Silly me, I forgot all of that virtue signaling around Emilia Perez should have specified one important factor. Ejected and exiled Karla Sofia Gascon was born in Spain and is not “of color.” People get very irritated by this and have at me for quite some time. There are very specific rules for who counts as “of color” and who does not. So Spanish people are not “of color.”
What’s funny is that the woke are hard-liners when it comes to “of color” but not when it comes to biology. If Karla Sofia Gascon says she’s a woman, she’s a woman. If she says she’s an “adopted Mexican” she’s never going to be credited for that. It’s kind of weird, no?
Well, at least this helps explain why the Academy felt emboldened to not invite her into the Academy and why so many on Twitter felt so comfortable demonizing her for old tweets. She wasn’t “of color.” Would that have mattered? Would they have treated her with the smallest bit of kindness if so? She was a transgender person, after all, which I thought was near the top of the reversed hierarchy. But perhaps I’m wrong. Maybe if they thought she was, as one person on Twitter called her, “a racist white lady” that was all they needed to justify doing something like this.
The term “people of color” typically refers to individuals who are not considered white or of European descent, often used in the context of racial and ethnic diversity, particularly in Western countries like the United States. People born in Spain are primarily of European descent, with the majority identifying as ethnically Spanish or belonging to other regional ethnic groups like Catalans, Basques, or Galicians. These groups are generally classified as white in racial categorizations used in places like the U.S.
However, Spain’s population is diverse due to its history and geographic location. Some Spaniards may have ancestry from North Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, or other regions due to historical migrations, the Moorish presence (8th–15th centuries), or modern immigration. For example:
Spain has a significant population of immigrants from Latin America, North Africa (e.g., Morocco), and sub-Saharan Africa, some of whom are naturalized citizens or were born in Spain.
The Romani (Gitano) community in Spain, which numbers in the hundreds of thousands, may be considered people of color in certain contexts due to their South Asian origins and historical marginalization.
Mixed-race individuals with one parent from Spain and another from a non-European background may also identify as people of color.
In U.S.-centric racial frameworks, most native-born Spaniards of European descent would not be classified as people of color, as they are typically considered white. However, in Spain’s own cultural context, racial categories are less emphasized, and identity is often tied to nationality, regional culture, or ethnicity rather than race. For example, a Spaniard with Moroccan ancestry born in Spain might identify primarily as Spanish, but in a U.S. context, they could be considered a person of color.
Data from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE, 2023) shows that about 16% of Spain’s population is foreign-born, with significant numbers from Morocco, Romania, and Latin American countries like Colombia and Venezuela. This diversity means some people born in Spain, especially those with non-European heritage, might be considered people of color in certain frameworks, but this is not a universal rule.
So there. Not “of color.” Does that satisfy you, Clayton, or sure I write it 1,000 times on a chalkboard?
Of course, the Academy and Hollywood consider Transgender people on par with “people of color,” so ordinarily she would be their walking virtue signal. However, they are purists, just like Clayton. So he’s probably happy she’s been ousted. It would not have mattered if she had been “of color.” The end result would be the same.
There was a time when I would have been freaked out that Clayton called me out on Twitter for clout. But now, it just makes me sad. Yet more confirmation of the collapse of an industry, and people, I used to love.
