Why is it that only Hispanics from the U.S. think that Hispanic is a race?
2010-08-23T16:26:30Z
Alot of my family still lives in DR and I've never heard any of them ever say that Latino was their race, ever. Nor have I heard anyone else there say it either.
As far as I've seen, people just call themselves Blanco, Moreno, Indio and a whole bunch of shades in between in reference to their own race but I've never seen or heard of anyone calling themselves racially Latino or Hispanic. Culturally, yes. Racially, never.
My mother didn't even know what a Hispanic was until she came here in '86
2010-08-23T16:43:45Z
@ Samantha
Latino and Hispanic are definitely NOT a race. The demographics of Latin American countries have the same basic components as those of the United States-we have descendants of European immigrants, descendants of African slaves, and descendants of Native Americans who were there when Colombus arrived, as well as some immigrants from Asia and the Middle East. Latin Americans today are just the descendants of these people, only we're generally more racially mixed than White Americans, which is why for the most part we look "Brown"
Scouser612010-08-23T17:03:52Z
Favorite Answer
Because Spanish speaking people outside of the U.S. do not refer to themselves as Hispanic. They see see themselves and each other for what they are - people of different races and mixtures and nationalities that speak a common language - Spanish.
The U.S. Census Bureau with the help of Senator Joseph Montoya of New Mexico coined the term "Hispanic" back in the early seventies as a way to label Spanish speakers regardless of race or nationality. I'm sure they never realized how much confusion it would cause 40 years later.
As I've said before labeling people as Hispanic simply because they speak Spanish makes about as much sense as referring to all English speakers as Anglo.
Latinos and Hispanics are of the WHITE race. Hispanics and Latinos are descendants of the Spanish & are hence WHITE. If you're Hispanic or Latino and most effective part descendant of the Spanish and are say - part Indian, then I bet you will have to positioned down that you're WHITE until there's a field so that you can investigate Native Mexican/Guatemalan, and so forth. (or two or extra exclusive bins if you're of a larger combine). US Census REALLY demands to broaden the offerings at the census.
This is a question that should be asked more often. The answer is that they've conformed to U.S. notions of identity based on such categorizations. Occassionally on any given form you will see categories under race/ethnicity with the denotations "White/Hispanic," White, non-Hispanic," and "Black/Hispanic" or "Black, non Hispanic." It's rare enough and doesn't provide enough latitude with regard to race so most just end up identifying with their ethnicity or their national origins. As an Afro-Latino, it is painful to have any serious discussion with most Latinos about race because they will invariably go into "I'm not Black, I'm Dominican!" or what have you. I grew up with people insisting that they "thought" I was Black or that they didn't know I was "Spanish"
Ya I know it's kind of retarded! For college I filled out what ethnicity I was. So I put Latino. Then I saw which races there were. I showed my mother, but she told me not to put down my race. She kept on saying "you are none of those races, you're latino!". I was like wow, you are really shallow mother. They had "white" and "latin Indian" in the check boxes. Those are the two things that I am, yet for some weird reason my mom did not want me to put them down, and she kept on stating that I was none of those things. I think the American culture must of bled off into her into thinking that all Latinos are the same. I was really pissed, yet eventually I marked the two boxes.
You sure about that? Or is it the ignorant and uneducated who say this?
Anywho, the only reason I would think *people believe* Hispanic is a race is because they're uneducated. They (Hispanics) only recognize white, asians, blacks as races.
Something along those lines.
My parents are from Mexico and I have them heard say their race was Latino, so it isn't just a U.S thing.
Haven't you seen Latin American awards show? They kind of push that term onto people.
EDIT: Take a look at this video, in all honesty these people really think Latino is a race, and they seem uneducated to me. No reason to get all upset about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e6ChgL1EC4
Rebuttal to the video from some other dude. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqv89p3SF5M&feature=related
EDIT: Why did I receive thumbs down? My response was good you people are so childish.
EDIT: Ugh, I need to fix my sentences, they look like crap.