https://time.com/author/tanya-kateri-hernandez/) ## Tanya Katerí Hernández Nov 1, 2022 4:05 PM UTC  A sign rests against the microphone stand as protestors demonstrate while the L.A. City Council holds its first in-person meeting since voting in new president Paul Krekorian in the wake of a leaked audio recording on Oct. 25, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. A sign rests against the microphone stand as protestors demonstrate while the L.A. City Council holds its first in-person meeting since voting in new president Paul Krekorian in the wake of a leaked audio recording on Oct. 25, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Mario Tama—Getty Images by [Tanya Katerí Hernández](https://time.com/author/tanya-kateri-hernandez/) ## Tanya Katerí Hernández Nov 1, 2022 4:05 PM UTC It was a [**“**moment of intense frustration and anger**.”**](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/los-angeles-council-president-resigns-after-leaked-audio-of-racist-remarks-surfaces) These were the words of the former President of the Los Angeles City Council Nury Martinez, as she tried to explain her litany of racist comments about the Black child of Councilman Mike Bonin and migrants from Oaxaca, Mexico, [captured on a secret recording of the L.A. City Commission released on Oct. 9, 2022.](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-09/city-council-leaked-audio-nury-martinez-kevin-de-leon-gil-cedillo) Martinez has now resigned from the Commission, but her apology, crafted and couched in the cloak of racial innocence, provided important insights about the contours of Latino anti-Black bias, and how inadequate our national pursuit of racial equality is at the moment. “Frustration and anger” do not absolve you from racism, and racial innocence is not a benign mental state. It is a barrier to justice. Moving forward in the pursuit of racial justice will require that we recognize racial innocence for the fiction that it is and unite in educating ourselves about the globality of anti-Blackness. There are many Nury Martinez’s. When it comes to racism, Latino culture encourages a mindset of racial innocence in which real racism is only what White-Anglo-English-speaking U.S. residents perpetrate. Any anti-Black sentiment and action that Latinos partake in is dismissed as a cultural misunderstanding, an extension of pre-existing racism within the United States, or an uncommon momentary lapse. Racism is not what Latinos do. But they do. In fact, Latino anti-Blackness is not contained to the U.S. [90% of the 10.7 million Africans forcibly brought to the Americas as survivors of the Middle Passage](https://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates), were taken to Latin America and the Caribbean, in contrast to the 3.5% taken to what we now call the U.S. After the abolition of slavery, state actors and white elites maintained color hierarchies and exclusion with a racialized logic regarding the inferior intellect of Black people and cultural inadequacies of Indigenous communities. This racial logic continues to be perpetrated today to such an extent that it materially [constrains Afro-Latino and Indigenous from socioeconomic advancement.](https://uncpress.org/book/9781469617831/pigmentocracies/#:~:text=Ethnicity%2C%20Race%2C%20and%20Color%20in%20Latin%20America&text=Pigmentocracies%2D%2Dthe%20fruit%20of,Latin%20America's%20most%20populous%20nations.) **Read More:** [_The Troubling Legacy Behind L.A. Councilwoman Nury Martinez’s Racist Remarks_](https://time.com/6222297/los-angeles-council-nury-martinez-racism-legacy/) When Latinos enter the U.S., their racial baggage comes along with them and continues to be passed along to younger generations as part of Latino culture. As an Afro Latina raised in the U.S., too often I’ve heard a relative say “Look behind the ears,” fearing a newborn infant has the potential to develop a dark skin tone. But Latino familial vigilance against Blackness does not stop with the inspection of ears. There is a vampiric attention to sun exposure that may deepen the darkness and thus “worsen” a child’s appearance. Even Latinos who are thought to be blessed with European features are policed by their families when it comes to dating and marriage. The obsession with _mejorando y adelantando la raza_, or “improving and advancing the race,” by marrying lighter (ideally whiter) partners means each potential suitor is sorted out for taints of Blackness. My own journey of [collecting the stories of the victims of Latino anti-Blackness](http://www.beacon.org/Racial-Innocence-P1822.aspx) across the country revealed that Latino anti-Black bias in the U.S. causes [long-lasting injuries.](https://www.mic.com/articles/187062/with-the-rise-of-the-alt-right-latino-white-supremacy-may-not-be-a-contradiction-in-terms) However, the Latino cultural self-image as racially innocent interferes with addressing the instances in which Latinos are agents of racial harm. This is because racial innocence hinders self-recognition of the problem and the motivation to make the changes necessary for racial progress. Instead, paltry rationalizations like “an intense moment of frustration and anger” are offered. An apology and resignation from the Nury Martinez’s of the world are insufficient implements for dismantling the systemic racial innocence and creating social change. Instead, we need to enhance our racial literacy about the nature and extent of global anti-Blackness. For too long, Afro-Latino voices have been sidelined within Latino public discourse. Because Afro-Latinos sit at the intersection of Blackness and Latino ethnic identity, they not only experience Latino racial hostility, but also are knowledgeable about its logics in a way not necessarily legible to non-Latinos and non-Black