Editor,
I enjoyed reading Laura Valdez’s Thursday column titled, “Colonized, oppressed people are trapped,” in the Daily Lobo.
She discusses several issues, including battles among minority groups over affirmative action opportunities and how “white oppressors” want to hire “safe” Hispanics who won’t “rock the boat,” who “won’t point out their whiteness nor their privilege.”
I commend Valdez for her willingness to speak out against oppression and racism in our society. They are two major problems that this nation has a responsibility to solve. After reading this provocative column, I was left with a number of questions.
What does it mean to be Latino? Is Latino an ethnic or racial group? Do you need to have a Spanish surname? Do you have to speak Spanish? Do you have to have Latino ancestry? How much of an individual’s genome must be of Latino origin to be considered “Latino,” 100 percent? 50 percent?
What is meant by African-American? I think it means “black,” or are whites of African decent considered African-American? If not, how dark must their skin be before they can be considered black?
What about white? How white must my skin be for Valdez to label me as an oppressor? Truth be told, I don’t feel like an oppressor, I don’t feel white, either. My skin is more of an olive color, not white. Is this what Valdez meant by “people of color?” I never see “olive” on job applications. Maybe people such as Valdez consider me white.
I ask these questions because, after five years of graduate education in biological anthropology, I have not found any biological basis for these groupings. One of the major assertions of modern biological anthropology is that races don’t exist. Biological variation in genetically determined traits does exist, of course, but these variations are not distributed as “races.”
It is generally accepted in my field that there is usually more variation within these presumed races than among them. If this is true, and it is, this indicates that races are not biologically valid categories.
Seeing “black,” “white,” “Latino” or “oppressor” only serves to divide our society and fuel racism and hatred. As members of society, we must each try to erase racism from our schools, work places and anywhere we find it.
The first step is understanding that races do not exist and that we are all more alike than we are different. Those who see society’s wonderful diversity as nothing more than skin color are part of the problem.
I wonder what Valdez taught in her diversity training class?
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Michael Schillaci
Anthropology Department
