New...And Hating Anita.

[watersheerie.livejournal.com]

Yes, another newbie posts....but I am estatic to be able to speak my mind about these bloody books. 

At any rate, my sister and I were having a conversation the other day about Anita and her so called 'mixed heritage.'

I have a few problems with this. Not with Anita being mixed, but the way that LKH presented it, and the reason for it in the first place. 

For one thing, I don't get how Anita's black hair and pale skin are the only things that indicate she's mixed. Black hair and pale skin are actually common traits among the Irish, and you don't get much whiter then that (no offense, I'm part Irish myself.) Yet in Anitaverse, Anita's ultra-pale skin and black hair are what define her as being mixed, especially the black hair. I don't understand why any other physical features are shown as being signs of her background. She's half Mexican, and the only thing she's seemed to gain from that side of the family was hair color, unless her mom was big chested as well. Genetics do include facial features and structure, and there are certain different facial features that are specific to different races. Since only her hair and skin color are mentioned as being 'the marks of mixed blood', I get the feeling that there really wasn't much thought put into the idea in the first place.

I probably should add at this point that I am mixed myself, and would consider myself more knowledgable on the subject then LKH. 

Throughout the books, there really isn't anything to show what it's like to grow up being mixed. All we get is a mention about how Anita's step-mom didn't claim her as a child. Her fiance dumped her for being mixed. And a few racist cops scream out the necessary racial slurs to ensure that we all get it. Anita is mixed, so there is angst in her life. But there is nothing else to it. All we see are basically stereotypes, and that's it.

Growing up mixed is like being in the crossroads. You can claim all these different races in your background, yet you really don't belong to any one of them. You're in the crossroads. Anita never shows the crossroads, all she shows is a few half-hearted attempts to prove that yes, she is mixed, and woe is her. But she never acts like it, in fact, she acts white. Nothing wrong with that (again, no offense,) but for someone who is supposedly mixed and has suffered for it, it doesn't fit. Anita is white, and I'm not talking about the glow-in-the-dark skin I fail to see what is so mixed about her, besides the hair. And with black hair she could also be Irish, or emo.

The only thing that really sets Anita apart from others, is her necromancy. That was the big 'difference' growing up. That was what kept her separate from others. Her interracial heritage is kept in the background, and brought up at various points so that the reader never forgets. I can give LKH a little bit of leeway, and admit that the necromancy is the focus of the story. However, I get the feeling that the 'mixed' part was only added to give Anita some trauma in her life, and I find that a bit offensive.  

LKH: "Hmmmmmm. Let's see, I want my avatar to have a really traumatic childhood and life, so that people will sympathize with her. I know!  I'll make her mixed, that way, there will be angst galore. After all, being mixed is all about trauma and misery, plus it's pretty cool these days to be mixed."

I'll admit, I find my heritage to be cool, and am very proud of it. But I don't like LKH using it as some sort of fad, just so her Mary Sue insert would have everything and be everything. I don't like the way it was added to give Anita angst. But, why should I be surprised to see LKH doing shit like this. After all, this is the woman that thinks rape and pedophilia is 'erotic.'

Sorry for the rant, I'm still seething about it, and I'm a bit low on chocolate right now.

Comments

[manekikoneko.livejournal.com]

Part of what I don't get is the skin thing; I've never heard that Mexicans are known for being pale, and most of the ones I've met have quite lovely olive complexions. One of my best friends for years (sadly, she's passed away) was half-Mexican, and she had a daughter who's father is six-foot, blonde and Irish, and both mother and child had dark brown hair and olive skin. Then again, I've also known people of Native American and European descent (with tribal membership, not just some great-great aunt somewhere) who were pale and blond.

And if she's saying that Anita's hair is Mexican but her skin is European (I haven't read the books in years, mercifully), I've known a lot of olive skinned actual Europeans as well, and some fairly pallid Latinos. I think LKH needs to get out of St. Louis more.

[kethryvis.livejournal.com]

In a (slight) defense of the pale-haired/skinned Mexicans... there are a few. I have a good friend who comes from a Latino family, and is as blond haired and blue eyed (more so even) than I am, European ancestry that I have. Every now and again there's a throwback to the European blood that hit Mexico All Those Years Ago... but it's incredibly rare, and you'd never mistake one for being 'mixed' or whatever. In fact, I had no idea until she mentioned that her maiden name had been Hernandez.

