Professor Tanya K. Hernández shared her expert opinion with USA Today and commented on a recent study that outlined discrimination in the Latino community.
A majority of Latinos experience discrimination in the United States, according to a new
study, but those with a darker skin tone suffer more negative effects.Nearly half of the 3,375 adults surveyed in March for the Pew Research Center’s National
Survey of Latinos said discrimination based on race or skin color is a “very big problem.”The Latino community reflects a broad range of ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds.
About 62% of Pew survey respondents said darker skin hurts people’s ability to
get ahead and a similar number (59%) agreed with the reverse: that a lighter skin shade
offers a comparative benefit.…
Such evidence of internal conflict shows the Latino community is not the monolith it is still
too often perceived to be, said Fordham Law School professor Tanya K. Hernández, author of an upcoming book that deals with the topic, “Racial Innocence: Unmasking Latino Anti-
Black Bias and the Struggle for Equality.”“What the Pew report supports is a growing body of research, including the new book I’m
putting out, that traces the ways in which we are not this homogeneous racial utopia,” she
said, adding that it has long been “taboo” to discuss anti-Black bias and racial stereotypes
within the Latino community. “There’s an understood pecking order, but we’re not supposed
to acknowledge it.”