Are "latinos" white now?

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I've known Black Latinos, White Latinos. I guess technically Filipinos are sorta Asian Latinos. Hell in the Philippines we have White Filipinos called (incorrectly) Castillians. They speak spanish and usually keep to themselves.

littlebirdtoldme said:
0404-zimmerman_full_600.jpg



To me white always meant you came from(or your ancestors did), or looked like you came from europe. From spain to norway to russia to greece. Zimmerman does not look like he is from europe. He does not look european. He does not look latin-european like spanish or italian. He looks south american.
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Really? Everyone in Europe is "Lily-White?"
 
JeTmAn81 said:
I keep hearing this. When did it happen? Because growing up, hispanic/latino was definitely considered a race. And it doesn't make sense to me now to lump in what was "hispanic/latino" as simply caucasian like your typical whitebread American caucasian, because that makes it useless as a categorization tool.
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It's useless as a categorization tool the way you want to use it. Spanish-speaking people are so varied in ethnicity that it's pointless to call it a "race". Even defining it by geography ("Latino") is limited because, again, vast mix of ethnic backgrounds.

People want to box hispanics as "brown" and it's just not so.


Chojin said:
I've known Black Latinos, White Latinos. I guess technically Filipinos are sorta Asian Latinos. Hell in the Philippines we have White Filipinos called (incorrectly) Castillians. They speak spanish and usually keep to themselves.
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Brazil and Peru have huge Asian populations
 
Interfectum said:
Nation's first female Hispanic governor elected:
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2010/11/02/5398223-nations-first-female-hispanic-governor-elected

Obama to nominate Sonia Sotomayor - first Hispanic - for Supreme Court:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/05/67273777/1#.Ue7QRo1wp8E

Zimmerman... white dude.


Nope, no agenda there.
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To be fair, if Zimmerman were really considered hispanic in the eyes of everyone else, he wouldn't have the defense force he has now, just a fraction of it.:P
 
Kyon said:
No it's not. Stupid comparison
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No it isn't.

The point is that that the diversity of people who identify as "hispanic" makes the information that they identify as Hispanic virtually useless for demographic purposes. Maybe the comparison to Americans isn't 100% representative, but it does have value.
 
Zimmerman wasn't white because that was the narrative.

In reality, Zimmerman is as Hispanic culturally as John Leguizamo was culturally Italian in the Super Mario Bros movie...but again, it's all about the narrative that you want to convey.
 
Race as a definition changes throughout history. It used to be what we now call nationality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_race_concepts
But the way things seem to work now, if you assimilate into American culture (or your culture assimilates into America) then you're white. So, yeah, right now, we're in a weird spot for latinos and Indians and Asians as their numbers grow and generations evolve.

"Depends on the narrative being pushed."

Yep, and then there's perspective. Since race is more or less nonsense, one can push it, pull it, shape it, manipulate it.
 
JeTmAn81 said:
I keep hearing this. When did it happen? Because growing up, hispanic/latino was definitely considered a race. And it doesn't make sense to me now to lump in what was "hispanic/latino" as simply caucasian like your typical whitebread American caucasian, because that makes it useless as a categorization tool.
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Because it has never been a color.

the US simplifies it to hispanic white and non-hispanic white.

Do you prefer this system?

Casta_painting_all.jpg
 
I was born in Canada, but my parents are from Central America. I'm tanned, but not particularly dark, nor light-skinned.

And I always get hung up when writing down if I'm a visible minority or not.

According to Census Canada: I am.
 
Tamanon said:
To be fair, if Zimmerman were really considered hispanic in the eyes of everyone else, he wouldn't have the defense force he has now, just a fraction of it.:P
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Like I said, I think it's solely because his victim was a minority that's even "less white" than he is.

If he had killed a white kid, same reasons let's say, there's no doubt the people defending him now would instantly switch and try to highlight how he's Hispanic, probably an illegal alien, etc.
 
Let's not forget GZ's dad is a full card carrying white man. America already has the intelligence of a 5yr old when it comes to racism and race relations... this white latino thing might be too complex.for y'all.
 
littlebirdtoldme said:
0404-zimmerman_full_600.jpg


With zimmermann story, and the media constantly calling him white.

To me white always meant you came from(or your ancestors did), or looked like you came from europe. From spain to norway to russia to greece. Zimmerman does not look like he is from europe. He does not look european. He does not look latin-european like spanish or italian. He looks south american.

But if he is white. Then suddenly alot of people became white. Most people on this planet are white.

But more importantly what is not white. We know blacks are not white. Even obama, which by the way has just as much european blood in his veins as zimmerman, is black.
.
what about asians. North east asians are often whiter than most europeans.

Im starting to feel confused.
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until the 1970's, Latinos were in fact considered white under the law.

after the war with mexico in the 1800's, Mexicans that were still within the U.S. newly acquired territory were labeled white. Of course, the lightered skinned Mexicans got better treatment/power then the more native ones.

actually were a lot of cases that I don't remember off the top of my head from the 1930's-1970's on the issue of Latinos being considered white under the law.
 
