According to the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles City Council president Nury Martinez, a Latina Democrat, recently referred to a councilman’s Black son as a “monkey” — and also said in reference to liberal Los Angeles County district attorney George Gascon, “He’s with the Blacks.”

This prompted MSNBC host Tiffany Cross to ask Fordham University law professor Tanya Hernández if making racist comments made a Latino white or just a racist racial minority.  Hernández, a self-proclaimed “race law expert” with an interest in Critical Race Theory, replied:

Well, I actually think that there is another layer to this. Some people within the Latino community do achieve whiteness, one, because they are white appearing, they favor more our European ancestors, and depending on their accent, their educational level, whether they actually have a recognizable Hispanic surname, that all those things that enable a person to, I wouldn’t call it passing, but seemingly — just — and seamlessly being able to pass into whiteness, or white Anglo-whiteness, just as they have whiteness within Latin America and the Caribbean. Um, so, I guess what I want to say is that despite this idea of all Latinos being brown, you know, some browns are browner than others and some whites are whiter than others. There are Latinos who are white, whether they have that personal identity or not, that’s their socially ascribed race from others outside, and they get to move in that privilege as well.”

Latinos are incapable of exhibiting racist behavior unless and until they “achieve” whiteness?  Say what?!  Hernández sounded like a cross between Kamala Harris and a laundry detergent commercial.  Some browns are browner than other browns, and some whites are whiter than white?!

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