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What do people mean by White Hispanic?
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Anonymous
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The brown Latinos you see, like Alex Padilla, the US Senator from California, are mestizos. This means their heritage is a blend of the indigenous people of the Americas and the Europeans who came here. Probably 90%+ of Mexicans and Central Americans have this genetic profile. It's very rare to be from Mexico or Central America and not be mestizo. There is a range of brown among this group and it can and often does vary within a nuclear family. One of my sisters is very pale with red hair. My brother has skin the color of cinnamon and black hair. Same parents. We have two dark brown grandfathers and two very pale red-haired grandmothers. All were Mexican and Mexican American. It would be ridiculous to call the light-skinned members of our family White and the rest of us not White, since we're all the same genetic mix but just happen to have different phenotypes. I wouldn't be surprised is Senator Padilla has some white looking siblings. That's just how it works.
I don't think it makes sense to use the adjective white to describe a Latino since almost every Latino is at least partly white/European, even the dark brown ones. The exception would be indigenous people who really lived very separately from the mestizo population and managed to not be incorporated into the dominant mestizo population. Mexicans and Central Americans vastly outnumber all the other nationalities here in the USA. So, for the most part, when you speak of Latinos, the odds are you're talking about a brown mestizo. https://www.statista.com/statistics/234852/us-hispanic-population/ It really is bizarre that so many Argentineans are in this group given how rare they are here. This article offers some clarification re the use of the terms Hispanic and Latino: "“Hispanic” and “Latino” are pan-ethnic terms meant to describe – and summarize – the population of people of that ethnic background living in the U.S. In practice, the Census Bureau most often uses the term “Hispanic,” while Pew Research Center uses the terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” interchangeably when describing this population. Some have drawn sharp distinctions between these two terms – saying, for example, that Hispanics are people from Spain or from Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America (this excludes Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language), while Latinos are people from Latin America regardless of language (this includes Brazil but excludes Spain and Portugal). Despite this debate, the “Hispanic” and “Latino” labels are not universally embraced by the population that has been labeled, even as they are widely used." https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/09/15/who-is-hispanic/ |
Anonymous
Why wouldn't she "get to be"? Her father's family was Cuban. |
Anonymous
NP: I think the "get to be" hispanic comment is saying: "Should a white hispanic benefit from affirmative action in the US?" More specifically: Descendant of Euros who colonized the US = no affirmative action .... but descendant of Euros who colonized Latin American lands = yes, affirmative action if you move to the US. |
Anonymous
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The problem is that the categories are all messed up so many have to put white even though they aren’t actually white.
The Census Bureau has white, black, Asian, Hawaiian, and American Indian. But to be considered American Indian/indigenous, you have to have a tribal affiliation, which many people don’t despite being descended from indigenous Americans. So now there’s this whole group of people who don’t fit into any of those categories, and the United States doesn’t want this huge population being recognized as indigenous, because of the implications of that (read: $$$). So they are told to report themselves as Hispanic white. Many don’t agree with this classification, since they aren’t actually white. But if you have millions of people suddenly wanting their rightful land back, and the money they are owed, that spells big problems for the people with money and resources. White Hispanic has absolutely nothing to do with how light someone’s skin is. It’s a group people are told they are, despite many disagreeing. Source: one of my best friends has to deal with this and is required to always put down “White Hispanic” on forms despite having literally zero European ancestry. |
Anonymous
| You make some interesting and persuasive points. But it sounds like you're adding an adjective in front of Hispanic that is not necessary. You either are Hispanic or you're not. You can have all sorts of racial blends, but you're Hispanic or not. No need to say White Hispanic unless you think we should also say Indigenous and White Hispanic, Black Hispanic, Asian and White Hispanic, Indigenous Hispanic, and so on. |
Anonymous
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Race =/= ethnicity =/= nationality
I am a multiracial (race) American (nationality) of Puerto Rican descent (ethnicity). (Yes, I am aware that Puerto Rico is a territory of the US but there are significant cultural differences.) |
Anonymous
I’m white and my husband is Argentinian. He considers our kids hispanic and gets upset when one of our children doesn’t want to identify as Hispanic. Upset as in deeply offended. It’s weird that people would discuss others’ ethnic identity. |
Anonymous
Your "best friend" has someone accompanying them to fill out every form and requires them to tick a certain box? GTFO. This does not happen. |
Anonymous
I also don't understand why they don't pick NA if they are mixed. There are many latinos who belong to this category and imagine Americans telling them to go back to their country when they speak Spanish. The America are their country from the top to bottom before white came stealing, killing, and drawing lines. Sorry to get off the topic. I also are in opinion that white latinos are the ones without NA or black or Asian grandparents or a little. My own kid is Northern European and white/Asian/NA. I have no idea what my ex marks on the box for the kid. |
Anonymous
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My grandmother was Guatemalan, but descended from the conquistadors who invaded Central America. She was “proud” of her European Hispanic heritage (because in Guatemala it made her part of the upper class, and there’s a huge class/caste system there as there is many other places). I’m almost positive that there was a fair bit of mixing with the native population in the 10-15 generations between her conquistador ancestor and her, but she was adamant that she was fully Spanish. We consider ourselves Hispanic but also white (they are always separate questions on demographics).
My mom is going to do dna testing to find out more. |
Anonymous
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What do you mean? There are millions of white people all throughout Central and South America. Literally Germans, Italians, Spanish, etc. descendants who live in those regions and can pretty much only speak Spanish.
It's Greta when they get to check 'hispanic' on the diversity box questions with employers and college applications, isn't it? |
Anonymous
Best of both worlds! |
Anonymous
Which one is Bill Richardson? |
Anonymous
NP.. I don't find it a stupid comment. There are a lot of Asian people in South America. If they come to the US, would they put "Latino" on the form? If they did, the person reviewing the form would think that this person is lying, or dumb. I had a friend who was from Brazil - she is East Asian. She was born there, but she is 100% Asian. Latino is not a race. It is where you from. You can be a white person from Asia. Would that make you Asian on those forms? That's ridiculous. |
Anonymous
Most official forms require Native American to include a First Nation affiliation. You can’t just “pick it”, because people indigenous to the United States receive some autonomy and benefits that people indigenous to Central and South America don’t get. Someone can’t move to the United States and go live on a reservation because they’re indigenous, they have to be affiliated with that Nation. Basically the whole things is a mess, and the people best qualified to define groups are the people who belong to those groups. |