Thread: Hispanic - Latino - why does that mean?

LatinoMan,

I believe that anthropologists divide mankind into five scientific "Races", of which "Caucasian" is one. Under this definition, people of Spanish descent are every bit as "Caucasian" as those of northern European descent. However, militant activists of Spanish descent in this country somehow have taken unbrage at being classified with other Caucasian Americans and have demanded that they be classified separately. This separate, "extra-racial" classification (based actually on language rather than race) costs all other U.S. citizens and legal residents a lot of time and money and it is scientifically inaccurate to boot. Why would these ethno-centric Spanish militants be surprised that others resent their demands that they always be treated and, now, counted, specially and separately?

Originally Posted by Texas2step

LatinoMan,

I believe that anthropologists divide mankind into five scientific "Races", of which "Caucasian" is one. Under this definition, people of Spanish descent are every bit as "Caucasian" as those of northern European descent. However, militant activists of Spanish descent in this country somehow have taken unbrage at being classified with other Caucasian Americans and have demanded that they be classfied separately. This separate, "extra-racial" classification (based actually on language rather than race) costs all other U.S. citizens and legal residents a lot of time and money and it is scientifically inaccurate to boot. Why would these ethno-centric Spanish militants be surprised that others resent their demands that they always be treated and, now, counted, specially and separately?

Well, whoever these activists are, they're complaining over nothing. In the 2000 census about half of Hispanics in this country classified themselves as "White" and the other half as "Other". I didn't hear many of them complaining over something so trivial. All they care about is getting through the questions and getting it over with. Activists need to find something better to do with their time.

Originally Posted by alamb

Question: Why is the term Hispanic or Latino used in a way that basically has elevated an ethnic label to racial status. Today in America when filling in any application you are asked if you are white, african american, asian or Hispanic? Why is the ethnic label used among racial labels, what makes the Hispanics more special than ANY other ethnic group? Well guees what the so-called leaders of that group got the message, they are indeed special, their label IS made special by the US Census Bureau and that is why this they are getting stronger, more powerful etc, they have achieved racial status and all the good stuff taht comes with it!

That is why we as Americans need to DEMAND that teh Hispanic label be stripped out of teh next 2010 US Census becuase it is being used for demographic hegemony and we go along out of idiocy!

Hispanics, are whites, blacks asians etc so lets count them as such and no other way. Nobody puts me in a FRANCOPHONE class and yet we are like Hispanics a collection of various countries, races with French culture, French culture and catholicism. Exactly what what Hispanic means!

Teh Hispanic label as used is DANGEROUS because it basically enshrines, albeit unconstitutionally, the HISPANIZATION of America.

We need to demand that it'd be stripped as it is a subversion.

Thoughts?

U.S. official use of the term "Hispanic" has its origins in the 1970 census. The Census Bureau attempted to identify all Hispanics by use of the following criteria in sampled sets:

* Spanish speakers and persons belonging to a household where
Spanish was spoken
* Persons with Spanish heritage by birth location
* Persons who self-identify with Spanish ancestry or descent

The term "Latino" was officially adopted in 1997 by the United States Government in the ethnonym "Hispanic or Latino", which replaced the single term "Hispanic."

Now how many Hispanics are also considered white? How many blacks are also considered Hispanic? Gets kind of confusing and certainly doesn't need to be ask in a generation and society where we preach so much that we are all equal. So if we are all truly equal then what difference does it make what race or ethnicity you are?

We do need to demand that all race and ethnicity questions be stripped from the 210 Census to better promote equality in the USA.

My wife was born and raised in Argentina. In Argentina she is considered of Italian descent because her family immigrated from Italy. She like many others in Argentina speak Italian and Spanish. They consider themselves white. Her grandmother considered it shameful to even get a sun tan and used an umbrella to keep her skin white. Being brown was thought of as low class and there is a definite separation in white European descendants in Argentina and the brown mestizo and Amerindian. Now she comes to America and is lumped in under the term Hispanic which most commonly refers to mestizo and Amerindian from Mexico, or browns. Imagine how degraded immigrants must feel. I know my wife sure doesn't appreciate the term Hispanic and definitely doesn't associate or wish to be apart of the "Hispanic" culture. I know her grandmother rolls over in her grave knowing her granddaughter is has been degraded into being a brown in America.

