OP here.

Latino PP, please start your own thread. Seriously. You have completely derailed mine and continue to do so every few days. That chip on your shoulder must be enormous.

For what it's worth, when I say that my daughter is the only white girl, what I do mean is that she's the only non-Hispanic while girl. That is accurate. You have corrected me repeatedly. You have corrected other people repeatedly. I'm glad you're proud of your heritage. But enough is enough.

If you care about this issue so much that you must resurrect a thread where no one has asked anything on topic in weeks, start your own thread. Seriously. Call it whatever you want, using whatever terminology you want. If you want to have a conversation about the cultural construction of whiteness, I'm happy to have that conversation on a thread related specifically to that. This thread is about children's experiences of elementary school, and I have explained about 100 times why I started the thread and what my intention was.

"Ask me anything"


Okay, I have a question or two.

Did your daughter agree to be the focus of all of this attention? That's attention from DCUM in general, but more importantly from parents and teachers at her school in particular? Does she know that people who were formerly oblivious to her attendance at school are now observing her from the sidelines, and will continue to do so long after this thread dies?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am on the west coast right now and I meet 2 types of Spanish-speaking people - either white-looking college educated citizens of Argentina with good English, or people with darker looking skin from Mexico, El Salvador and Nicaragua with less developed English skills and no college education.
I have no idea why I never meet educated people speaking good English from Mexico, for example.

Wow, this is getting better...

1) Not every Hispanic person speaks Spanish

2) Not every Hispanic person who speaks Spanish speaks English with an accent (meaning, most Americans wouldn't even realize they speak Spanish)

3) There are many different nationalities and cultures under the umbrella term Hispanic, and the mix varies a lot by region. Over here, for example, you'll find many more Colombians and Venezuelans than Argentinians.

4) When people say "white," no one is talking Scandinavian-style white. Italians, Greeks, Polish, even those with quite dark skin, are still white, correct?

5) Leave it to some arrogant DCUM posters to know what Hispanics are or aren't, better than Hispanics themselves...

6) Net net...all those good Hispanic classmates of OP's DD would be mystified ("esta gringa esta loca"), and many quite offended too, if they knew that OP had created a thread called "My daughter is the only white girl in her grade: ask me anything"

God, I really hope that most Latinos don't have such a pathological need to be recognized as white that they get this riled up when someone uses "white" as the commonly known shorthand for "non-hispanic white".

Anonymous wrote:I am on the west coast right now and I meet 2 types of Spanish-speaking people - either white-looking college educated citizens of Argentina with good English, or people with darker looking skin from Mexico, El Salvador and Nicaragua with less developed English skills and no college education.
I have no idea why I never meet educated people speaking good English from Mexico, for example.

Wow, this is getting better...

1) Not every Hispanic person speaks Spanish

2) Not every Hispanic person who speaks Spanish speaks English with an accent (meaning, most Americans wouldn't even realize they speak Spanish)

3) There are many different nationalities and cultures under the umbrella term Hispanic, and the mix varies a lot by region. Over here, for example, you'll find many more Colombians and Venezuelans than Argentinians.

4) When people say "white," no one is talking Scandinavian-style white. Italians, Greeks, Polish, even those with quite dark skin, are still white, correct?

5) Leave it to some arrogant DCUM posters to know what Hispanics are or aren't, better than Hispanics themselves...

6) Net net...all those good Hispanic classmates of OP's DD would be mystified ("esta gringa esta loca"), and many quite offended too, if they knew that OP had created a thread called "My daughter is the only white girl in her grade: ask me anything"

Anonymous wrote:I am on the west coast right now and I meet 2 types of Spanish-speaking people - either white-looking college educated citizens of Argentina with good English, or people with darker looking skin from Mexico, El Salvador and Nicaragua with less developed English skills and no college education.
I have no idea why I never meet educated people speaking good English from Mexico, for example.

This is my view as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do other kids pick on your DD because she is white?

OP already clarified that many of her DDs classmates are actually as white as she is. Main different is that they speak Spanish while being white. Go figure.

Not again...

