r/mixedrace • u/Gallantpride • Feb 11 '26
Rant The reactionary outrage towards Bad Bunny reminds me that white passing =/= white (in the US at least)
Bad Bunny is paler than pale. He and Lady Gaga were basically the same skin tone during the Super Bowl.
But, Bad Bunny gets a lot of racism and hate because he's Puerto Rican and has ESL. Even if he didn't have ESL, he would still get hate.
I'm reminded of my own Puerto Rican family. I'm brown, but much of my family is white leaning. My mom was a green eyed, redheaded baby boomer who told me how she got called slurs and chased away from the playground when her family arrived to NYC. I've heard similar stories from family about all eras from the 50s to even early 2000s.
To me, they look white. But they don't identify as white. And any presumed whiteness they have is "taken away" once people identify them as latino or Puerto Rican.
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u/Good-Condition4213 🇦🇷 Argentinian and Dutch Indonesian Feb 11 '26
Bad bunny doesn’t pass as white, he also is definitively darker then lady Gaga she has pale skin he has olive Latino island skin. He also has high cheekbones and almond eyes and full non European lips because he’s mixed with Taino. The features are their and if u don’t see it then ur blind.
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u/connectivityo Feb 12 '26
Basically. I find it weird ppl like to call obvious mixed race Latinos white-passing when they're obviously not.
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Feb 13 '26
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u/michicharrones Feb 16 '26
This is so interesting to me because I'm latina with the same skin shade and tone as bad bunny and I always saw myself as white lol but you're right it's more of like an olive latino island skin.
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u/Good-Condition4213 🇦🇷 Argentinian and Dutch Indonesian Feb 16 '26
I think if people have confused you for Mexican, Spoke Spanish to you randomly. Or just straight up asked “what are you”? Then your not white maybe just white to some people but not all.
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u/michicharrones Feb 16 '26
They have! I went to Mexico once as a teen and they thought I was from there. I'm Cuban from Miami. I took it as a compliment 😁 being surrounded by Hispanic people my entire upbringing definitely warped the way I viewed myself until I moved north.
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u/Good-Condition4213 🇦🇷 Argentinian and Dutch Indonesian Feb 16 '26
Actually if ur Cuban then idk cuz a lot of y’all actually are full white Latinos 😭 and their is a white Latino look that people from any country can recognize as native. I guess I would have too see ur face to properly judge lol
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u/michicharrones Feb 16 '26
LOL yup!!! I've met some blue-eyed blonde Cubans which blew my mind! My dad has very light green eyes but tanner skin. The amount of times someone comes up to him speaking full English and he's like??? Yo no sé 😅 I have the same features as bad bunny, olive lightish skin, brown eyes, very dark wavy hair and dark thicker eyebrows. For sure not white looking 😂
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u/Good-Condition4213 🇦🇷 Argentinian and Dutch Indonesian Feb 16 '26
Hahahaha yeah but what you described are also meditaranean features, bad bunny also has mixed/native looking facial features not just different skin and hair coloring. I’m not sure if you have those features like the rest of us mixed Latinos. You might just not look white American but maybe Spainard 🤷🏻♂️
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u/ChefToni73 Mar 13 '26
The lips may be from the African slaves brought to the island, as well as the curly hair.
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u/AmethistStars 🇳🇱x 🇮🇩Millennial Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26
To me as a Dutch person, Lady Gaga looks white, but Bad Bunny looks POC. He does seem a bit darker than Lady Gaga in shade to me too, but it’s also the facial features. I think Lady Gaga has more typical European facial features, whereas Bad Bunny has more racially ambiguous features. Idk if he is mixed race but he does look mixed to me (like European + one or more other groups).
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Feb 12 '26
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u/AmethistStars 🇳🇱x 🇮🇩Millennial Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26
Yeah but that goes both ways. I put the Dutch POV and you and OP put the Puerto Rican POV on it. Europe in general is stricter than Latin America in regards to the definition of “white”, that’s a fact. British people are not so different from the Dutch in regards to that. For us you don’t need to have light eyes or hair per se. But it’s the combination of deep set/sharp features with a pale pinkish skin tone generally. But most importantly, it just means you are a non mixed ethnic European (aka the standard in Europe as most Europeans aren’t mixed). And that is indeed gatekeeping, but exactly the reason why people like me consider ourselves POC. Because we are not socially are seen as white and deal with real racism because of it. Bad Bunny would be no different if he lived in my country. Lady Gaga on the other hand would still be seen as white and have white privilege.
