Posted on 01/26/2010 8:05:10 AM PST by clippedwing
Someone please tell me why this is....
Every job application out there askes me if I'm Hispanic or Latino! Why not Black? ...or non-White?
ROFL...
What’s your hubby’s background, if I may ask?
I’m wondering the same thing and what the correct answer is.
Three of my four grandparents were born in Puerto Rico, immigrating to NY in the 1920s. One was born in NY of Italian-born parents. Legally all grandparents were natural-born American citizens. My last name is Spanish, but I am not a native Spanish (or Italian) speaker.
Culturally, I am familiar from family with Spanish and Italian traditions, foods and customs, but I also celebrate other cultural holidays through working 3 decades for a culturally Irish American employer and marrying an Irish/English/Polish mixed breed.
My kids have English/Irish last names. Racially, we are all white. One of my kids checks hispanic because my last name is Spanish, but sad to say, she couldn’t find Puerto Rico (or Spain or Italy) on a map.
I’ll sometimes check Hispanic if it is a separate question from race where I check white. But many times it is one or the other, which confuses me. Not really sure what the underlying point of the Hispanic ethnicity check box is when there is no distinction between the two dozen Hispanic cultures.
I have taken to checking “other” when I am given the chance. If a form asks for race, I write “human”.
A couple of months ago, I checked something that indicated biracial. Now, I am a very white old lady with the map o’ Ireland on me face, so I got great amusement from seeing the clerk stealing furtive (she thought) glances at my visage looking for non-white features.
My mother says her great grandmother (my great-great) was 100% American Indian (Iroquois).
However, when searching on ancestry.com, the census record from 1900 shows said great grandmother as “white.”
Now, my mom says she remembers her vividly, but I question (not to her face) if it’s just a story and my mom misremembers...or maybe she was really white but “looked Indian”...or perhaps, she “passed” as white back then in rural West Virginia but was actually American Indian.
How about “None of the above”?
I have the same confusion as the gal in your office. If they separate race and ethnicity than I’ll check Caucasian for race and Hispanic for ethnicity. If it’s mixed I usually go with White, but I’m not sure which is “correct”.
Many of my great-great grandparents were from Puerto Rico through Spain and the Canary Islands (also Spanish). That would definitely be Hispanic but they never indicate how far back in your lineage they are looking. No indigenous north american though. Me thinks that is her case too. Both are probably correct for us?????
I have an Italian last name.
However, sometimes I get telemarketed recordings in Spanish for probably the same reason.
The only reason or time I use “Native American” is to distinguish from Indians from India.
Her parents were both decended from Spaniards.
His family is from Northern New Mexico. Have been there since the 1500’s.
He is tall, and fair skinned, freckled, hazel eyes, and dark brown hair.
Excellent idea!
I'm wondering what to put on the census form. I'd like to throw a little sand in the gears of identity politics.
“Her parents were both decended from Spaniards.”
So did most Puerto Ricans. I saw my Puerto Rican grandfather’s grandmother’s birth certificate from Andalucia, Sp. and another one from an ancester from the Canary Islands (Spanish). He was born just after Spain ceded PR to the US at the end of the Spanish American war. Not actually sure when American citizenship was granted to the citizens of the island, but he was a fiercly proud American. Too old to fight in WWII, but his younger siblings did.
Ask yourself, why that makes a difference...why are they still obsessed with your skin in this constitutional republic?
I cross out all the race categories and write: American-American. Ofcourse, I am independently employed as a consultant so it does not come up all the time on contracts...but when it does raise it’s racist head, I get nasty. Who cares about contracting with racists?
rubia
rubia?
rubia?
Around here in borderland so many kids are mixed and besides, hispanics are white, they are a culture not a race.
My grandkids are considered white because they have a white last name but they both definitely look hispanic. A kid wanted to know how my granddaughter kept such a beautiful tan all year and she said, “Duh, cuz I’m half Mexican.”
Spanish for blond haired girl. I posted it as a place holder to come back and read the thread later.
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