This PP hews strictly to the 2000 census definitions of race and ethnicity, lol. Somehow I doubt that OP's school is full of white-identified Hispanics. But who knows, maybe there is a heretofore [b]unknown pocket of Spaniards in some Title I school somewhere in DCPS.[/b]

What a display of ignorance. The majority of US-born Hispanics identify themselves as white. The majority of Latin American-born Hispanics identify themselves as white.

Number 2 self-identification, for both cases, is white mixed with indigenous (called "mestizo" in Spanish).

All of which explains why close to Hispanic person would ever "pick on your DD because she is white."

Someone here needs to actually talk to a few more Hispanics/ Latinos. We are not figments of your little imagination. 55 million and counting!

Previous PP is clueless. Apparently in her view, Hispanics is some silly new word the kids use."

Funnier, she apparently thinks that white Hispanics is a synonym for Spaniards.

I hope her kids will end up a bit more enlightened.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is "brown" not a category. So many of us identify as brown.

Good question.

Now, what about yellow or pink or red?

This whole skin color obsession makes zero sense.

What makes even less sense, is a parent's desire to use her child to promote herself for personal attention. It looks like a pathological sickness. Or a Kardashian, but I repeat myself.

You answered yourself

I am on the west coast right now and I meet 2 types of Spanish-speaking people - either white-looking college educated citizens of Argentina with good English, or people with darker looking skin from Mexico, El Salvador and Nicaragua with less developed English skills and no college education.
I have no idea why I never meet educated people speaking good English from Mexico, for example.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do other kids pick on your DD because she is white?

OP already clarified that many of her DDs classmates are actually as white as she is. Main different is that they speak Spanish while being white. Go figure.

Not again...

This PP hews strictly to the 2000 census definitions of race and ethnicity, lol. Somehow I doubt that OP's school is full of white-identified Hispanics. But who knows, maybe there is a heretofore unknown pocket of Spaniards in some Title I school somewhere in DCPS.

What a display of ignorance. The majority of US-born Hispanics identify themselves as white. The majority of Latin American-born Hispanics identify themselves as white.

Number 2 self-identification, for both cases, is white mixed with indigenous (called "mestizo" in Spanish).

All of which explains why close to Hispanic person would ever "pick on your DD because she is white."

Someone here needs to actually talk to a few more Hispanics/ Latinos. We are not figments of your little imagination. 55 million and counting!

NP here. That statistic is interesting, but in defense of the PPs I have to say that either those 50% of Hispanics identifying as "white" aren't necessarily found at DCPS Title 1 schools, or self-identification and reality don't necessarily match up, because none of the Latinos in my kid's class look like they are of purely Spanish (i.e. white) descent. They all look mestizo.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do other kids pick on your DD because she is white?

OP already clarified that many of her DDs classmates are actually as white as she is. Main different is that they speak Spanish while being white. Go figure.

Not again...

This PP hews strictly to the 2000 census definitions of race and ethnicity, lol. Somehow I doubt that OP's school is full of white-identified Hispanics. But who knows, maybe there is a heretofore [b]unknown pocket of Spaniards in some Title I school somewhere in DCPS.[/b]

What a display of ignorance. The majority of US-born Hispanics identify themselves as white. The majority of Latin American-born Hispanics identify themselves as white.

Number 2 self-identification, for both cases, is white mixed with indigenous (called "mestizo" in Spanish).

All of which explains why close to Hispanic person would ever "pick on your DD because she is white."

Someone here needs to actually talk to a few more Hispanics/ Latinos. We are not figments of your little imagination. 55 million and counting!

Previous PP is clueless. Apparently in her view, Hispanics is some silly new word the kids use."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do other kids pick on your DD because she is white?

OP already clarified that many of her DDs classmates are actually as white as she is. Main different is that they speak Spanish while being white. Go figure.

Not again...

This PP hews strictly to the 2000 census definitions of race and ethnicity, lol. Somehow I doubt that OP's school is full of white-identified Hispanics. But who knows, maybe there is a heretofore unknown pocket of Spaniards in some Title I school somewhere in DCPS.