bigtex makes a point that I learned in 2 years living and working in Chile many years ago - the primary divisions among people there were of economic class. In discussing what was then our "racial problem" in the U.S., my supervisor at work replied, "I understand: your race problem is your class problem". At that time (almost 50 years ago), "class" was not a word commonly used in the United States, since the foundation of the "American dream" was the possibility of overcoming the strictures of the economic cirucumstances into which one was born. This was not true at that time in Chile or Latin America in general although, as a part of the general "revolution of the 1960"s", Chilean young people, like ours, were talking actively of ways to make both higher educational and economic opportunities available to a wider spectrum of people. As far as race went, Chile simply did not admit Negroes or Asians as immigrants at all.

Of course, since the take-over of the Chilean government, first by the extreme left and then by the extreme right, during the early 1970's, much, including their entire Constitution, which was true then has changed, so I have no way of knowing how much of what I have written remains true.

However, it is true that many Latin American countries (Mexico, especially, is one) traditionally have been places where Marxist and Socialists (often in exile from their own countires) have gathered from around the world, and a real danger of this vast, unscreened influx of "Hispanic" immigrants into the United States is the danger of the importation with them of their radical philosophies of "political change" by the forceful overthrow of government, rather than working within the system and the use of the ballot as is true within our Western tradition.

I have to agree with everyone here. After all the battles that were fought in this country about desegregation in the 1960s, we are paddling backwards real fast trying to classify ethnicity as equal to race. As if ethnicity or race should even matter. It is also the beginning of divide and conquer.

See this article from the Miami Herald:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/story/978033.htm

The streamlined 2010 Census

QUESTION 1: How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment or mobile home on May 1, 2008?

2: Were there any additional people staying here May 1, 2008 that you did not include in Question 1?

3: Is this house, apartment or mobile home: Owned by you or someone in this household with a mortgage? Owned free and clear? Rented? Occupied without payment of rent?

4: What is your telephone number?

5: Provide information for each person living here. Start with a person living here who owns or rents this house, apartment or mobile home. This will be Person 1.

6: What is Person 1's sex?

7: What is Person 1's age and what is Person 1's date of birth?

8: Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin?

9: What is Person 1's race?

10: Does Person 1 sometimes live or stay somewhere else?

*Questions have been abridged.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau


I was under the impression that there were only 3 races: white, black and Asian. I also do not understand how they can single out Hispanics as in Q. 9.

On May 1, 2008 I was sharing my house with a very large family. There was Mr. and Mrs. Patrick O'Leary with their two sets of twins and 3 other children. Oh yeah, Patrick's parents were staying here too. So my answer to Question 1 would be 12. Question 2 asks if there were any additional people not included in Question 1 -- oh yeah, I forgot the 3 cousins and their spouses and their 8 children. And I guess my answer to Question 10 would be Yes -- my house was so full, sometimes I had to take a break at the Holiday Inn.

They want to play dirty, so can I.

Carleton S. Coon's racial definitions

The 20th century racial classification by American anthropologist Carleton S. Coon, divided humanity into five races:

Before the Pleistocene
After the Pleistocene
Caucasoid race
Negroid race
Capoid race
Mongoloid race
Australoid race

In his landmark book The Races of Europe, Coon defined the Caucasian Race as encompassing the regions of Europe, Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Northeast Africa.[16]

Coon and his work drew some charges of obsolete thinking or outright racism from a few critics, but some of the terminology he employed continues to be used even today, although the "-oid" suffixes now have in part taken on negative connotations.[17]

This was what I was taught in school, but this was about 55 years ago. However, these five "races" were classifications based on distinct physical differences which could be measured and which continued to exist among these groups of people. Members of the "Mongoloid" race, for example, extended from throughout Asia all the way to the indigeneous peoples of the Western Hemisphere, reinforcing the theory that their ancestors migrated across a land bridge which has long since disappeared. These physical characteristics had nothing to do with learned behavior such as language.


Historical Defninitions of Race - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical ... ns_of_race

How can Americans increase their numbers to keep representations?

In early Census they would ask what country where you born.

I was surprised and horrified that Lou Dobbs made that slip two nights ago, quoting a poll about illegal immigration according to their "race." Top of the list was "Latino" then white, black and Asian. The program heard from me! I also urged him not to classify Latino or Hispanic as a race.