Luke Visconti’s Ask the White Guy column is a top draw on Fair360.com. Visconti, the founder and CEO of Fair360, formerly DiversityInc, is a nationally recognized leader in diversity management. In his popular column, readers who ask Visconti tough questions about race/culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age can expect smart, direct and disarmingly frank answers.
Question:
First of all, the term “white” is subjective. You are obviously of Italian heritage and I really consider Italians to be “Latinos” or Hispanic except they don’t speak Spanish.
Who coins the ethnic lexicon of terms for the vast ethnicity description that eventually finds its way into our American lexicon description on race and ethnicity The term “non-white Hispanic” for example is so racist in my opinion that it alludes to Hispanics as being considered white but not all-inclusive, hence the term “I’m a white non-Hispanic” so don’t include me in that group!
The term “non-white Hispanic” seems to communicate a message of inferiority to such adamant exclusion that states “Yes, I’m white but don’t include me in that ethnicity.”
Being Hispanic or Latino is not a race but an ethnic identification, like Italian American, Irish American, Greek American, German American. Now, Hispanics have been grouped into a new ethnic general category, “people of color,” that encompasses ethnic groups from Europe as being the sole white people from European heritage. What is your opinion
Answer:
I agree with your assessment. Hispanics are not a racial group but are “lumped in” with people of color in common usage.
This will evolve with the increasing sophistication of our society. Just think about how things were 40 years ago.
By the way, I’ve become fairly well versed in Latino culture by being one of two Anglo members of PRIMER (Puerto Ricans In Management and Executive Roles)–so I would be quite pleased to be considered Latino! (I was also named an honorary black woman at Spelman College, but that’s another story.).