But yes, LKH needs to get out more. At least outside her house. Does she actually *go* anywhere?

[watersheerie.livejournal.com]

I could almost understand the pale skin/black hair combo, if LKH had added more. The pale skin and black hair are the only things that make Anita mixed, that's it. Plus a few 'traumatic racist' experiences. Nothing else is given, nothing. Anita is mixed because she has black hair and pale skin, plus she had a fiance who dumped her for being mixed.

Maybe I should tell LKH about how the mother of my sister's friend thought my sister and I were planning to seduce white men, in order to give them black babies. It wasn't traumatic so much as amusing. Then LKH could write the same story for Anita, only Anita would be hurt by the incident and force herself to never love again. Until she has sex with at least 20 guys, as sex fixes everything.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

LKH: "Hmmmmmm. Let's see, I want my avatar to have a really traumatic childhood and life,

"....because losing her mother young and growing up the unwanted stepchild with a tendency to animate roadkill certainly wouldn't generate nearly enough trauma..."

I always wondered why LKH bothered to give Anita a past; she certainly doesn't do anything with it. How many relatives and love connections must die in passing before LKH is convinced we get it, Anita is One Tough Bitch who doesn't let anything so trivial as dead family break her stride?

[estllechauvelin.livejournal.com]

you don't get much whiter then that (no offense, I'm part Irish myself.)

I don't think you have to worry much about offending people: any largely-Irish person who has gotten sunburned on a cloudy day will agree that you don't get much whiter than us.

[mitrian.livejournal.com]

any largely-Irish person who has gotten sunburned on a cloudy day

Yep. Sunburnt on a cloudy day, with SPF50. Applied twice. And I'm mostly a German/Irish mix.

[wellowned.livejournal.com]

speaking from mixed ancestry, i can honestly say that i completely forgot that anita was mixed. i mean, TLC(?) was the only book that even tried to delve into her heritage, right? unless i'm sorely mistaken, which is possible since i haven't reread any of the books or anything like that in years.

but. yeah. i know that it's possible to act in one way or another to 'blend in' with the race that has the most control over you. i mean, the one with the most influence over how you act. so i'm willing to discount anita's "whiteness" as trying to be what she couldn't really be for her stepmom or whatever.

but more importantly, the gamut of mixed blood and how it shows is weird. i'm paler than my english dad, but have dark 'kinky' hair and features like my black mother. whereas my brother has the coloring of my mother, and straighter hair and features like my dad.

[mranon-y-mous.livejournal.com]

Have you ever been mistaken for Latino, Arabic, or even Albianin? I have. I can't go to my hair dresser without people talking to me in Sapanish.

[longtail.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Not to mention Richard of the Perma-Tan...and his tan somehow suggests somewhere in his heritage someone wasn't quite "white bread." How you come up with THAT summation simply from being tan, I'd really like to know.

It's all the edginess of minorities without having to give up being white for it. So far the only person of minority I can think of that turned out to be something other than a villain, victim, or a one-shot bit part is Rapheal. Bernardo DID have most of a book to appear in and wasn't too bad, but other than that, I can't really think of any other people of minority that show up regularly or is in Anita's personal circle.

[easol.livejournal.com]

Oh, there are plenty, like my second fave female character Meng Die. They just don't get any distinguishing characteristics -- they just get a mention of their appearance, skin tone or eyes or something. But no background, memories, references to their homeland, accents... nada, unless they are French or English.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

IIRC, Anita claims her pale skin from her Germanic background, and it's the dark hair and eyes get gets from her Mexican bits.

And to all that I say piffle, because there are plenty of Europeans with pale skin, dark hair, and dark eyes.

I know it's been brought up in here before, but there was a discussion about how LKH got the whole Mexican part wrong, as they're...not exactly huge on the voodoo stuff. There's witchcraft, yes, but not voodoo as it's presented, you know?

[jeza-red.livejournal.com]

"And to all that I say piffle, because there are plenty of Europeans with pale skin, dark hair, and dark eyes."

