Interesting article over at Naked With Socks On dealing with the ongoing issue of Ethnicity vs. Race. I’ll let them tell it. Check out the excerpt below…

Black is a powerful word. More than a color, it represents an entire race of people. While some may prefer African American, Afro Cuban, Afrocentric or whatever variation that applies, when someone says “Black” (with a capital B) you generally know what they mean. That’s why I was taken aback when this man looked me in my eye and said, “I’m not Black.”

Despite having the same pigmentation as myself, he was adamant about expressing his Spanish heritage. He was Panamanian and proud. Being called “Black” was somehow an insult to everything that he was. Be that as it may, looking at him all I saw was another Black man like myself. I never paid attention to his last name, which I later discovered had Spanish roots, because for all I knew it could have just as well been Haitian. Even that was “too Black” for him.

I have no problem with someone holding on to their heritage but when I use the term “Black,” I include all people within the brown spectrum. It doesn’t matter if you’re from the South, North, Caribbean, UK, South America or the Motherland, if I look at you and see a person of color I feel you’re Black. We can all break things down in to different categories and sub categories, but at the end of the day if your skin is pigmented b the world looks at your outward appearance and puts you in a box called “Black” before you even open your mouth.

Still, many people of Spanish descent tend to distance themselves from being labeled “Black.” Whether or not you speak Spanish, Creole, Patois, English or Portuguese, chances are the bloodlines have been mixed with an African slave at some point down the line, but because being “Black” is often viewed as being a negative thing it gets shunned by those that can.

But why?…

Check out their full article here: African American vs. Latino, Racial Divide, Negro Documentary.