The Latino identity is racialized in the US, even though it doesn't actually refer to a race at all, according to an article by Vox. To understand what race Latinos are, it is an imperative to first understand the difference between Latinos and Hispanics, two terms which are commonly used interchangeably.

YouTube activist Kat Lazo points out that Latinx identity, refers to people whose origins are geographically located in Latin America. Hispanic identity, on the other hand, refers to language or "people of Spanish-speaking origins."

This is illustrated by the distinction between Brazil and Spain: Brazilians are Latino because the country they live in is located in Latin America. But Brazilians aren't considered Hispanic because the country's primary language is Portuguese. Meanwhile, Latino identity brings together people in South and Central America. They might share a history of Spanish colonization, but being colonized by Spaniards doesn't define all of them as Hispanics if some of them, at present, don't speak Spanish.

According to an article by Latin Post, the term Hispanic was used by the US government during former president Richard Nixon's reign. The term was first used in a United States Census in 1980. 

'Hispanic' is commonly used by the eastern part of the United States of America such as in Texas and in Florida. People from different races may be identified as Hispanic, even whites. 

"Just like America, Latin America has a long and complex history that intersects between native people, European colonization, African slavery, and global immigration patterns," said Lazo, pointing out that Latino identity includes a variety of races.

That is why, it is not right to boil down Latinx to being just one "race."

Lazo added, "The US and Latin American media has done a great job at constructing an image of what Latinx look like, and that image is rarely black or fully Indigenous, for example." Because of this, most people see the common profile of a Latinx person as portrayed in films and television as someone like Sofia Vergara. Meanwhile, it would take some time for them to believe Zoe Saldana is a Latina, as she identifies as Afro-Latina given her Puerto Rican and Dominican origins.

Moreover, racism or the pressure to identify as white, plays a role in why Latinos are racialized as white.

"We, like the rest of the world, have internalized this message of white supremacy through the media and our education," said the YouTube activist. "So it's no wonder that when Latinx in the US are confronted with deciding their race based on the Census, in a predominantly black and white binary society, many of us default to white."

Together with Lazo was comedian Franchesca Ramsey who said Latino and Hispanic identities signify common cultural practices like language and shared histories which goes beyond skin color.

It's one of the reasons, Ramsey says, that "if an Argentinian couple adopts a baby from China, that baby will most likely grow up speaking Spanish, and rooting for Lionel Messi."

Ramsey added that at the end of the day, this is a reminder that race is a social construct, not a natural biological classification.