*Joseline Hernandez has never been confused about how she identifies. The Puerto Rican reality star says she is a Black woman — period — and she has some pointed thoughts about why other Black people from Spanish-speaking cultures may not embrace that identity.
During her appearance on “Club Shay Shay,” Shannon Sharpe asked Hernandez directly, “Do you consider yourself Black? Are Puerto Ricans Black?”
“I consider myself Black,” Hernandez answered. “I’m a Black woman. I’m Black as you.”
‘They Learn How to Hate Their Own Skin’
Hernandez was careful not to characterize every Puerto Rican the same way. She noted that Puerto Rico has both white and Black people before offering her perspective on racial identity within some Spanish-speaking communities.
“I don’t know, somewhere down the line they learn how to hate their own skin,” she said of some Black Latinos who don’t identify as Black.
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For Hernandez, there is no conflict between being Puerto Rican, speaking Spanish and being Black.
“I consider myself a Black Spanish woman, a Black Puerto Rican because my skin color is Black,” she said. “When I walk in the room, they’re not looking at me like a white Puerto Rican. They’re looking at me like a Black woman.”
That distinction matters. U.S. Census guidance has historically treated Hispanic or Latino origin and race as separate concepts, meaning a person can identify as both Puerto Rican and Black.
Joseline Is Teaching Her Daughter Black Pride
Hernandez said that pride is something she deliberately passes along to her daughter, Bonnie Bella.
“I teach my daughter to love her skin, love her hair, love everything about her,” she told Sharpe. “I’m proud to be a Black woman.”
Hernandez also recalled hearing older Spanish-speaking people use anti-Black language while she was growing up. Rather than accepting it, she said she questioned why Black Latinos would look down on Black Americans when they themselves could also be Black.
Her comments add another chapter to Hernandez’s very public conversations about race. EURweb previously covered Hernandez’s clash with Amber Rose on “College Hill: Celebrity Edition,” where racial identity became part of their heated confrontation.
Black, Puerto Rican and Proud
So, does Hernandez believe Puerto Ricans “hate” being Black? Not exactly.
What she describes is something more specific: Black people within some Spanish-speaking cultures who, in her view, have learned to reject their own Blackness.
Hernandez isn’t among them.
“I’ve always considered myself Black,” she said, “and love that I was Black.”
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