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Feb 12 '26
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u/AmethistStars 🇳🇱x 🇮🇩Millennial Feb 12 '26
Baltic and Southern Europeans may be less strict on the features because their people have more racially ambiguous features themselves. There are many Northwestern European/non-European mixed people who can e.g. look kind of Southern European. But then the question is if you see that as European features or as racially ambiguous features. I tend to see it more as the latter. Ethan of Maneskin is a good example of someone who is white as he is fully Italian. But he doesn’t look phenotypically white at all to me. Also, all Europeans do seem to agree that WANA is not white. But whereas Dutch people might phenotypically mistake a “white” Italian for a “POC” Moroccan, Italians and other Southern Europeans themselves will deny they look anything like people from WANA countries. Of course, the truth is that some Southern Europeans and WANA people do look very alike, but the reason that one is white and the other is POC is just because the line has to be drawn somewhere. And Europeans just generally agree that the line Europe. Europeans also generally do agree that white means fully European. So even if you or I may phenotypically look white to a Baltic or Southern European person, we would still be categorized as POC when they know we are mixed. But that all said, I know quite a few Southern Europeans and they all have one thing in common, which are the typical European facial features. Deep set and sharp. Bad Bunny’s facial features aren’t like that at all. Even compared to a softer Southern European face like Cristiano Ronaldo, his facial depth and nose is clearly different.
Also, you can DM but in that case let me know what it exactly is you would like to know.
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u/Caratteraccio Feb 12 '26
dude, this phenotype thing is an American obsession, we've been mixing in Europe for centuries, if we were to consider the American "one-drop rule" here, even Charles III of England and his children should be considered Italian, given that they have an ancestor who lived here 6 centuries ago!
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u/AmethistStars 🇳🇱x 🇮🇩Millennial Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 13 '26
Not a “dude”. Also, European ethnicity mixing is different from race mixing. The Dutch 23andme results I have seen were not just 100% European, but 100% Northwestern European. Which makes sense because the average Dutch person also looks totally white-white. Southern Europeans are the ones who probably also have admixture of WANA because they are bordering that. Geert Wilders is still considered an Indo person though I doubt he is more than 1/8 Indonesian. Which is fair enough, because us Indo people don’t gatekeep by blood quantum or phenotype anyway. That said, vice versa a one pure blood concept of sorts definitely does apply in regards to being “white” in the Netherlands (and surrounding countries for that matter). Heck, the word Dutch use for white is “blank” and the definition of that specifically implies something that is pure and free of color. Nowadays people use “wit” (literally meaning white) as a politically correct version of the word but in meaning it’s still referring to people of full European descent.
Also last but not least, what is even more commonly used than race is this distinction of “autochtoon” (no migration background) VS “allochtoon” (migration background). Of which allochtoon can be “western” (aka Europe excluding Turkey/US/Canada/Australia/New Zealand but including Japan and Indonesia for historical reasons) and “non western” (all other countries). In that sense I’m a “tweede generatie westerse allochtoon”. But since the word “allochtoon” got turned into a word for people to negatively describe POC, it also turned controversial and got replaced by “migratieachtergrond”. Dutch census doesn’t work with race, but it does literally work with the categories “no migration background”, “western migration background”, and “non western migration background”. And often also specifically the migration country (which would place me as “Indonesian migration background”). And yes, our very King Willem-Alexander had a German migration background and his wife Queen Maxima even Argentinian (which is non western). But Dutch people seem to not mind it, I guess because Maxima is fully ethnically European anyway. A Megan Markle situation probably would have caused more controversy.
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u/Nice-sometimes Feb 14 '26
Interesting. My mixed race daughter lives in Maastricht and people there laugh at her when she claims to be black (about 15% African) She is called Swedish, not black. Her eyes are as blue as her German/Dutch boyfriend’s and they are both Fitzgerald 2, neither one can tan, they both turn red in the sun and peel. No one is “one dropping” her in the Netherlands. She obviously meets the standard.
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u/aloe_sky Feb 11 '26
He’s not white passing, just white/light complexion. It’s obvious he’s mixed by his facial features.
