Rejecting Black and Rejected Back: AfroLatinx College Students’ Experiences with anti-AfroLatinidad

Constructing a Monolith: State Policy, Institutional DEI Plans, and the Flattening of Latinx Identity at Hispanic-Serving Institutions

“…Within the institution-level DEI plans, beyond some consideration of gender and race, the framing of institutional data and programmatic efforts erodes how gender, class, and other social identities are layered on to these racialized experiences, thus further disenfranchising some groups (Crenshaw, 1990). Highlighting this absence contributes to the growing research within higher education that considers Afro-Latinx students (Dache et al, 2019; García-Louis & Cortes, 2020)—speaking to a broader problem of the erasure of a racialized Latinx identity.…”

Latino men and men of color programs: Research-based recommendations for community college practitioners.

“…With the rise of data analytics, practitioners must close equity gaps through expanded real-time interventions and holistic wrap-around support to best serve students. MoC—and for that matter, Latin* students—are not a homogenous group (García-Louis & Cortes, 2020; Salinas, 2020) and community college practitioners must do their best to fully understand their intersectional identities to properly support the whole individual (López et al, 2018). This suggests MoC program staff ought to track efforts across racial and gender lines (among other salient identities) and engage in data disaggregation to understand the gaps being magnified the most (Sáenz et al, 2018).…”

Suficiente, Enough: Reckoning With the Complexities of a Colonial Past That Racializes LatinXs as MestizXs

“…It is also disingenuous when education scholars conclude their findings are representative of the LatinX experience, particularly because AfroLatinXs and Indigenous perspectives are often missing from their analysis. García-Louis and Cortes (2020) found that AfroLatinX students had to constantly negotiate both being Black and LatinX because there was no recognition of AfroLatinXs on their campus. Zuberi (2001) problematized the use of racial statistics by noting that "because the premises about race are false, the conclusions must be also; as the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out" (p. ix).…”

“…A monolithic approach to assessing LatinXs carries over to higher education research (Dache et al, 2019; García-Louis, 2016; Jiménez Román & Flores, 2010; Salinas, 2020) where most of the scholarship on LatinXs in higher education centers the experiences of mestizXs—individuals of Spanish and American Indian descent (Blackwell et al, 2017; García-Louis & Cortes, 2020; Salas Pujols, 2022). The push to develop a one-size-fits-all model to serving LatinXs in education has produced the opposite effect: the one-size-fits-few dilemma.…”

“…Education scholars have traditionally studied the experiences of LatinX students using socially constructed ethnic and racial categories. This common practice is problematic at best given it largely ignores the experiences of AfroLatinXs (Andrews, 2004; Dache et al, 2019; García-Louis & Cortes, 2020; Jiménez Román & Flores, 2010) and Indigena (Blackwell et al, 2017; Urrieta, 2003) peoples. It is also disingenuous when education scholars conclude their findings are representative of the LatinX experience, particularly because AfroLatinXs and Indigenous perspectives are often missing from their analysis.…”