Kyon said:
No it's not. Stupid comparison
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Latino/Hispanic just means you come from a place that has a Spanish or Portuguese historical link. Which is mostly Central and South America. That's it.


Kyon said:
I wonder what a lot of Mexicans consider their race to be.
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My mother's family consider themselves white. Because they have Spanish blood. The mother of my child's family also has Spanish blood and they are whiter than 90% of the white side of my family.
 
Kyon said:
I wonder what a lot of Mexicans consider their race to be.
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As someone who worked on the Census spending hours a day calling people who wrote in Hispanic as their race to correct it, the VAST majority of those that I talked to got the hint very quickly and went with Mexican/Puerto Rican/Spanish, etc.
 
I didnt put anything for the census. I don't identify as black or white. It's funny cause my sister and I have the same mother and father yet she's white and I'm a darker color. I guess I can consider myself white since my father is South American and he's white. My mom is Dominican and her whole side of the family are brown.
 
What I've come to understand during this case is that Zimmerman has gained all of the perks that white people get when they shoot black people, which when you think about it is a pretty big deal.

It's a huge, inclusive bonus to Hispanics everywhere in America. Now if they happen to shoot a black person they are going to be able to rely on 'stand your ground' and other laws that let white people get away with shooting black people. The whites are passing this powerful defense to other Americans. It's something of a milestone.

There is now more equality in America... When it comes to shooting black people.
 
Kyon said:
No it's not. Stupid comparison
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Yes it is, Latinos/Hispanics are called that due to the language they speak (Hispanic = relates to Hispania, Spain and Portugal, etc., Latino = from romance languages that derive from latin, as opposed to Germanic origins) not how they look. The racial agenda that has been pushed in America and other countries for centuries now lumps them all together as the same "peoples" because of ignorance and bigotry. And obviously, due to the history of many of the Latin American countries, many of its citizens are mixed race (as if there were pure races or something) but that doesn't mean they are all the same, or come from the same place or have to look the same (skin tone). Exactly how America is pretty much a country filled with people from all over.
 
littlebirdtoldme said:
To me white always meant you came from(or your ancestors did), or looked like you came from europe. From spain to norway to russia to greece. Zimmerman does not look like he is from europe. He does not look european. He does not look latin-european like spanish or italian. He looks south american.

But if he is white. Then suddenly alot of people became white. Most people on this planet are white.
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According to the U.S. census form, as a Arab-American, I'm considered white. I'm slightly tanner than the picture of Zimmeran in OP.
 
Kinyou said:
Isn't the theory that they emigrated from europe during an ice age?
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No. They would have emigrated from Asia/Russia, which is why those old racial categories grouped them under the Mongoloid race which covers most native Asian populations.

Caucasoid was Europe, Northern Africa, and the Middle east (some people put North India in here as well)

Negroid was the rest of Africa, Aboriginal Australians, and a few other parts of Australasia.

Mogoloid was most of Asia and the Americas.

EDIT: Beaten above
 
Jaleel said:
According to the U.S. census form, as a Arab-American, I'm considered white. I'm slightly tanner than the picture of Zimmeran in OP.
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No. It is about how you SELF IDENTIFY. If an Arab-American considers themselves black, the census doesn't care. If they consider themselves white, the census doesn't care. They ONLY acted on the term "Hispanic" because it really doesn't mean much.
 
Pastry said:
Latinos can be black, white, brown, asian, whatever.
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But why is Zimmerman white, when he doesn't look white (ie. both skin tone and or facial features)?

And isn't that what is important? Because a lot of white privilege has to do with how people perceive you (based on your skin color/features), and thus how they treat you. It's not THE only element to that. But it's certainly a major one.
 
I moved to Dallas and started at a new church that was predominantly Hispanic. I was taking confirmation classes when we were all asked to share something about our selves. I said that my mother's family us Hispanic so that makes me Hispanic. Everyone in the room laughed at me. Needless to say, I changed churches. I've also stuck to just saying I was white like I had done in the past.
 
The traditional cultural categorization is into three races: while, yellow and black, based on three sons of Noah. So yeah, he;s white.
 
Interesting question

Alot of greeks do not look like typical whites. But they are white since they're europeans?

To me not all europeans are white. Like people from spain, former yugoslavia, italy, greece etc can be white and not so white. It depends on the person individually.....IMO

thats how I always viewed it. Haven't really thought about it all that much
 
I never thought about it that way. To me it was what do non-blacks think of black people. Like I've said before all Latinos are capable of racism/stereotypes just like anyone else. i grew up in the Bronx and I can tell you we had shitty names for black kids just like white people.

There are plenty of Latinos, especially ones from Caribbean who identify with their Spanish side and not their African heritage. No we're not white, I'm Dominican, but we can be just as racist as white people or anyone else.
 
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