Millions Of Afro-Latinos Claim White, Census Data Reveals

Source: Smith Collection/Gado / Getty

The U.S. Census can be a tedious task, but it does help local governments not only know who they’re serving exactly but also gives Americans as a whole an idea of the racial breakdown throughout our beautifully diverse nation.

A surprising result that came from the 2020 Census showed that 1/3 of Afro-Latinos — that fraction translates to just over 6 million — actually don’t identify as Hispanic, instead opting to choose White, Black or even “some other race.”

Afro-Latino Americans who did not identify as Latino were more likely than those who did identify as Latino to mark Black as their race (59% vs. 17%) when asked about their race on a Census Bureau-style question asked by @pewresearch. https://t.co/7vxHcltcje pic.twitter.com/Ks2O9eL5oz

— Pew Research Race and Ethnicity (@pewidentity) May 4, 2022

The results derive from the Pew Research Center (seen above), with many Afro Latinos making the decision based on their physical features like race, skin tone and country of origin just to name a few factors.

Pew senior researcher Ana Gonzalez-Barrera spoke with AZ Central about the results and found the multimillion digit to be “a significant number,” going on to add in her original Pew report, “The multiple dimensions of Latino identity reflect the long colonial history of Latin America, during which mixing occurred among indigenous Americans, White Europeans, Asians and enslaved people from Africa. In Latin America’s colonial period, about 15 times as many African slaves were taken to Spanish and Portuguese colonies than to the U.S. About 130 million people of African descent live in Latin America, and they make up roughly a quarter of the region’s total population, according to recent estimates from the Project on Ethnicity and Race in Latin America (PERLA) at Princeton University.”

More on these intriguing findings below, via Pew Research Center:

“The racial groups Afro-Latinos identify with can be varied and diverse. When asked about their race on a Census Bureau-style question, about three-in-ten Afro-Latinos selected White as their race, 25% chose Black and 23% selected ‘some other race,’ according to the Center survey. An additional 16% selected multiple races, while just 1% said they were Asian. Afro-Latinos who did not identify as Latino were more likely than those who did identify this way to mark Black as their race (59% vs. 17%).

When asked how people would describe them when walking past them on the street, Afro-Latinos who identified as Hispanic or Latino were more likely than other Latinos to say they would be seen as multiracial or mixed race (12% vs. 4%) or Black (7% vs. 1%), according to a different Pew Research Center survey of Latino adults conducted in March 2021. By contrast, Afro-Latinos were less likely than other Latinos to say they would be seen as White (7% vs. 19%).”

The data also reveals why some Afro Latinos might choose against their Hispanic heritage, ranging from “in-house racism” from other Latinos who might have fairer skin tones or simply being criticized for speaking Spanish. They’ve also credited the Black Lives Matter movement as a reason why choosing Black is also so popular.

Overall, let’s just do better to make everyone feel welcome in this world regardless of their racial background.

Here’s What The 2020 Census Results Mean For Black America