People Of Color, Is Brown The New White?

People Of Color, Is Brown The New White?

by Perfectly Flawed

About three years ago in 2015 April Reign, editor of Broadway Black set twitter on fire with her viral comment #Oscars so white.  Even though Reign spoke up on several occasions about the lack of diversity regarding people of color, who else during that time was pushing the same narrative?  Alright to be fair, the Asian community did speak their peace when The Great Wall came out.  Besides that it is a little hard to say since we are in the age of the internet where one week seems like three years ago.  However, the creator of what can be called a timeless phrase for 90 years now has been interviewed multiple times discussing this topic. 

Fast forward to the year 2016 where Jada Pinkett Smith boycotted the Oscars for over-looking her husband which reignited the saying once again.  Truth be told, the history of this so-called elitist forum for movies, shows, and entertainment has a bit of whites run this attached to it.  So this constant need for validation from the people that don’t play fair is frightening.  All conjecture aside, others may say Hollywood is about rewarding people for their hard work.  Nevertheless, Jada had every right to stick up for her man, that’s love.

All of a sudden they want to “Reclaim their Brownness.”

But let’s talk about the distant present where the Latino or Hispanic community protested a day before the Oscars.  During the years there hasn’t been a public out pouring demanding the movie industry represent them more, so why now?  Well, the guess is when Black Panther hit theaters last month serving us beautiful blackness, apparently the **ish hit the fan.  Not only did the melanin family show out but other groups were real stank face about it.  Regardless of the fact that Killmonger was indeed the real hero or the direct messages of I am not my brother’s keeper, the movie was still entertaining.

In a recent YouTube video a comment was made that Latinos are 18% of the population.  If that claim is legit, then why does it seem like our little old so called 13% for 5 decades has others so pressed?   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU1JV9OY7mk Then again maybe this is all a ruse and the Latino community just wants their dues.  If that is so why not protest last year when John Leguizamo was writing about the need for Latino Superheroes? 

As stated by the 2010 census on page 5 “The Hispanic population predominantly identified as either White or Some Other Race.” https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-02.pdf So why the blank are you all mad?  I mean if Hispanics predominately classify their selves as Caucasians then logically you have been overly represented, right?  These fence straddles only appear to come out when Massa is handing out bones with a little meat on them.  Oh heaven forbid that the Africans get their portion first.  This is a reminder of what they did in the 60’s when Black people were dying and fighting for the laws to be changed.

The Latin community conveniently stayed home until the benefits started rolling out.  All of a sudden they want to “Reclaim their Brownness.”  So are they brown or white?  Whatever the people of color choose to claim they need to add confusion to that list as well.  Stop riding off of the coat tails of black people and beat us to the movement sometime.  If this wasn’t the case then explain why The Root is owned by Univision Communications?  Somebody has to say it; African Americans have been carrying them throughout history and are still doing it today.