Exactly! Me is from Europe, Central part. Blond hair, blue eyes, light skin. My neighbour - dark brown eyes, dark olive skin, dark hair. My next neighbour - dark eyes, pale skin, black curly hair *shit, she looks like Anita! O_o...kicks asses better though* And it's just my street. And there've been no "mix-ins" in their genes EVER, and no one in their right minds would tell any of us that we look germanish/hispanic/any other

So, LKH, who thinks that Europe is soooo different, get over yourself-__- We are not "catalogued" here, if we were, I would be a dark haired, olive-skinned, dark-eyed gall - which is a prototype of the slavic looks here.

[graylor.livejournal.com]

You know who else has long, curly black hair and pale skin? Jean Claude. So, what, is he a half-Mexican French vampire?

There's never any suggestion that he has mixed ancestry despite looking like Anita. Does LKH think France is now and has historically been "white bread"? Oh, wait--Europeans are totally homogenous, blond or brown-haired, and never, ever have black hair, amirite? They also don't move around, have wars, conduct commerce...

While I'm glow-in-the-dark pale, many people on Mom's side of the family inherited that shameful all-over-tan... from our Greek/Dutch ancestors.

[beth-ann.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my brother got some of that too. An olive cast to his skin that makes it darker than normal, he gets it from our dad and his evil German genes. Though people have on several occasions thought he was Italian based on his skintone and facial features.

An more to the point, how on earth do you define 'white bread' anyway? Especially in America, where its pretty much a genetic melting pot.

[sharkbytes.livejournal.com]

However, I get the feeling that the 'mixed' part was only added to give Anita some trauma in her life, and I find that a bit offensive.

I agree with you there; Obsidian Butterfly was where LKH really proved to have no understanding of race, when Anita and Bernardo had that discussion about "passing." IIRC, Anita claimed that Bernardo (the Native American) was jealous of her because she was able to pass as a white person, and he was not. There was so much *headdesk* for me, I thought it was a rather cheap way of making Anita into someone "different" when in reality most people these days are biracial. And she had the gall to do it in New Mexico, the state with the HIGHEST population of people who are of Hispanic descent. It made absolutely no sense for Anita to claim that Bernardo would be jealous of her for passing as white in NEW MEXICO, since white people make up the smallest part of the population. I mean, it's possible, as racism unfortunately knows no bounds, but still it just seemed like an afterthought to me. Another way of separating Anita from "other" people.

I particularly hate her depiction of blonde-haired, light-eyed, and slender people. She has a very, very strong bias against anyone who fits this description, and it's veiled in a way that makes it seem acceptable. As someone of Nordic descent, it really pisses me off! She doesn't need to make Anita seem more special by tearing down the looks/backgrounds of other women.

[manekikoneko.livejournal.com]

Has "passing" really been an issue for anyone in the last 40 or 50 years? I'll admit, I surround myself with well-balanced, open-minded liberals, so I might be a little out of touch. :S

momentary pimping :)

[polymexina.livejournal.com]

http://thehathorlegacy.info/books/obsidian-butterfly-lkh/

http://thehathorlegacy.info/books/the-laughing-corpse-laurell-k-hamilton/

those are the two hathor posts i have on anita's mixed race identity.

Re: momentary pimping :)

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

I loved these.

[karmyn75.livejournal.com]

If a Mexican is of more Spanish blood than Indian, then they would probably be paler. The few people I've met from Spain ranged from light hair and blue eyes to dark hair, dark eyes, olive complexion. One of my high school spanish teachers was light complected, but had dark hair. She said her sister and brother were more Indian in appearance and darker complected.
My brother-in-law is 3/8 Cherrokee with the rest being a mix of Scots-Irish. He is pale complected, has medium brown hair and light eyes. He doesn't really burn easy, but doesn't take the sun well. His mother is very pale. I've only seen photos of his father, but he had darker hair and darker complexion. I was actually suprised to find out how much Cherrokee blood my brother-in-law acctually has. My nephew is pretty much the image of his father, but takes the sun better. He has on occassion develped a 'farmer's tan', but his face gets red quickly in the hot weather.

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

LKH is woefully ignorant about race and racial differences, and given how she writes about it you have to wonder if that's honestly how she perceives the world - every person with freckles must be Irish, blondes have to be Scandinavian, and anyone darker than she is when in full whiteywhite makeup MUST be *hushed tones* mixed.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

My Irish dad had black hair and pale skin as a youth, and tanned so dark people thought he was Maori when he came here. CONFUSION! How can it BE????