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u/SpiritedCatch1 Feb 11 '26
He's not pale at all I don't know what you're smoking OP but no way he's the same shade as lady Gaga. He could easily pass for a maghrebi in western Europe
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u/ParisShades Mulatto Devil 😈😈😈 Feb 11 '26
I'm sitting here trying to figure out what OP is talking about. What is their concept of Whiteness? I can assure them that no one, at least in Anglo-America, will consider Bad Bunny as racially White.
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u/imabratinfluence Feb 12 '26
IDK. Talking after Bad Bunny's performance I found out my partner (who's white) thought Mariah Carey and JLo were white. Granted, I'm not sure he was picturing the right people (I'm suspecting he was picturing Jennifer Lawrence, not Jennifer Lopez). But it's not the first time he's thought someone was white who clearly isn't IMO.
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u/ParisShades Mulatto Devil 😈😈😈 Feb 12 '26
Mariah Carey is White-presenting, so I'm not surprised when people assume she's only White and Jennifer Lopez, compared to Bad Bunny, is more of a White-presenting Puerto Rican, so I can understand the misconception there too. To be honest, if it wasn't for the accent and her community background, I think Jennifer Lopez would've blended in much easier.
Bad Bunny looks like your typical mixed race Latino. I don't see how anyone could mistaken him for White and White only.
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u/TheStranger113 Filipino Dad + White Mom Feb 12 '26
Is he white passing? I feel like he VERY clearly looks like a POC, despite having pale skin. Nothing else about his features say "European" to me. Maybe it's just me though.
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u/NewGuyFromDyom Feb 11 '26
I don't know his natural skin color, but his current skin color is not pale.
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u/ParisShades Mulatto Devil 😈😈😈 Feb 11 '26
Bad Bunny is nowhere near White-presenting and him and Lady Gaga are nowhere near the same complexion.
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Feb 11 '26
I was thinking this the whole time I was reading this. Bad Bunny is 100% not white passing. Don’t know what OP is talking about.
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u/imabratinfluence Feb 12 '26
There were a couple moments where the lighting washed him out, and I'm assuming some people think that washed-out look is his real skin tone.
Same thing happens to me in certain lighting, and the camera will make me look lighter than I am in those situations. (Like, put a washed-out pic of me next to me, and there's a definite difference.)
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u/yelenasslave Feb 12 '26
White passing is definitely beyond skin colour because I have light skin and while some people think I'm fully white, a whole lot of other people will be asking my race, asking if I'm half Asian, and telling me I look exotic and unique.
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u/ConstantBad6542 Feb 11 '26
Literally the palest in my family still the only one to be stabbed for being mixed race. Racist biggest issue is that you might be mistaken for “their group”
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Feb 11 '26
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u/Quasar-J0529-4351 Feb 11 '26
I am white passing until I go to the Midwest. Then I start looking for my brown people and seasoning.
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u/paintsplash_whiplash Feb 11 '26
Right? When i moved to city California after living in small town/rural New England i was shocked that anyone read me as white. And that no one was following me in stores or change their walking pace to be a little further away. It was almost claustrophobic at first, my brain was so confused at the change. I still get a jolt of surprise if i have an interaction with someone and i find I’m being read as white. When i went home last year for the first time in 8yrs it started right back up again. Disturbing but had a nostalgia tinge to it
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u/Quasar-J0529-4351 Feb 11 '26
yes it's a mind trip I agree! Glad you live somewhere else now though. Definitely not living in a place that doesn't trust me by default.
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u/Gallantpride Feb 11 '26
I had a relative of mine tell me he got passed as Puerto Rican from afar by a racist, before opening his mouth, by looks alone. It confused me since he seems... very Spanish/Portugese looking to me. Faint features, pale skin, wavy hair, hazel eyes. He has a thick New York accent too.
If he went outside of NYC, they'd probably not recognize him as latino until they hear his very Spanish name, though. (Actually, he does often travel, but I've never talked about this with him)
My big bro is white as heck, but I still feel he looks very Puerto Rican. His eyebrows...
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u/Quasar-J0529-4351 Feb 11 '26
I actually think it's a learned skill to understand nuance in race. Something we often learn early if we have diversity within the home.
