Leid Stories - 10/09/13

Between A Rock and A Hard Place: Latinegros in the USA"

Jakiyah McKoy, 7, was crowned Little Miss Delaware on Aug. 31. A month later, she was stripped of the title and crown because pageant officials said she could not prove her Latin heritage.

Actually, the sponsoring organization, Nuestras Raices Delaware, caved in to “complaints” that Jakiyah, who is black, “is not the best representative of Latin beauty.” A committee is “investigating” Jakiyah’s heritage, since one of the pageant’s rules is that contestants must be “at least 25-percent” Latina.

Jakiyah’s story has touched off, once again, a raging discussion about racism and skin politics in the Latino community. Leid Stories’ guest, Dr. Marta Cruz-Janzen, a longtime scholar of multicultural education, rips the scab off this festering sore in her live presentation, “Between A Rock and A Hard Place: Latinegros in the USA.” A Q&A follows.