Latinos. This has left Latinos, as a collective, blind to their own anti-Black attitudes in their engagement with the world. Afro-Latinos are an important but overlooked resource in the battle against racism, and there is already existing (and growing) [literature](https://www.afrolatinoforum.org/) authored by Afro-Latinos dedicated to broadening our racial literacy. --- ### More from TIME --- Moreover, creating space for Afro-Latinos within Latino leadership circles is another crucial step in combatting racial innocence. Consider how much more nuanced and profound public policy deliberations could be if more Afro-Latinos were present at all levels of government, in addition to nonprofits, corporate entities, and media outlets. Rather than juxtaposing the needs of Latinos as a zero-sum competition with African Americans, the Afro-Latino voice could contribute the perspective of how much our communities need to work together. Attempts at coalition are fortified when internal, racialized hierarchies are made visible and dismantled. To be clear, ignoring the global aspects of anti-Blackness will not dissolve systemic racism. That may seem like an obvious statement to make but in my experience, not obvious enough. In fact, a number of the invitations I have received to share my Afro-Latina expertise for Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations, suddenly evaporated when I disclosed my topic of Latino anti-Blackness. Diversity Equity & Inclusion representatives from law firms and financial institutions alerted me that they wanted to “go in a different direction” after they learned what I wanted to impart. In short, they preferred a racially innocent Hispanic Heritage Month presentation. Opposing racial innocence implicates the entire nation, not only Latinos. A racial reckoning without an honest interrogation of the multi-directional aspects of racism is an anemic pursuit of racial equality that impedes the dream of a true democracy. ## Transcript I'm Gina Torres. I am Afro Latin ex by way of Cuba. Both my parents are Cuban born and I'm first generation Cuba. So my name is Lars Alonzo. Very similar to Gina Afro-Cuban. I am Dascha Polanco and I was born in the Dominican Republic and I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. My name's Sharon is Jackson, and I like my peers here. You can see that I'm first generation on my mother's side by way of Panama. All right, guys. Well, my name is Amandla Negra. Is a pleasure to be here with you guys. Afro-Latino means roots. It means blackness, it means culture, it means sound, rhythm food. It means so many things. That means being Dominican. It means. It means being prideful of my my ancestors, where I come from. Not denying it. I love my culture. I love my people. I love all of you. I love seeing these faces on the screen. You know, it's it's so incredible to me that we are, in fact, having this conversation that we even need to have this conversation, because I guess for the vast majority of those who aren't aware of us, we've been hiding in plain sight since time. You mocked me up The Goonies. I never heard it all Afro-Latinos. We are Afro-Latino now. Let's do that in a move. When people ask me how I can be one or the other, I always remind them that I'm both. I'm not one or the other. I'm black and I'm Cuban. You know those. No, no different than you can be black in American or black and British or black in anywhere else, you know. And I think that what really ends up confusing them is because I'm really born in the U.S. I'm the first American born in my family. I'm really black American, too, You know, So ethnicity is Cuban, nationality is American, but race is black. And I'm all three equally. I'm not one or the other. And I find that when I have that conversation, I'm educating fellow Latinos as much as I'm educating anybody else. But it really sometimes bewilders me how Latinos are not as aware of our history, our black history, as we are here in the States. Oh, I think they are. I just think they are ignoring it. But we'll get into that later. You're allowed. Hello. I've always been very proud of what I. Of. Of who I am, what I am. My mother. My father did a great job of putting that into me. My mother was born in Panama for the first generation, like I said, as being on a show on Insecure, insecure on HBO. That was the first time I was ever I was I was allowed to be a Filipino character ever. You know, every time I was on, I just had to be a light skinned black guy or a biracial black guy who was just black and white in America. But, you know, it is what it is. Are you going to take the role? So as we're moving forward and we're starting to see this thing grow just a little bit more, I'm cherishing this time a lot because, like Gina said earlier, we've been hiding in plain sight forever. I've questioned my talent like, is it if I wouldn't have been casted in the show words Incarcerated woman, would I have had the same opportunity? No, I wouldn't have. I'm not gonna see her say or see an opportunity that'll lay story, I guess Then I would have auditioned for anything. I would have been of course, I would have gotten the same up To know. The reason why I've got that is because it's more visibly accepted, socially accepted to see me as a to play an incarcerated woman than it is for me to play the romance interests or the love of some romantic I can be allowed. I think we all have. Our little, you know, passion. And when I got to Hollywood, I was auditioning for primarily African-American roles. But I would push my agents and my managers to to make to also have me audition for Latino roles. You know, and of course, the feedback that I would get was, well, you know, he did a good job, but he doesn't look like I would say that Hollywood, in