[reticentric.livejournal.com]

And a few racist cops scream out the necessary racial slurs to ensure that we all get it.

I have to say that annoys the damn hell out of me. Especially the few times that black necromancer (his name escapes me) went with her somewhere and of course the "good old boys" were around to demean him and call him names. Racism is still alive in this world unfortunately but I just can't believe that EVERY TIME Anita/that guy go somewhere there is some KKK member just waiting to burn a cross in the cemetery. And of course SHE has to stand up for him; as if an intelligent black man could not stand up to a bunch of ignorant bigots himself.

Growing up mixed is like being in the crossroads. You can claim all these different races in your background, yet you really don't belong to any one of them. You're in the crossroads.

That's an interesting way of putting it and it's very true IMHO. I'm mixed; my dad is white and my mom is black/Italian and in HS I wasn't black enough and now most people think I'm latina lol.

Anita never shows the crossroads, all she shows is a few half-hearted attempts to prove that yes, she is mixed, and woe is her. But she never acts like it, in fact, she acts white.

I think it's like you said...she only made Anita mixed to give her more angst and make her seem more cool. I'd even bet though it was more for the angst factor because OMG everything makes Anita angst on for ten paragraphs. Though to be honest I don't find being mixed the grave injustice that she sometimes seems to think it is. Most days it doesn't even come up. But of course Anita is way more speeshul than I am so...^_^

[darkese.livejournal.com]

>>And a few racist cops scream out the necessary racial slurs to ensure that we all get it.<<

I don't remember any cops being racist but my memory sucks. I thought the cops were sexists, parents are racist (her stepmom and fiance's parents), and women are jealous. I thought those were the slots LKH has put every one in in the series.

[morriganscrow.livejournal.com]

The one thing, the one thing that pissed me off the most, was Dominga What'shername supposedly being a Voudoun Mambo. In fact, as a Mexican woman, she would be far more likely to embrace Santiera.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voudoun is a pretty good explanation of Voudoun, and it is, first and foremost, a religion, none of which was addressed in the book.
I see this as just another aspect of LKH's issues about race, culture and religion - all of which she bollocksed up.

[wellowned.livejournal.com]

well hell. realizing there's more religion out there than christianity would require half a brain and a day's worth of research. which, of course, she has no time for. because she's so *busy* writing a fantastically good, hella awesome and never done before series of porn novel-esque... things. and the other somewhat important stuff. like taking care of trinity. or whatever.

[mystoflare.livejournal.com]

