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10-29-2011, 11:08 PM #1
Navarrette: We're caught up in a color bind
Navarrette: We're caught up in a color bind
vcstar.com
By Ruben Navarrette
Posted October 29, 2011 at 3 p.m.
Octavio Hinojosa Mier is used to hearing: "You don't look Hispanic."
As if anyone really knew what a Hispanic looks like. We're blond, redheaded and brunette. Our eyes are blue, green, hazel and brown. Our skin is ivory, bronze and — like mine — a shade of beige.
Hinojosa is the former executive director of the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to promoting the advancement of Hispanics in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. He now lives in San Antonio.
Owing to a heavy dose of Spanish blood, he is fair-skinned. While growing up in Kansas in the 1970s, he might have been mistaken for German, Irish or Italian.
"How you see the world is determined by where you grow up," he told me. "I just happened to grow up in the middle of a continent. I'm growing up in a community where half my classmates are Hispanic but they're already third-generation. Their grandparents are the ones who came from Mexico in the 1930s to work in the fields and build the railroads."
In the Midwest, Hinojosa was considered white. As were many of his fellow "Kanspanics." In fact, if you look at their birth certificates, you'll see that their race is listed as "white."
After all, the argument goes, the nation's 50 million Hispanics must be white because they aren't black. For some people, it is that simple.
The times we live in are not so simple. In a strange but not totally unforeseen twist on how Americans choose to identify themselves, it was recently revealed that more and more Hispanics around the country are identifying themselves as "white." So many in fact that 2010 Census figures show that the growth in the population of "white" Americans is being fueled by this kind of self-identification.
Did you catch that? As if Hispanics weren't doing enough in this country — many holding down more than one job to support their families while replenishing the American spirit — now they're bolstering the number of white Americans.
The stage was set some years ago when the Census Bureau tried to make clear to those filling out the survey that Hispanic is an ethnicity and not a race. The 2010 census forms specifically instructed Hispanics to select either "black" or "white." The result was a 6 percent increase in white Americans since 2000, even though the number of non-Hispanic whites basically remained unchanged. What grew was the number of Hispanics.
This is how confusing race relations in America can be. While many whites think it is "hip" to be Hispanic, more and more Hispanics think of themselves as white.
But what does it matter how you see yourself, if others insist on seeing you differently?
We're going through a racism renaissance in this country. In four states — Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina — legislators have passed harsh anti-illegal immigration laws that come across as anti-Latino. More states are likely to follow.
Though it isn't talked about openly, the linchpin of all these laws is an attempt to rope local police into enforcing federal immigration law based on something as unscientific as skin color. If a police officer has a "reasonable suspicion" that someone is in the country illegally (read: looks Hispanic), he is supposed to try to determine the person's legal status.
More Latinos are saying: "We're white!" These laws are saying: "No, you're not."
That part of the story is not new.
Hinojosa acknowledges as much. I asked him if he thought that, during his formative years, dark-skinned Latinos also saw themselves as white.
"No, no," he said. "When you saw signs in restaurants that read, 'No Mexicans,' they were the ones who were shut out."
I asked him what he thinks the trend of Hispanics identifying as white means for the nation.
"What it means is that we have it wrong in terms of how we're identifying ourselves," Hinojosa said. "The labels are all wrong, and so is how we're dividing ourselves based on these classifications, which are these pre-Civil War ways of identifying people in mostly black and white terms."
He's right. The way that Americans think of race, and define themselves by race, is antiquated. It's time to catch up with reality, and accept that the human experience is too rich and complicated to be forced into one box or another.
Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.
Read more: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/oct/29/ ... z1cENGfnBw
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10-30-2011, 05:18 AM #2
If LaRaza would knock off the race baiting, maybe Ruben would get his wish.
Owing to a heavy dose of Spanish blood, he is fair-skinned."A Nation of sheep will beget a government of Wolves" -Edward R. Murrow
Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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10-30-2011, 08:55 AM #3
Navarette as usual is spinning the truth. There is nothing harsh about these anti-illegal immigration bills nor are they anti-Latino. Just for once I would like to see these ethnocentrics get off the victim mentality bandwagon and join the rest of Americans for the rule of law for the betterment of our country as a whole. I won't hold my breath though it seems to be ingrained in them since birth.
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10-30-2011, 09:36 AM #4But, but . . . I thought they were here first and all Europeans should get out. I'm soooo confused.
The Spanish and the the French occupied and owned Mexico at different times and even the Irish had an impact - sound familiar?
The Spanish
http://www.kislakfoundation.org/pdf/VE02Few.pdf
The French
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h101.html
And the Irish
http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/irish.html
HISTORY OF MEXICO
An educational project of the
Houston Institute for Culture
THE IRISH PRESENCE IN MEXICO
By Rose Mary Salum
Throughout their history, Mexico and Ireland have experienced many similar events, in spite of their physical distance. Because these events have had such an impact on Mexico, it is often said that there is a real Irish presence in Mexican soil.
William Lamport, born in 1615, was one of many Irishmen who became famous in Mexico for his adventurous life. The story tells us that a scandalous love affair caused him to flee to Mexico (Nueva Espa ña), where he was moved by the poverty and degradation of Indians and Africans. Ultimately, he was accused of plotting a war of independence against the government, which led to his imprisonment. After ten years, he escaped and lived as a fugitive, continuing his life and love affairs in the New Spain. Eventually, he was captured and sentenced to death by the Inquisition, launching his name into legendary martyrdom. At the time, his adventurous and charitable lifestyle had such an impact, that citizens dubbed him the famous "El Zorro."(1)Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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10-30-2011, 04:04 PM #5
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Everytime I read an article/blog by this person, I always come to the same conclusion: Navarette is a racist. It's apparent he hates white Americans (with European heritage).
The National Council of LaRaza is the largest*hate group.
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10-30-2011, 09:58 PM #6
reply
SO WHY DO WE KEEP POSTING HIS POSTS!
IT ONLY GIVES ATTENTION TO HIM!Any and all comments & Opinions and postings by me are considered of my own opinion, and not of any ORG that I belong to! PERIOD!
Laura Loomer - Woke up this morning to a @nytimes article...
03-27-2024, 11:36 PM in General Discussion