The acceptance of lazy stereotypes and racist language passed off as harmless banter in Spain has contributed to the socioeconomic, cultural, and political marginalization of many non-white Spaniards. Without a radical change in education, integration policy, and even the language used around race, Spain will fail further generations, damaging itself in the process.
‘There is a vanishingly small number of changes tailored for those struggling the most that wouldn’t ultimately benefit us all.’
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, Heather McGhee
Humidity-induced sleeping difficulties during summer vacation along the Catalan coast carried me, an easily distracted, slow reader, through the works of two Spanish writers: Desirée Bela-Lobedde and Moha Gerehou. These authors — the former born and raised in Barcelona, the latter in Huesca, northeast Spain — forced upon me the grim realisation that I will be accepted more by Spanish society than they ever will in their own country.
Because I am a white immigrant — the good kind in Spain — I am afforded liberties that many black Spaniards are not. I am given the benefit of the doubt. In six years in Spain not once have I been stopped by police to show ID. Nor have I been discriminated against in the property rental market.