Another newbie! Well, I can't think of a better way to jump into discussions, and I'm not the best at realizing if I'm saying something stupid, so forgive me if I unintentionally offend, or need to clarify things. Anyhow:
When I first heard that the black hair, dark eyes and albino-pale skin Anita has is supposed to show her as *gasp* MIXED, I laughed.
I really would wonder what LKH would think if she ever came to my part of the U.S. Here, we usually assume that 'white' people are either military personnel or tourists. A number of people, especially in my generation, are mixed. Examples are:
One of my old classmates, for instance, has a white father and Korean mother. Caucasian facial features, Korean eyes, olive complexion and almost-dishwater-blond hair. She identifies pretty strongly both with both sides of her family. Another classmate, her father is a Filipino/Spanish/Samoan mix, and she has the hair color and darker skin tone from him, but the bone structure and eye shape are definitely from her Japanese mother. Several other girls I knew, they were African-American/Asian-American, two of them had 'chocolate' brown color and 'black' facial features, one with her hair in cornrows, while the third looked more Japanese, though she pointed out she had her father's decidedly non-Asian nose, and she's been mistaken as Filipino.
In my own family tree, I have aunts and uncles who consider themselves Mexican (my grandmother was a Spanish/Native American/German mix, and clearly not Mexican), and they range in color from olive skin and light brown hair on one side to sunburn-pale and black hair hair on the other. My mother's side only came out of Japan a few generations ago, yet I have a Japanese/Hawaiian cousin who looks like he just stepped off the plane from Tokyo. His mother is almost as pale as Anita, with black, curly hair and dark eyes, while his father looks Hawaiian, despite being pure-blooded Japanese.
I almost always get pegged as Japanese-American, and in the continental U.S., people actually ask me which Native American nation I'm a part of. For my part, I have the straight black Asian hair, facial features and dark eyes, but my overall body type comes from my father's side, and I definitely have the Japanese eye shape. The Japanese relatives in my family range across the tan spectrum, and even the palest of us don't sunburn easily. And in a state with a large Asian-American population, I've had people start speaking to me in Japanese right off the bat. For my two cents, I have no problems with 'passing' as Japanese/Japanese-American, but then, I admit I'm quite proud of that side of my ancestry, and it's more interesting and appealing, to me.
I should add that unlike Anita in her prehistoric-timewarp, everyone I know of personally knows exactly where on the globe their ancestry comes from, and we're all bloody proud of our mixed heritage!
And what would she think of the occasional ethnic oddballs, like 'blonde' or 'redhead', dark-eyed, brown-skinned Hawaiians and Samoans (as they usually have black or dark brown hair)? I never knew that 'black Irish' was considered unusual for Irish people when I was younger, I hadn't personally seen/met a blue-eyed, pale-skinned blonde or redhead until I was 12. Heck, I thought everyone had dark hair and eyes, until then!
Anyways, forgive my ranting, but I have to get it off my chest how LKH annoys/offends me with her narrow view of what qualifies as 'white' or 'non-white'. Anita annoys me about her 'passing' as white despite being half-Mexican.
Again, I would love to see LKH come to Hawaii, and see her head spin trying to figure out if 'that person' is 'white' or 'mixed' or such. One ironic thing is, despite being ethnically mixed like there's no tomorrow, people in Hawaii do have a definite prejudiced attitude towards white people, so I wonder how much wankery there is to be had if she was on the receiving end of racial prejudice. And does she realize that, unlike Speshul Snowflake Anita, there are people who are mixed, and can happily embrace one or both sides of their heritage without unnecessary angsting to themselves or the rest of the world?

[beth-ann.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think LKH could really handle being somewhere where she really stood out for being pale or white. It would definitely be an eye opener for her, but then I'm afraid she would channel it into another 'Anita vs All-Thos-Evil-Jealous-Racist-Haters' and who how she is better and more accepting than all of them because race and ethnicity don't matter to her.

An I was looking at graduate schools in Hawaii actually, but now I feel kind of intimidated to go there. An I keep hearing the cost of living is really high.

Hey lashers, I have the flu, the real flu, not the stomach virus we normally call the flu

[mystickiwi.livejournal.com]

Take the description of Anita: change busty to flat chested, short to tall, and cut about a foot off her hair and you have me. Pale with dark eyes and dark hair.
What am I? German (not completely, but it's all a mix of those pale Eastern Europeans, no Spanish, Portuguese, Central/South American). The very thing that Anita is mixed with that shouldn't be giving her that dark hair. I have no doubt that their are mixed people who look like that, but I read Anita's description, which was supposed to be like a giant "look at me I'm part Mexican!" sign and laughed.
For someone with a biology degree science seems to escape LKH.

*and in regards to my subject, is it bad that when i found out I was indeed a flu-ball all i could think about was sleep and LKH's blog on the subject?

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

It's like in bad fanfics, where the only descriptions you get of characters are skin, eye, and hair color. I've always found it easier to say "she had [X ethnicity] features and looked kinda like this" than trying to reach the ethnicity backwards. Especially with just hair and complexion, since that says absolutely nothing about anything other than what color their hair and skin is.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Srsly.

I have pale skin and dark hair and eyes, and nobody's ever assumed I was multiracial because of that. In fact, I am known as America's Whitest White Woman due to my WASPy Mayflower ancestry and insta-burn skin.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

And people call me "guera" in Mexico, despite my really dark hair.

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

I've got red hair, green eyes, skin that tans instantly and I'm half Swiss and half Scottish. No one guesses my heritage correctly.

I don't think that when writing hair color, skin color, eyes, tanning combination is a good indication of a character's racial history. If I write, "She was wearing a shapeless navy blue suit buttoned tight that did nothing for her dark skin and hair," I'm describing a woman who could live almost anywhere and be almost anything.

