By Maya Brown -
NBC News
Generations of Latinos have grown up hearing a family member call a relative or friend “negrita” or “negrito.”
Although many use it as an expression of endearment—some even say it to white relatives—in the United States there is a debate about who should use the term, to refer to whom, and whether defending its use hides Latin America's racist past.
Many in the black and Afro-Latino community are offended when it is used to describe them.
In 2020, when the actress and singer Jennifer López sang:
“I will always be your black girl from the Bronx
,” in a song with the Colombian singer Maluma, she encountered rejection from some who pointed out that she never mentioned having black roots or that she identify as Afro-Latina.
Others defended it, claiming that it is a common expression of affection used by different races.
Tally Joyce, a 27-year-old content creator on the social network TikTok, began recording videos to share her experience as an Afro-Latina and make others feel seen.
Since emigrating from Honduras seven years ago, she has gained more than 100,000 followers and recently used the platform to talk about why it bothers her when other people use “negrita” or “morena,” instead of “negra.”
Tally Joyce.Courtesy
Joyce believes it is unnecessary to make the word more “cute” or simplify it because “black” describes a part of who she is.
In recent years more Afro-Latinos in the United States have embraced the word “negra,” including Afro-Latina singer Amara La Negra, who is proud of the term.
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Although Joyce would allow her family to call her “black,” she feels that not everyone should do so because of the connotations that come with the word.
Although her relatives use it to show love and affection, others may do so to cause her pain, she said.
“Many times these conversations about things that may be racist are not had in Latin America,” Joyce said.
“
When some people use the term it is in a derogatory way
and they are putting down black people.”
Amara La Negra.Ivan Apfel/Getty Images
Although she likes it when Afro-Latinos use it, Joyce said that when someone who does not identify as such or does not have black skin uses it it could seem like they are trying to offend.
understand the past
Tanya Katerí Hernández, author of
Racial Innocence: Unmasking Latino Anti-Black Bias
and professor of Law at Fordham University, explained that
context is vital when using the word
, since she has heard it as an expression of endearment in a way which can be considered problematic when someone who is or identifies as white uses it to disparage another person.
Regarding the suffix “ita”, he considered that people usually forget how the use of the term is tied to the paternalism of the slave past in which it can be interpreted as the person is saying “my black person” since “ita” creates an idea of privacy, Hernández explained.
“That sense of intimacy that it embodies is a compliment that the person is within your networks while, at the same time, it is the only way that some find blackness in some way relational and acceptable, only if it is hierarchical,” he said Hernandez.
According to her, the use of the term is rarely harmless to the person to whom it is said.
“The problem is that this way of showing love comes with historical baggage by referring to people's racial appearance and also by putting them in their place,” he explained.
The word “negrita,” he noted,
reflects the discomfort with blackness
that is often found in Latino communities.
“It still represents the way in which in Latin America and the Caribbean, blackness is a problem in the sense that we are not some kind of racial utopia free of any racial discord,” he said.
When JLo used the term in her song, users on the social network X, formerly Twitter, called it derogatory and even said it was a “literal slap in the face of all black women.”
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Joyce agreed with the sentiment, considering the pop star used them as cultural appropriation and insensitivity to the Afro-Latino and Black communities.
However, other users supported JLo.
“Everyone in Puerto Rico has used bold for a long time,” another user tweeted.
“This cancellation issue is ridiculous.
It will never be a derogatory term for us Puerto Ricans, all Puerto Ricans come from interracial parents.”
Growing up in Puerto Rico, Isabel Molina-Guzmán, a professor in Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said the term was not always directly related to skin color in her family and was used as a expression of affection for people of all races.
Although he recognizes that it has a meaning of affection, Molina-Guzmán accepts that
there is a legacy of colonization and slavery rooted in the word
and that the history of the expression also shows the social value that has been given to people with lighter skin.
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“The fact that I was darker than my cousins meant something and not necessarily in a good way, as much as they wanted it to,” she said.
Constantly being called “black girl” also made her aware of the color of her skin and she feels there is an underlying meaning: “You are so pretty and we love you, but at the same time, don't go too dark.”
“It's like a double-edged sword,” said Molina-Guzmán.
“Whiteness has always been privileged over blackness or indigeneity.
It is linked to class and education in almost all countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Although he believes that the term should be used as a term of endearment, Molina-Guzmán believes that it is important to think about the critical history behind it.
“That bold is a term of endearment does not erase the racial legacy of the word
,” he insisted.