Comments on: ‘Hispanic’ Is Not a Racial Category

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 09 May 2010 19:02:35 +0000

This situation is frustrating to me because I was born in Mexico and adopted into a welcoming white family when I was five days old. The culture I was raised in is naturally the culture of my white family — meaning my Texas father and my South Carolina mother who was a white/Blackfoot Indian mix. So my culture is whatever white-americans’ culture is. But my skin is definitly darker than any in my family and of that of my caucasion husbands. I know scientifically that I am a mix of Native American and Spanish-Cuacasion. I speak english with a Texas twang…so I suppose my grits-love’n self is a Texan! LOL!

Seriously though, the census was set up to insist that one’s genetics define one’s cultural heritage. That;s impoly not true. Then it was set up to say the hispanic mix of Native American/White didn’t exist. I no more look white than I look Asian, Black, Polynesian, etc. I’m clearly brown-skinned with brown eyes and black hair. My whole life I’ve thought of my race as Hispanic and my culture as being part of the south where ya’lls are spoken and fried chicken is a favorite…this census made me feel forced to identify as what I am not. I choose instead to mark “other” and spell out Native American & Caucasion Mix”!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:19:23 +0000

I find it an insult not being able to check (as a race) Mexican American.I am also a fourth Native American but don’t know what tribe. I am proud of my hertiage not a shamed.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:56:46 +0000

I think its confusing. Okay I am white non Hispanic…what the heck , why are Hispanics excluded from other groups? Why then don’t all races get to put what part of Europe or Africa, South America, or Asia they descend from, I am Irish, German, Scottish and black, so what the heck! OMG I feel why put Black and white as a race….that’s just the color of the skin NOT A RACE!!!!!! White people come from many different groups as do Black people!!! So why are they identified by the color of their skin! I think the whole thing is stupid. I always put one or more races on a form because I am!!!!!!!!!!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:21:27 +0000

Your response does nothing to answer this question.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:45:00 +0000

The designation of race and ethnicity categories by the US federal government are complex, and have evolved over time. The government invented the term “Hispanic”, and it is still not embraced by all groups. All race designations are both cultural and political. Why are there about 17 kinds of Asians on the federal forms, and no Hispanic race categories on US government forms? Why are only Hispanics are forced to pick both an ethnicity and a race? The short answer is that the Asian lobby was clear that it wanted race subgroups listed, while the Hispanic lobby remains divided. The combined race /ethnicity category that is used to summarize many government statistics is: “Non-Hispanic White and “Non-Hispanic Black”, “Hispanic” and “Other”.The term used by the writer above is not correct, a subtle, but important distinction.The idea of race is considered to be a particularly US obsession by those in other countries. The Canadians don’t collect race in their Census, as language is their main dividing issue.The Hispanic idea of ethnicity is based more on cultural and class distinctions than on genealogy. In Guatemala, for example, three brothers from the same village and the same Indian parents could be considered to be three separate races if one speaks Mayan and still lives in the village, one speaks Spanish and lives in a middle class neighborhood, and the third lives in a poor urban neighborhood and speaks a mixture of languages.In the US, parents of mixed race children were the ones who lobbied to allow multiple race designation on the US Census and other forms. Presiden Obama is a great example of someone who is mixed race and multicultural — neither black nor white.While Hispanics take advantage of the multiple race categorization possible now, the designation is not perfect. What a Hispanic means by mixed race is dependent on which language he is speaking – “mixto” probably means Indian/European, while “mixed” probably means black/white, a distincition that the US Government is not set up to notice.It is not clear whether or not Portuguese and Brazilians are Hispanic given that the language of these two countries is not Spanish.It is even less clear what “white” means any longer. In the early years of this century, Italian, Greek, English, Irish and Jewish persons were all considered to be of separate races.Educated Spanish friends(actually Catalans, a whole other story) have questioned why they should be designated as Hispanics in the US, when they don’t need minority programs. They prefer to be considered “European”. Actually, I like that one, and am starting to use it on forms for my bi-cultural child.