White Adjacency

Spanish translation: adyacencia blanca

09:54 Mar 24, 2021

English to Spanish translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Anthropology

English term or phrase: White Adjacency

Example sentence: There has been an increase in anti-Asian violence since the start of the pandemic. White Adjacency is part of the problem. / Context: White Adjacency can be defined as a person coming from a marginalized background within society in terms of race, and at the same time, receiving benefits similar to those identified as white. / Audience: Spanish speakers in Latin America and the US. / My opinion: This term seems to have its origin in "White Supremacy" which is usually translated as "Supremacía de los blancos" o "Supremacía blanca", so my suggestion would be "Cercanía con los blancos".

César Mendoza

Spanish translation:adyacencia blanca

Explanation:
Diría que en este caso particular, el literal adyacencia blanca (manteniendo la equivalencia formal original con supremacía blanca) funciona bien en castellano. No he encontrado muchos ejemplos, pero sí alguno interesante que traslada la idea original con esta misma expresión;

Con un miedo creciente, pensé en su futuro como adulta y en el poder de infligir violencia a los negros que vendría con su adyacencia blanca.
https://ichi.pro/es/el-mito-de-la-solidaridad-de-poc-1600007...

Mis hijos, a pesar de su inexplicable necesidad de golpearse con dinosaurios de juguete, son obviamente perfectos y no cambiaría nada de ellos.. Pero a medida que crecen, Continuamente me doy cuenta de que habitamos un mundo donde la raza, su adyacencia blanca y las percepciones de privilegio estarán levantando sus cabezas de medusa.
https://dverilegran.ru/es/my-biggest-fear-as-the-black-fathe...

Selected response from:

Chema Nieto Castañón
Spain
Local time: 13:03

Grading comment

First validated answer (validated by peer agreement)
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Summary of answers provided

4 +1

proximidad a la blanquitud

Daniel Delgado

3 +2

adyacencia blanca

Chema Nieto Castañón

3 +1

contigüidad blanca

Víctor Zamorano

cercanía/proximidad al privilegio blanco

Sara Fairen

Answers

25 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

contigüidad blanca

Explanation:
Creo que el término llega a la antropología de la teoría de grafos para estudiar redes y relaciones sociales. En ese sentido, podrías mantener "adyacencia" (suena raro, pero se ve y se entiende).
Si no te gusta, proximidad, contigüidad o tu opción cercanía me parecen viables, pero la segunda es la que me parece que se acerca más a la idea (y el que más se ve en jerga antropologica, en mi opinión, connotando precisamente lo que quiere decir tu texto); hasta donde yo sé, que no es mucho, no está acuñado el término de ninguna de las maneras en español (aunque si encontramos algo es el calco, "adyacencia blanca").

Respecto al adjetivo, la verdad es que me suena más raro "de los blancos", por aquello de abstraer, pero como la definición es un poco rara (dice literalmente que adyacencia es una persona), no sé...

Víctor Zamorano
Spain
Local time: 13:03
Works in field
Native speaker of: Spanish

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

white adjacency proximidad a la blanquitud

Explanation:
"white adjacency" concept is also cited as "white proximity".

Definition:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2020/07/19/how-com...
[ person of color (POC) ]
One phenomenon that is rarely discussed is the idea of white adjacency. While the term hasn’t been fully defined in a lot of detail, it can be thought of as the benefits received by a POC because of their proximity to whiteness. Sometimes the benefits received are unbeknownst to the individual on the receiving end and other times, individuals actively seek these benefits through changing their appearance, their mannerisms, their behaviors and even the way that they speak. The perceived benefits of white proximity can be a driving force that prompts POC to adopt anti-Black views and behaviors. In order to dismantle systems of oppression, an honest and open conversation about anti-Blackness in communities of color must be had.

Alternative translations:
"proximidad a la blanquedad" (blanquedad is used in Spanish in relation to racial subjects. Used here: https://archive.org/stream/ahmedsaralapromesadelafelicidadoc... Found 1 time in Google)

"proximidad a la blanquitud" (blanquitud is used in Spanish in relation to racial subjects, see https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanquitud Found 7 times in Google: see https://www.google.com/search?q="proximidad a la blanqu... For these reasons this seems to be the best translation.

"adjacencia a la blanquitud" is not as clear for the readers as "proximidad a la blanquitud", since adjacencia is mainly used on geometry, and only very little for other meanings.

...........................
"caucásico" can not be used for this translation since the "white" concept in the US is different from "Caucasean"; as an example Latin people by definition are people of color, even if they are fully white Caucaseans from European origin (recently discussed on the media for the actress Anya Taylor-Joy).

Daniel Delgado
Argentina
Local time: 08:03
Native speaker of: Spanish
PRO pts in category: 4

6 hrs confidence:

white adjacency cercanía/proximidad al privilegio blanco

Explanation:
El problema es que mientras que el concepto de "white supremacy" está tan extendido que una traducción literal se entiende sin problemas, no ocurre lo mismo con "white adjacency". Yo quizá optaría por una opción no tan literal pero más explicativa (cercanía o proximidad al privilegio asociado al hecho de ser blanco -en breve, cercanía al privilegio blanco). Solo como sugerencia :-)

http://www.scielo.org.mx/pdf/perlat/v26n51/0188-7653-perlat-...
El privilegio blanco puede ser conceptualizado como una fuente de capital simbólico (Bourdieu, 1996), puesto que se trata de un estatus o valor socialmente reconocido a un grupo por un juicio colectivo construido según las categorías fundamentales de la visión compartida del mundo. Los eurodescendientes cuentan con dicho capital simbólico; mientras que los indígenas y afrodescendientes no disponen de él. Desde la colonia, los “mestizos” y “mulatos”, al contar parcialmente con ancestro europeo han podido tomar parte del provecho del privilegio blanco, de modo que han ocupado posiciones intermedias en la jerarquía ocupacional y de estatus

Sara Fairen
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:03
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

Spanish
PRO pts in category: 4

2 days 12 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

adyacencia blanca

Chema Nieto Castañón
Spain
Local time: 13:03
Native speaker of:

Spanish
PRO pts in category: 19

Grading comment

First validated answer (validated by peer agreement)

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Spanish translation: adyacencia blanca

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