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NAHJ Board Member Sees "Afro-Latina" Identity as Gift

"The first time I was called a 'nigger,' it was by white Latinos. I was 8 years old,"Yvonne Latty, who teaches journalism at New York University, wrote Wednesday for the Huffington Post's BlackVoices and LatinoVoices sites.

"The memory is really painful and defining. Back in the 1970s there wasn't a name for what I was. I was a kid whose mom was a light-skinned Dominican and whose dad was a darker-skinned Jamaican.

"I was darker than both of them.

"I did not understand my identity . . ."

Latty, a board member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, also wrote, "In my world most Latino journalists are light-skinned, most Latinos in corporate America are light-skinned, and most Latinos in media are light-skinned. Afro-Latinos are the ones being left out when a New York Times article states that Latinos are checking the 'white' box on the census.

"In May Telemundo and MSNBC anchor José Díaz-Balart was on an MSNBC segment to discuss the controversial New York Times article and was asked if there is a race problem within the Latino community. He said there is not, which reinforced just how invisible we are. And to top it off, the segment did not have one Afro-Latino guest. Speaking on our behalf were African Americans.

"But having a name for my identity, 'Afro-Latina,' has been a gift to me. . . ."

• Daisy Rosario, "Latino USA," NPR: SOMOS: Afro-Latino (audio) (Jan. 23)