Black and Biracial: Afro-Latinas, Criminalization, and Inclusion While Centering Black Women

• In Event: Centering Black Women's Lives in the Matter of Justice: Where Do We Go From Here?

Abstract

This presentation will discuss the positioning of Afro-Latinas within Black feminist criminology. While the field of Black feminist criminology has added a much-needed theoretical basis for understanding Black women’s encounters with the criminal justice system as both victims and offenders, this has had the unintended effect of homogenizing “Blackness.” Within academia and activism, “Black” women are assumed mono-race; multiracial individuals and their unique experiences are near non-existent. Issues of colorism, inter-racial prejudices among marginalized groups, and criminalization has yet to be fully analyzed within Black feminist criminology.
Black and Latina women have historically been stereotyped as criminal and subsequently policed, hypersexualized, victimized, and advocated on their own behalf against state and interpersonal violence, and often as separate groups. Multiracial individuals are unique in that they experience stereotypes of both (or all) racial ancestries, prejudice, and exclusion from fellow people of Color, and the added nuance of experiencing intertwined sexism. The specific vulnerabilities to violence, decision to engage in criminal activity and experiences at all stages of the criminal justice system for Afro-Latina women has yet to be analyzed within criminology. With the increase in multiracial births and identification, it is imperative that Afro-Latinas are incorporated when centering Black women.

Author

• Cassandra Mary Frances Gonzalez, University of Colorado Boulder