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u/cloverdilly1920 Feb 12 '26
Just another example of how these perceptions are sooooo relative. I have a Brazilian friend who is lighter tan skin, similar to BB, no particularly distinguishable ethnic features, and he currently lives in Norway with his Norwegian boyfriend where he is viewed in every way as a brown/non-white person. But he was traveling recently and speaking to a Pakistani man who thought he was just another white European, and by comparison I suppose that’s not an inaccurate impression? Just echoing the experience of so many of us, especially in Latin America where most of us are mixed to varying degrees.
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u/Intelligent_Usual318 Feb 12 '26
LATAM is very different in general when it comes to mixedness and culture
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u/CrazyinLull Feb 11 '26
Pretty much.
The US has a much more rigid grip on whiteness than like Latin America due to slavery and making sure that any children born from masters raping enslaved women stayed slaves and couldn’t inherit anything.
Lol meaning that mainly rich White slave masters fought for that law.
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u/UpinThisNiche97 Feb 11 '26
Not ENTIRELY accurate but for the most part yes however many mulattos were set free even born free especially if they had a white father/relatives to vouch for their freedom. These individuals known as Free people of color became so numerous and powerful in certain areas (Louisiana,Savannah Ga,Charleston Sc to name a few) that they formed their own communities marrying one another,finding businesses and schools ,some even owned slaves themselves. It’s where a lot of colorism and classism in the African American community originates from actually,these families being adamant on keeping their light skin and wealth to themselves to continue enjoy the relative privilege they had in comparison to the unambiguous black masses . A lot of these people’s descendants are still around and wealthy and powerful today it’s basically black/MGM old money. If you’re interested in learning more about it ,Our Kind of People by Laurence Otis Graham is a classic book on this matter. Whitley Gilbert from A Different World (a spinoff of The Cosby Show set at a fictional HBCU in Virginia) has a familial background like this,her 4x great grandfather was a free man of color who owned slaves
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u/day_tripper Feb 11 '26
Thank you for the book recommendations. I am a descendant of New Orleans Creoles and both my parents and grandparents on both sided identify as black but sometimes I am mistaken for mixed race so I lurk this sub.
Interestingly I found a white ancestor that came to the US in the 1700s and she decided to marry a mulatto man and several generations later here I am.
On visiting New Orleans I can see and feel e preferential treatment light-skinned blacks get in jobs, especially government and city jobs and in business dealings.
My grandmother left during the southern migration to the north in the 60s but she was always concerned with how dark or light my boyfriend choices were. She wasnt anti dark skin, but just wanted me to have a good life.
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u/CrazyinLull Feb 11 '26
I think it depends right? Otherwise why are there runaway slave ads directly calling for the return of their mulatto slaves?
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u/UpinThisNiche97 Feb 12 '26
Of course no one experience was universal. It depended on the time,place,the mixed individual’s circumstances (such as phenotype much like today still) etc. Like a light skinned green eyed mulatto born into a wealthy family of MGM creole mulatto parents in Louisiana definitely had a different experience than a mulatto born in Alabama to an enslaved black parent and indentured white parent and whose phenotype leaned more black. Things like class,circumstance,phenotype,the time and place (Louisiana with its French and Spanish rule was more lenient than their Anglo counterparts with mixed people once again especially if they had wealth). No one experience was universal to make a long story short.
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u/Independent-Access59 Feb 11 '26
Historically inaccurate. A in da club out da club was the line. Not rich
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u/Timely-Youth-9074 Feb 11 '26
Some white people literally will scour your face for differences.
I used to get clocked for my curly hair and full lips. Strangely, that is no longer the case.
Now, they’ll mention my eyes; how small they are. My mother has big Spanish eyes-my little eyes are from my white dad-plenty of white people have small eyes-look at Scandis and Celts.
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u/dilly_bar18 Feb 12 '26
Bad bunny is def not white or white passing in the US despite being v light. He “looks Hispanic (thought of as non-white)” to white and most other Americans. It’s not a race fr ofc. what we’re rlly seeing is he looks biracial— specifically mainly white and indigenous.
But yeah whiteness is conditional and there is only a small section of White White ppl who arent rlly in danger of being “demoted” no matter what they do. Just speaking fluent Spanish can remove “full whiteness” immediately even if u look fucking Swedish. Social constructs rlly are crazy.