my experience, was more open to what an Afro-Latino is than that in America throughout Latin American projects. You know, I can't I haven't even worked on anything in Latin America. I haven't worked on any movies. Realize, of course, like The Doors are shut, you know, and I think there's a respect to that as well. I think it's very regional, too. You know, there isn't a Latin market, there's a Spanish market, a mexican market, a Colombian market, a Panamanian market. Every country has their own thing. But if you look at what they're putting on the big screen and on the little screen, you're not going to see a lot of Afro-Latinos either. So I think that in in in the Latin American space, there is a tremendous amount of growth that needs to happen that we haven't seen yet. I work I grew up in the Latin entertainment industry. I grew up doing Salahi, got there with Don Francisco for six years. Every Saturday, the only black girl ever in the 56 years he got there was on air. I always felt like, Oh, now more can do matter later. Like, you know, you're that that black person that they never know how to please not be yourself. My talent is just your look is messing up the choreography. So I went to an audition. I won't say for what network, because regardless, y'all have to know we don't really have that many options. You know, it's either that they bother or block anybody. So I go and I have in and then they I basically got told the same thing. Yes, you did great. But we're looking for someone. They wanted to make it not hurt my feelings. We're looking for someone that looks more, more Latina, you know? You know, it's not that you did about. You're beautiful. It's just that we're looking for a little more Latino something. To me, the question goes like, So what exactly does that look like? And I always mentioned these artists I love and admired them. My most highest respect for them. But the stereotype is a Sofia Vergara is a Salma Hayek is all these women that I admire machismo. My motto is respect. But that's not what a Latina looks like. You know, one of my one of my favorite stories to tell is, is when I auditioned for Alias as as an assassin. And and she was written Russian. And then they got ready to dismiss me. And I said, because like all actors, we play with voices right? I said, you know, I have a Russian accent. I can do this with a Russian accent. And their eyes go wide like, Wait, what? And just for, like, shits and giggles, they're like, okay, yeah, let's hear it. And I did the same scene and the Russian operative with a Russian accent. And I got the job. Yes. I got in a meeting with the writers and they were like, Well, we're just, you know, we're just going to make a Cuban. We're going to make her. And I said, Please don't, please don't. Here's what you need to understand and know. There are a lot of Cubans in Russia. There are a lot of Russians in Cuba. And that's how Anna Espinosa was born. And just having that conversation and broadening their their world to understand where everyone. Right, right, right, right, right. So at what point are we really going to start just filling the quota for Hollywood, which has been for so long dominated in America by white people? Right. And by what they perceive us as being what fix that being of what story should we tell from their perspective? At what point do we just stand back and say, you know what, We can't support that anymore. And I think it's happening now. It's a beautiful thing now. We're not supporting things that we can relate to. But also I'm going to collaborate with you know, I want to collaborate with you online. You know what? Let's make us let's just tell our story from our perspective and listen and let us be our showrunners. Let's get behind the scenes, right? We're warriors. We come from Carib and Arawak, and they know and we have always had to be warriors and and establish our territory. And so at what point are we going to take our territory and our, you know, intellectual property and say, this is what we're going to do and I have to be part of it and I'm going to have the control over it and that's it, you know. Makes me crazy. You know, we're not like the hot spicy this we're not a dish. We're not just, you know, a mountain of music. We're not just we're from fully formed human beings and everything that, you know, especially with that just said about being from Antigua and, you know, I mean, that's so true. I've I have been the unic in pretty much every show that I have ever been with because that and there are a number of, you know, one of the reasons I'm taller than most of the men, but I'm a lot of the time a woman who complicated to give me a family. So I'm always, you know, the ball buster or the assassin or this or that or the name of it, you know, or the cop that doesn't that doesn't have a life outside of. Because to have a life means that you have to humanize. Mm hmm. You know, I look back to my, you know, my dear glamor mama, Diahann Carroll, and I remember her telling the story of how she herself went to the producer, Aaron Spelling, and said. I wanted to be the first black bitch on television. And he said, Well, I just don't I don't know how to write for you. And she said, Write it for a powerful black man. I will do. The rest. Will. And that and that's what we're talking about. I mean, that's that's what we're talking about. It doesn't matter how it's written. If they cast us, we'll do the rest of this press. The truth warming radio story will bring the voice will get to work even though it's sad. But also that, yes, we can we'll bring it. We'll bring our lives, we'll bring our passion. We'll bring it to the role. Just let us come in. And that's their whole space race. 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