[swiftgold.livejournal.com]

Heh, my friend has red hair, blue-green eyes and pale skin, and she's a quarter Italian...

[amamelina.livejournal.com]

Black hair and pale skin are actually common traits among the Irish, and you don't get much whiter then that

Oh, honey, I agree. We Irish are so pale we glow in the dark. I'm also part Italian and German, and very proud of my geneology. I mostly claim the Italian side, until St. Paddy's day. Then I join the rest of the world as 100% Irish.

The whole mixed thing bugged me, too. Anita is so white it's not funny. She seems to hate her Mexican side. She mentions at least once that she doesn't like Mexican food. It's also mentioned that she doesn't look very "non-white" and can easily pass as white.

That's another thing that bugged me. This is not the sixties (or whatever) when segragation was just starting to become a reality. There is no reason why she should be happy with just "passing" as white. Almost every person I know of mixed heritage is proud of it, be it Mexican, Italian, African American or what have you.

And the whole thing with her always running into the good old boy cops drives me up the wall. Why is the St. Louis police department manned by only men who stuck in the middle ages?

Since you're low on chocolate, have some M&Ms. (m)(m)(m)

[watersheerie.livejournal.com]

I think I shall, thank you. I love M&Ms...

I find it ironic that LKH tends to refer to the police in a positive light within her blogs. Yet in her books all the cops are either racist, sexist, jealous, or all three.

[vixen-notatramp.livejournal.com]

Me: Irish, Portuguese, and Native American. Dark brown hair, blue eyes, and skin that glows in the dark.

My best friend: Half Cuban, half German. Blonde as hell, blue eyes, and pale pale pale.

...Yeah, LKH, you can really tell which one of us is 'mixed'.

...Does anyone else find that word just the tiniest bit offensive? Despite being 1/8 Sioux, I identify as 'white', so my .02 is quite uniformed on this one; however, I have found that 'mixed race' is not a term I hear used by anyone who might be called such. Thoughts, guys?

Also: I got Easter candy galore this year; I am sending you some via good vibes. -nods- Truffles okay?

(...Also, before anyone dog-piles; icon used in the strictest ironic sense, and because my sense of humor is crap. No offense meant, promise!)

[burning-nova.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm Mexican American and I have the stereotypical dark hair, skin, eyes etc but genetics are a fickle thing. My dark skinned uncle, who lives in Mexico, married a woman who is also Mexican from Mexico. Guess what she looks like? Dark hair, hazel eyes, and pale skin that turns red. Guess what my cousins look like? Dark eyes, dark hair, gasp! pale skin. My grandmother said we have an offshoot of relatives that have blue and green eyes and that they find us the queer ones with our dark eyes.

My mother's coworker also Hispanic same features, dark skin, hair, eyes but where's green contacts. Her daughter the same. Her daughter married a man that's also Hispanic, guess what? Their baby has green eyes! There obviously was a mistake at the hospital.

I joke my brother will pull all the recessive genes when he has kids as he's dated nothing but white girls. Not because he's looking to dilute their whiteness with our Amerindian blood but because he's been attracted to them etc. We joked that if the baby comes out black then it's not his.

Anita just uses it for the excuse for the features because surely some would have protest that she isn't a brunette? Or better blonde?

Honestly what the hell did she think people would say when she created her?

"I like Anita but why can't she be a blue-eyed blonde?"
"She half-Mexican?"
"Oh, not a problem then. Keep up the good work."

I mean my newest plot bunny involves a half-Asian (not sure which kind yet)-white girl who looks very Asian but her children end up white looking except her oldest daughter. Hell, I pulling the recessive gene card by making the daughter's twin a redhead with dark eyes.

[her-schism.livejournal.com]

In defense of LKH, I am half Mexican with pale skin, dark eyes, and dark wavy hair, and of just enough height to not be short, but will never be tall.

Honestly though, I look more Jewish than Mexican, but the features I inheirited undoubtedly came from my mexican mother, with high cheekbones and full lips and less body hair than most people.

So, in places where there are a lot of mixed people, like down in Southern California, people try to talk to me in Spanish, or assume I'm mixed or whatever. However, up in Northern California where there are less Mexican people, people just think I'm white.

It doesn't mean that a lot of she's saying isn't wrong however.