I’m Uninterested in Afro-Latina Exotification & Stereotypes

Once we started our three-year, on-and-off-again courting, I beloved how D gave the look to be in me. A tender Dim guy from Tennessee, he used to be intrigued by way of my Latine culture. He relished consuming Caribbean meals, steadily examined out his Spanish with me, and requested me unending questions on my age growing up Dominican in Brandnew York Town. In the beginning, his probes felt inquisitive — his starvation for wisdom used to be attractive — and his compliments have been flattering. Till I spotted the portions of myself that elicited his honour have been all tie to my Latina-ness, the sides that made me, a Dim lady, overseas to him. He, like such a lot of alternative males, Dim and non-Dim, exotified my Latina tradition and noticed my first language, Spanish, as a marker that altered my Blackness, that made my Blackness particular.