Celebrating multiracial identity does not reduce racial inequality in Latin America

Evidence

In Latin America, the hallmark of racial formation has been the racialization of nations and regions as “mixed-race.” Moreover, most people of color self-identify as racially mixed. Yet, despite the privileging of racial “hybridity,” racist stereotypes and racial inequalities are equal to, if not greater, in Latin America than in the United States (see Hanchard, 1994:5). Thus Latin America offers a case study that should caution scholars and activists to carefully consider how efforts to encourage “mestizoness” do not necessarily constitute an antiracist position but rather may work to effectively sustain racial disparities. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3671

Categorization

• SEED: An essay angle: ‘the Multiracial Category Trap’ — US multiracial activists may be importing a Latin American celebration of hybridity that demonstrably coexists with deep inequality there.
• QUESTION: Do multiracial movement advocates have evidence their framing reduces racism anywhere, or is it purely symbolic/identity-based?
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that hybridity itself can sustain racial disparities inverts a common progressive intuition that mixed-race celebration is inherently liberatory — worth sitting with.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3671