According to a new report by Pew Research Center, about 6 million adults in the United States identify as Afro Latino. It is a distinction with historical roots in colonial Latin America. This equates to 2% of the adult U.S. population and 12% of the country’s adult Latino population.
The center’s latest report on Afro Latino identity was issued on Monday. Thereby, illustrating the many facets of Latino identity.
In contrast to other Hispanics, Afro Latinos’ life experiences faced effects of elements such as race and skin tone. According to the report, the majority of respondents identified as Hispanic or Latino, although not all.
Being Afro Latino is “distinct and exists along with a person’s racial identity, national origin and includes or is tied to culture, ancestry and maybe also physical features,” said researcher and report author Ana Gonzalez-Barrera. “But it is much more than just a label and much more than just a race.”
Latin America’s long colonial history
The findings of the survey reflect Latin America’s long colonial history, during which mixing occurred among Indigenous Americans, white Europeans, Asians, and enslaved people from Africa
Melissa Dunmore, a 32-year-old writer, and poet from Phoenix said she celebrates both her father’s African and Cherokee traditions as well as her mother’s Puerto Rican lineage.
Dunmore was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. But she moved to Arizona with her family as a high school student after 9/11. She stated, “I identify mostly as Black, but I also feel close to the island”. She was happy to find a restaurant, close to her home in the Southwest, serving mofongo. It is a traditional Puerto Rican dish that consists of fried plantains.
“Outside of class, I grew up mostly speaking Spanish after school and during the summer with my maternal grandparents,” said Dunmore. Now she speaks Spanish to her 5-month-old baby girl, Flora. “I want her to have that as well.”
In a 2016 survey, nearly a quarter of all Latinos in the US identify as Afro Latino, Afro Caribbean, or of African heritage with roots in Latin America. The results, according to Gonzalez-Barrera, cannot be comparable to the most recent report. It is because the previous poll was performed over the phone with an interviewer and the questions were different.
Actress Rosario Dawson, rapper Cardi B, and former professional baseball player David Ortiz, a Dominican American nicknamed “Big Papi,” are all well-known Afro Latinos in the United States.
“Afro Latino identity transcends racial identity”
Many Hispanics identify as such because of their ancestral places of origin, Indigenous roots, or racial background. Separate from other questions about race or ethnicity, the study asked adults if they self-identify as Afro Latino. As a result, the figure differs from that reported by the United States Census Bureau. It defines Afro Latino as someone who identifies as both Hispanic and Black in a two-step race question. According to the 2020 census, there are 1.2 million people of all ages who identify as such. It is far less than the 6 million anticipated in the most recent center report.
“The thing to consider here is that Afro Latino identity transcends racial identity and cannot be captured by a checkbox-type of question where you mark your ethnicity,” said Gonzalez-Barrera. Gonzalez-Barrera has been studying Latinos for nearly 15 years. Barrera has spent the last 12 years working for Pew Research Center. She considers herself to be Mexican American and Latina.
To demonstrate the complexities of identity, the survey offered a census-style question about race. 28% of all Afro Latinos said they were white. 25% said they were black. 23% said they were “some other race”. The research states, that 59% of Afro-Latino people who did not identify as Hispanic chose Black as their race, compared to 17% of those who did.
Afro Latino persons who identify as Hispanic were more likely to indicate they would view themselves as multiracial, mixed-race, or Black while passing past them on the street, according to a Pew Research Center poll of Latino adults conducted in March 2021. Afro Latinos identifying themselves as Hispanic were more likely to say their skin color is darker than other Hispanic adults
Discrimination
As per a separate report released this week, having darker skin and being born outside the United States links to a higher risk of discrimination or unjust treatment among other Latino adults. Nonetheless, Hispanics are just as likely as non-Hispanics to report they have personally experienced discrimination or unjust treatment.
The Afro Latino adult population estimates are based on a survey of 68,398 adults conducted across the United States from November 19, 2019, to June 3, 2020. For estimates of the Afro Latino adult population, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 600,000 individuals.
The Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel and Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel are designed to be representative of the US population. They were useful in sampling 3,375 Hispanic adults for the 2021 survey, conducted from March 15-28. For the entire sample, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.