Internalized Racism

Words: 545
Pages: 3

Major historical shifts have contributed to a grand scale of assimilation of Latin American people into western culture. With the absorption of a new culture comes the rejection of original beginnings which can encompass as little as names, jobs, clothing styles, and as much as languages, traditions, physical appearance and mindsets. This can lead to a confused sense of self which causes feelings of self-hate and an internalized racist mindset. In the novel a place to stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca, we see internalized racist ideologies embodied by Baca’s mother and projected in to Baca’s early childhood. “She’d point to white skinned, blue eyed children and say I should be like them.” (Baca, 14). An Internalized racist mindset is ingrained into the Latino community at a very early age through the bombardment of white ideologies and absorptions of it into Latino history, Latino communities, and in educational settings. …show more content…
Latino groups of different Latin American countries were brought into western culture gradually and with an already developed identity. Slowly with the new migration of people new identities were enforced on them. Racism and segregation gave individuals two options, to either hold on to their identity and continue to face subjugation or to deny who they were and assimilate into a new society were they could have the same privileges as white Americans. With privileges only attainable by the assimilated came the internalized racist mindset. Many Latinos in the United States adopted a new way of identifying personally and externally. This was done through the implementation of hate on a communal level and an internal level within the Latino