Per Mari Loera 

Milwaukee, Wis. –During the summers of my youth, as my skin tanned, everyone would comment “wow you’re so dark”. We’d make jokes about one another. Darker skinned hispanics were made fun of. I was also one of those kids who would put my arms next to a darker skinned hispanic and joke “oh haha I’m darker than you now”. We were only joking. What I didn’t realize before was how these jokes were created based off of actual beliefs about black people. We know now that colorism is huge in the hispanic community. Telenovelas display darker people as those in low-income communities and they’re labeled as dirty. The fair, light skinned hispanics are the rich, well put together people. This needs to change. Our culture is amplified through social media, tv shows, news channels, etc and we need to call out others when negatively portraying other communities

When this is over, will you continue to call me sensitive when I say a joke you made wasn’t funny? Will you tell me to lighten up when I say certain comments are offensive? Will you continue saying the n word?

We all know that killing black people is bad. But our culture can be harmful as well. Many black lives are lost due to racism within the healthcare system. Many lives are lost due to poverty. Some are homeless due to racist landlords. Some aren’t given job opportunities, so how can they earn money? The education system is messed up as well. Have you learned about the school to prison pipeline? Students aren’t being nurtured to succeed, rather people are preparing for minorities to drop out and commit crimes to send them to prison. This is all because of implicit bias, and passive racism. Through the media people are taught that black people are dangerous.

We need better media representation, and this is possible. More black people need to be portrayed as doctors, and scientists and not just as thugs. We need people to stand up against racism in all of the systems such as healthcare, and education.

It’s so much deeper. Our country was built on racism. People have dealt with microaggressions in the workforce.

We need to do better and stand up ALWAYS.