Statement from the AfroLatino Coalition
Apr 3
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Yvette Modestin (Lepolata Apoukissi)
Greetings community,
Today (3/28/24), we learned that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has chosen to recommend new standards to collect race and ethnicity data in the upcoming census that makes race and ethnicity co-equal categories in problematic ways. This latest effort ensures that Latinos are effectively deracinated and may cause Afro-Latinos to be erased. By listing Latino ethnicity as co-equal with racial categories, Latinos are inaccurately portrayed as a population without racial differences despite all the research showing how Black Latinos are treated differently from other Latinos. Separating ethnicity from race is essential for making visible the actual and intersectional racial disparities that exist within a racially diverse ethnic group like Latinos in access to important public goods such as access to education, employment, housing, medical services, etc. Without it, systemic racism, especially when discussing Latino populations, is rendered invisible.
Read the full statement here
peace and solidarity,
Yvette Modestin (Lepolata Apoukissi)
Founder/Director
Encuentro Diáspora Afro/Member of the AfroLatino Coalition