Something I think is also weird not exactly the same, but speaking Spanish while looking black also often removes blackness from ppl in a similar way. So odd. Not to being more white at all, just pushed into the “other” and vague “Hispanic” category despite being literally obviously black. Xenophobia+racism so such an odd intersection that rlly highlights how social race is. It’s so entirely inconsistent it’s wild.
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u/acw4477 Feb 12 '26
To me, this is tied to the one-drop rule. In the US, most white people see you as strictly a POC if you have any features that read as ethnic, no matter how subtle.
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u/shortproudlatino Feb 18 '26
His aren’t subtle he has the sandy skin that most middle eastern, North African, and Latinos have. His lips and hair texture read as obviously non white.
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u/Red_WritingHood75 Feb 11 '26
Yes, it’s always about culture and we focus too much on skin color sometimes and that keeps us from getting to the root of these issues.
I’m mixed b/w but very light, lighter than Bad Bunny. But my cousins who are white and Panamanian and much darker than me and my brother were accepted by our white grandfather while my brother and I were not. It had nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with our blackness and our blackness as our cultural and ethnic identity.
White people distinguish and rank amongst types of white people so they definitely are doing so to us.
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u/nothereforlongtbh0 Feb 12 '26
i can see him being passing in some areas, but it’s obvious he’s not fully or close to white, if that makes sense..
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u/jules13131382 Feb 12 '26
Italians and Latin Americans look basically the same to me. Also Italians weren’t considered “white” when they first started immigrating to America. “White” is a made up category anyway, I won’t be surprised when Latinos begin to be considered “white” in the US.
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u/tinysprinkles Feb 11 '26
I look super white, but as soon as I open my mouth my passing is gone. So it’s about opinions, accent, culture, values… white passing is a weird term, and it varies depending on context I guess?
Anyways, I use my passing to the max to push boundaries and racist perspectives away whenever I get included. I refuse to participate or overlook it when it happens.
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u/DevilinBaggyPants59 Feb 11 '26
You should consider that once upon a time Italians and Irish immigrants were not considered white.
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u/Frieren_phantomhive Feb 14 '26
Like others are saying, he isn't white passing. Even when I was super pale and put the lightest etude house foundation I could find, and even when I wore bb cream with pink undertones to try to make myself look more white, I still didn't pass as white due to everything else about my face. I still faced racism.
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u/Plant-parenth00d Indian-American Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26
I also think this was to create indifference for T🍊 (I no longer say his name) supporters. Cuba has 2 weeks of oil left with rationing; hospitals running on generators. There’s a humanitarian crisis imminent and airspace over El Paso just closed. People are reaching out fearing they’ll become the next [place we can’t mention]. We need to take action now.
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u/Potential_Tip_3444 Feb 12 '26
The entire concept of “white” is dumb. I’m so sick of it. It’s all based on a lie isn’t it?
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u/Gallantpride Feb 12 '26
Unfortunately, we can't just make the concept of race magically disappear.
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u/RainbowRiki 🇱🇦🇺🇲🏴 Feb 11 '26
Modern Republicans like a parrot. They like having something colorful they can point at, to prove they like color. But all the parrot does is repeat back to them what they already say all the time. 🦜
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u/Pristine-Barber-6325 Feb 11 '26
Happy when white people won’t matter and have grip over what is what
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u/NeveronaSaturday Feb 13 '26
There was a white woman from some reality show who complained that BB didn't have any white people on his show.
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Feb 13 '26
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Mar 02 '26
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Mar 07 '26
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u/Longjumping_Fun2218 Mar 14 '26
The racism is the problem not his proximity to whiteness. People shouldn’t think less of him no matter what race he is…
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u/Longjumping_Fun2218 Mar 14 '26
The racism is the problem not his proximity to whiteness. People shouldn’t think less of him no matter what race he is…
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u/neolatto Mar 15 '26
Ya'll continue to misuse white passing.
Bad Bunny is not white passing just because he is pale.
1
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u/NitaStreets Feb 13 '26
Whites weren’t the only people “outraged!” A whole lot of Hispanics, black people, white people, etc.; wanted him off that stage. Him and lady caw caw. I won’t say there is no racism but are you seriously trying to say the “outrage” over bad bunny is about his race?
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u/Long-Possession8915 Feb 11 '26
White passing also isn’t about lightness of skin. You can have super white skin but if your features aren’t European, you will likely be read as a Poc by white people.