Inventing Latinos: Systemic Racism and the Origins of the Anti-Latino Racial Logic

Description

One of the activities the Johns Hopkins Medicine Office of Diversity, Inclusion & Health Equity is most excited about for celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month is a 90-minute discussion with Laura E. Gómez, professor of law, sociology, and Chicana/Chicano studies at UCLA and author of Inventing Latinos.

During the discussion, Gómez will explain how the common sense of anti-Latino racism became cognizable as part of the American racial cosmology. That story includes explaining why Latinos as a distinctive racial category came to be over the past five decades as well as placing this moment in historical context. It includes placing anti-Latino racism into the broader context of anti-African American racism and white supremacy in America.

An online version of Laura E. Gómez's book, Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism, is available to read for free through the Johns Hopkins University library. The book can also be downloaded for seven days (instructions are available through the same link).

According to the 2020 census, Latinos are 20% of the U.S. population—triple what they were in 1980, the first time Latinos were counted. The more than 60 million Latinos in the U.S. today live in every single state and more than 1 million of them live in ten states, with the most populous states leading the way. Within a few decades, Latinos will make up nearly one-third of the populace. These demographic shifts have created discomfort for extremist groups but are fortifying for self-proclaimed Latino leaders. Yet most Americans—including those who control and produce the mainstream media, elected officials, and corporate CEOs—know very little about the so-called Latino community.

Like all racial categories, Latino is a political and social construct rooted in a particular time and place. It is cognizable only in relation to other, already known racial classifications. But to say race is socially constructed is not to say it is unimportant. On the contrary, what we, as interacting humans organized into communities and institutions, create and then, over time, give meaning to ends up having great power over our lives. Race is socially constructed, but racism is a real and enduring feature of this society and every institution in it.

In her remarks, Gómez will explain how the common sense of anti-Latino racism became cognizable as part of the American racial cosmology. That story includes explaining why Latinos as a distinctive racial category came to be over the past five decades as well as placing this moment in historical context. It includes placing anti-Latino racism into the broader context of anti-African American racism and white supremacy in America.