Thread: Hispanics Don’t Want To Be Called Hispanic

Study Finds Hispanics Don’t Want To Be Called Hispanic

April 4, 2012 11:51 AM

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) — A majority of Hispanics do not like being called Hispanic.According to a new poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, 51 percent of Hispanics do not like to be categorized as “Hispanics” or “Latinos,” saying they like to be identified from their family’s country of origin.

Only 21 percent of those polled identified themselves as “Americans.”

Hispanics and Latinos are split as to whether to identify themselves as a “typical American.”

Forty-seven percent of Hispanics and Latinos identify themselves with the term, while another 47 percent of those polled find they don’t seem to relate to a “typical American.”

As it comes to speaking English, nearly 90 percent of those polled believe you need to learn the language to succeed in America, but they also want to hold onto their Spanish-speaking roots.

Ninety-five percent of Hispanics believe it is important to speak Spanish in the U.S.

Pew also weighed in on the political front and important social issues. Fifty-eight percent of Hispanics believe gay marriage should be accepted. The poll finds those surveyed take a more conservative stance on abortion as 51 percent say it should be illegal. Only 30 percent of those surveyed identify themselves as liberal.

The term “Hispanic” was officially adopted by Congress in 1976 as a law to collect the information of U.S. residents with Spanish-speaking country origins.

The Office of Management and Budget added the term “Latino” in 1997.The Pew Research Center surveyed 1,220 Latino adults across all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Study Finds Hispanics Don’t Want To Be Called Hispanic « CBS DC

What percentage preferred to be called Mexican?

W

Some Hispanics want to tell more about background

By SUZANNE GAMBOA | Associated Press – 29 mins ago...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of Hispanics prefer to identify themselves according to their families' countries of origin, rather than by the government's suggested terms "Hispanic" or "Latino," Pew Hispanic Center reported Wednesday.

The description preferred by 51 percent of Hispanics is Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban or other culture they are tied to through family or ancestry. About a quarter surveyed said they identify as Latino or Hispanic first and a fifth said they tend to say American, according to Pew's survey. About 50 million people in the U.S. are Hispanic.

Although Latinos have long maintained they are not a monolithic group, the complexity of Hispanic identity has drawn renewed interest amid the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager, by George Zimmerman, whose father is white and mother is Hispanic, of Peruvian ancestry.

Police and early media reports described Zimmerman as white, but his father has defended his son against allegations of racial profiling by describing him as a "Spanish-speaking minority."

Whites, blacks and Asian Americans are all considered a racial group. Hispanics are an ethnic group, which means although they share a common language, culture and heritage, they do not share a common race. They can be black, white, Asian, American Indian, or descended from original peoples of a place colonized by Spain and a few others.

Some 18 million Latinos checked "some other race" when they were asked to pick a race on census forms and were told Hispanic is not a race. But so many Latinos identified themselves as white, the overall number of white people in the U.S. increased.

In Pew's survey, more than a third said they were white, and half said they were "some other race" or volunteered Hispanic or Latino.

The term Hispanic was first officially used by the federal government in the 1970 Census.

Ilan Stavans, an Amherst College professor of Latino culture, said the findings suggest a journey back in time is happening among the population. Identifying by country of origin or lineage tended to be the preferred description in the 1950s as well, said Stavans, author of "What Is la Hispanidad?" Identifying as Latino or Hispanic arose within the community and among non-Hispanics with the civil rights movement and took hold in the early '80s, giving strength to the idea that Latinos were "a sum, more than parts," he said.

"It seems to me that the whole identity of George Zimmerman is really an expression how modern individual American identity has all these many facets. If I were to say where he belongs, I'd say he belongs right at the center of where America is today," said Stavans, who was born in Mexico to a Jewish, Eastern European family.

The Pew Hispanic Center survey is based on interviews by cell phone and landline of 1,220 Latinos adults from across the country during the period of Nov. 9 through Dec. 7, 2011. The error rate is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
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Online:

Pew Hispanic Center: Pew Hispanic Center

Some Hispanics want to tell more about background - Yahoo! News

Originally Posted by alipac

What percentage preferred to be called Mexican?

W

From a new article above:

The description preferred by 51 percent of Hispanics is Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban or other culture they are tied to through family or ancestry.

About a quarter surveyed said they identify as Latino or Hispanic first and

a fifth said they tend to say American,

If your here legally I'll just call you American thanks! All you Americans look alike to me!

Who is paying for these stupid studies? And who cares what they call themselves. I dont get it. One group picks lettuce faster than another? What the hell is their point?

Originally Posted by pattyk

Who is paying for these stupid studies? . . .

The Pew Research Center is an American think tank organization based in Washington, D.C. that provides information on issues, attitudes and trends shaping the United States and the world. The Center and its projects receive funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Pew Research Center - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Pew Charitable Trusts is an independent non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO), founded in 1948. With over US$5 billion in assets, its current mission is to serve the public interest by "improving public policy, informing the public, and stimulating civic life."[1]

History
The Trusts, a single entity, is the successor to, and sole beneficiary of, seven charitable funds established between 1948 and 1979 by J. Howard Pew, Mary Ethel Pew, Joseph N. Pew, Jr., and Mabel Pew Myrin—the adult sons and daughters of Sunoco founder Joseph N. Pew and his wife, Mary Anderson Pew. The Trusts is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with an office in Washington, D.C.

Although today the Pew Charitable Trusts is rigorously non-partisan and non-ideological, Joseph Pew and his heirs were themselves politically conservative. The mission of the J. Howard Pew Freedom Trust was to "acquaint the American people with the evils of bureaucracy and the values of a free market and to inform our people of the struggle, persecution, hardship, sacrifice and death by which freedom of the individual was won." Joseph N. Pew, Jr. called Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal "a gigantic scheme to raze U.S. businesses to a dead level and debase the citizenry into a mass of ballot-casting serfs."[2]

Most of the early beneficiaries were such conservative organizations as the John Birch Society, the American Liberty League, and the American Enterprise Institute,[3][4] although other beneficiaries included a cancer research institute, a museum, higher education, the American Red Cross, and historically black colleges. For many years, the Trusts tended to fund charities and conservative causes in Philadelphia.

In 2004, the Pew Trusts applied to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to change its status from private foundation to non-profit organization. Since the Pew's change to a charitable foundation, it can now raise funds freely and devote up to 5% of its budget to lobbying the public sector.

According to the Pew's 2009 Annual Report, five of the twelve Directors serving on the Board are named Pew. Two of the five are physicians.[5]
The Pew Charitable Trusts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This makes sense. Europeans would rather be identified by their home country as well. The same is true for Asians. Now as to not wanting to be identified as "American"... Central and South Americans tend to use the word in its meaning as a resident of the continents of North and South America. To refer to a USA national many resort to the ungainly term "Estado-Unidian". I think the problem here is with the multiple meanings of American.

Originally Posted by pattyk

Who is paying for these stupid studies? And who cares what they call themselves. I dont get it. One group picks lettuce faster than another? What the hell is their point?

LOL I almost spit my coffee out. That cracked me up!

I'd be HAPPY to call them something other than Hispanic!