Yulissa Escobar Does Represent Our Community. And That’s the Problem.
Photo: Courtesy of Peacock.
Another Latina stepped in it — again. This time it was Yulissa Escobar who, checks notes, made it through just two days of filming Love Island USA before getting booted from the villa. The Cuban American saw her dreams of small-screen fame come to an end on June 4 after TMZ and Reddit users shared two clips of her casually using the N-word on podcasts. And if Escobar would say that while being recorded, what is she saying off camera?
Since it all went down, she apologized. “I want to apologize for using a word I had no right in using,” she said in an Instagram post on June 6. “I used it ignorantly, not fully understanding the weight, history, or pain behind it. I wasn’t trying to be offensive or harmful, but I recognize now that intention doesn’t excuse impact. And the impact of that word is real. It’s tied to generations of trauma, and it is not mine to use.”
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As the videos of Escobar so casually saying the N-word resurfaced, so did a now-deleted TikTok video where she talked about losing social media followers because of her support for President Donald Trump.
As funny TikTok skits of Love Island USA producers pulling Escobar out of her bed in the middle of the night go viral and as online commentators point to her Miami Cuban roots to minimize her anti-Blackness, it’s tempting to just throw Escobar away, to vote her off the proverbial Latinidad island, but actually we need to reckon with her. After all, 39% of Latinas voted for Trump, in tacit support of his vision of a U.S. optimized for white Anglo men at the expense of everyone else. And no, they weren’t all Miami Cubans.
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"If you’re not Black, you shouldn’t say the N-word. It’s that simple."
cristina escobar
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Escobar is hardly the only non-Black Latina to drop the N-word. Generally scandal-free Jennifer Lopez got in trouble for doing it on her 2001 track “I’m Real (Murder Remix)” with Ja Rule. In 2019, Jane the Virgin (and now Will Trent) star Gina Rodriguez caught heat for recording herself using it. And in Latine neighborhoods across the country, the slur slips out of non-Black Latine mouths as commonly as “mija” or “nena.”
So what’s going on here? There appears to be some confusion about our place in the U.S.’ racial hierarchy. While Latinidad is an ethnic identity, not a racial one, and Latines come in every race, it’s true that the U.S. has attempted to racialize Latinidad in an effort to mark us, even the white Latines among us, as different than the Anglo, gringo, or White-with-a-capital-W people who see themselves as the “real” Americans.
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But if you’re not Black, you shouldn’t say the N-word. It’s that simple. And while some Latines are Black, many are not — including Escobar, Lopez, and Rodriguez.
Their Latinidad doesn’t give them (or anyone) honorary Black status. Living in neighborhoods that are majority Black doesn't give non-Black Latines Black status. Dating someone who is Black doesn’t give non-Black Latines Black status. Having Black relatives doesn’t give non-Black Latines Black status. Feeling a shared struggle with Black folks does not give non-Black Latines Black status.
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"Oftentimes, those non-Black Latines who throw the N-word around casually, like it's theirs to hurl, want to have it both ways. When it suits them, they’re 'women of color' who want street cred and access to Black communities. But when they see it as more advantageous to align with non-Latine white people, they switch."
cristina escobar
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Oftentimes, those non-Black Latines who throw the N-word around casually, like it's theirs to hurl, want to have it both ways. When it suits them, they’re “women of color” who want street cred and access to Black communities. But when they see it as more advantageous to align with non-Latine white people, they switch. Think of Lopez playing an Italian woman in 2001’s The Wedding Planner — yes, the same year she released that version of “I’m Real.”
And as the last election cycle has shown, large portions of Latines are aligning themselves with whiteness, including those who are themselves racially white but also many who are not but hope their proximity to whiteness, their allegiance to whiteness, will guard them from the country’s racial war against "the other" — even white "others" with Spanish surnames. And when that happens, we get Trump in the White House, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers terrorizing our communities, and an authoritarian regime that is making Latin American dictators jealous.
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And as more Latine Trump supporters around the country are realizing amid massive ICE raids, this white loyalty won’t save them — it never has and it never will.
Photo: Courtesy of Peacock.
As a group and as individuals, we need to have a better understanding of what it means to be a non-Black Latine. We need to have the conversations — about ethnicity versus race, about privilege, and about organizing for social justice.
There are plenty of people who think the whole concept of Latinidad is a sham, that either it reinforces white supremacy by marking us as different from Black and Indigenous folks or it hurts us by marking us (even the European-descended people among us) as not-white.
I see truth in both of these takes. But what if we used the Latine marker as an organizing principle to call for change? We could be a powerful force inside the U.S. if we were better organized. After all, we’re the biggest “minority,” we account for most of the nation’s growth, and we’d be the fifth-largest economy in the world if we were counted by ourselves.
But too often we fail to leverage that power to advance our needs. Instead, more than a third of Latines lie to themselves and their communities about what their identity means in the United States today. We need to call them out and call them in. Yes, maybe Chicanas have a different frame than Cuban Americans. Maybe experiences in the Northeast look different from those in the Southwest. Maybe someone who looks like Escobar believes her pretty privilege will carry her through whatever mess her surname and ethnicity might get her into — and maybe, where she’s from, it has.
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"We need to have a better understanding of what it means to be a non-Black Latine. We need to have the conversations — about ethnicity versus race, about privilege, and about organizing for social justice."
CRISTINA ESCOBAR
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But regardless of our individual circumstances, we need to get to work if we’re ever going to stop being “sleeping giants” and just be giants.
First, we need accountability. I’m glad Escobar got booted from Love Island USA, but white-led corporations are going to be doing less and less of that stuff as we descend further into Trump’s second term. So what can we do? Escobar has nearly 70,000 followers on her Instagram — if you’re one of them, consider unfollowing her and telling her why: that using the N-word is unacceptable and so is voting against the rights of the racially and ethnically marginalized. When folks online or in your personal life do racist things, don’t let it slide. Tell them it’s unacceptable around you and mean it.
Additionally, follow Black people online and support their work. If you want more examples of why Escobar’s path is so foolish, I recommend Franchesca Ramsey’s feed. Her “I never thought the leopards would eat my fact” bit is a hilariously evergreen diddy about how quickly those who claim proximity to whiteness will see that their allegiance does not protect them.
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"We need to get to work if we’re ever going to stop being “sleeping giants” and just be giants."
CRISTINA ESCOBAR
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That brings me to being in actual alliance with Black communities, whether they’re also Latine or not. Stop begrudging their success — Black communities didn’t take anything from non-Black Latines — and, instead, support their artists, marches, and ballot measures without trying to take over or make them about you. Encourage your non-Black Latine friends and family members to do the same.
Finally, let’s learn from them. Black folks in the U.S. have been organizing for a more just society — that benefits all of us — for a long time. They’ve built a community consensus and institutions that we could emulate.
Let’s learn and see where we get. I bet it’ll be a lot better than watching one of ours implode on Love Island USA while ICE disappears people — non-citizens and citizens alike — on U.S. streets.
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