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"The Birth of a 'Latino Race'"
The Claremont Institute ^
| December 29, 2004
| Ken Masugi
Posted on 12/29/2004 1:47:38 PM PST by Stoat
"The Birth of a 'Latino Race'"
LAT op-ed by Ian Haney Lopez, who notes the effect of the Census Bureau's adding an "other race" category. "Today, about 6% of Americans, or more than 1 in 20, count themselves as "some other race," and the overwhelming majority of them are Latinos. Like it or not, nearly half of the Latino population considers itself a race." This is clearly a conclusion he wishes to promote. Yet, a simpler conclusion can be derived: race here simply means nationality, as it did until the middle of the twentieth century. Thus the irrelevance of Lopez's remark that "the Latino community's insistence on being considered a race also challenges the conservative mantra that the U.S. no longer needs such categories because it is moving quickly toward race blindness." Obviously, when scholars redefine "race" they can get this constitutional race blindness all the more difficult to achieve. Lopez might as well have adduced the existence of Chinatowns and heavy drinking on St. Patrick's Day to challenge conservatives. Lopez also fails to note the opposition of black organizations to the "other" category, as it diluted the numbers of those they claim to lead. (See my post below, on comic strips blacks.) The San Jose Mercury News summarized a Pew Foundation study of Hispanic/Latino residential dispersion, undermining some of Lopez's claims. "Using 2000 Census data, the Pew Hispanic Center, a non-profit research group based in Washington, D.C., analyzed the makeup of Census-defined neighborhoods across the country and found that 57 percent, or 20 million, of Latinos live in neighborhoods where they constitute less than half the population. "Still, the report acknowledges that many Latinos live in neighborhoods where they make up the majority. And, in fact, that percentage actually has increased from 39 percent in 1990 to 43 percent in 2000." One should suppose that illegal immigration serves as a cause of this. See James Edwards in the latest issue of the Center for Local Government's newsletter Local Liberty. |
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TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aliens; census; claremont; immigration; kenmasugi; latino; latinos; latinovote; masugi; origins; race
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To: two134711
Damn, I am entirely Norse-Germanic except for a unkown.
No Latin claim here.
To: Stoat
I'm putting you on warning, that's an awfully tiny picture of Carmen Electra.
42
posted on
12/29/2004 3:22:56 PM PST
by
Melas
To: cyborg; two134711
27 isn't old :-)
Thank you! I'm 28 and have been feeling some anxiety about getting a little older lately...
To: Stoat
Latino as a "race" is absurd. According to the definition, a Latino is a person of Latin-American origin living in the U.S.
I know someone who moved here from Peru, all of his ancestors were Russian. According to the U.S. census - he is Latino. Sammy Sosa is also Latino. Descendents of the Germans who fled to Argentina - Latino. Descendents of Aztecs - Latino.
It's like saying Margeret Cho, Brittny Spears and Whoopi Goldberg are all the same race.
44
posted on
12/29/2004 3:25:54 PM PST
by
PFC
To: PFC
Whoopi and all the rest are Americans though.
45
posted on
12/29/2004 3:30:30 PM PST
by
cyborg
(http://mentalmumblings.blogspot.com/)
To: Melas
I'm putting you on warning, that's an awfully tiny picture of Carmen Electra.My apologies :-)
46
posted on
12/29/2004 3:43:50 PM PST
by
Stoat
To: cyborg
"Whoopi and all the rest are Americans..."
Sorry. After the comments she made about Pres. Bush, I refuse to ever consider Whoopi an American. She could devoured by dogs, for all I care.
47
posted on
12/29/2004 4:01:44 PM PST
by
beelzepug
(tag not to be removed under penalty of law except by consumer.)
To: Stoat
And didn't she an Dennis Rodman make a lovely couple? Ackk!
48
posted on
12/29/2004 4:04:53 PM PST
by
beelzepug
(tag not to be removed under penalty of law except by consumer.)
To: beelzepug
I agree with your sentiments.
49
posted on
12/29/2004 4:05:27 PM PST
by
cyborg
(http://mentalmumblings.blogspot.com/)
To: iconoclast
Well... the term "Latino" is not only ambiguous but overall incorrect. People from Latin American can be of European, Amerindian, African, Asian and mixed ancestry. For instance, Argentinians tend to be mostly Spanish/Italian, while Dominicans happen to be mostly mulatto.
What about dropping the term Latino/Hispanic overall and start using, for example, "White" for Cubans of Spanish ancestry, "Black" for Blacks from Colombia, "Asian" for Peruvians of Japanese ancestry and "Mixed" for Mexicans of Spanish and Aztec heritage.
50
posted on
12/29/2004 4:20:14 PM PST
by
Kurt_D
To: Stoat
La Raza viene.............
There are affirmative action benefits to a race-related classification in the US, as long as that race isn't White. Of course, the longer this continues, the more the Whites will benefit in the end, as they will then fall in the race-related category, too...................
51
posted on
12/29/2004 6:51:52 PM PST
by
combat_boots
(Dug in and not budging an inch.)
To: TonyRo76
My ancestry's half Italian Some legitimate scientific subdivisions of races would list Italians and some Swiss into a group called "subalpine." Try that on the forms for a few puzzled looks.
To: seppel
Sounds pretty mixed to me. The majority of Mexican nationals are mestizo, a Spanish-Indian blend, as it were....
I've heard many Mexicans try to distance themselves from the blends by assering that they of are Spanish stock.
I don't think Latino is mixed as in black/white mixed marriages. Latino is a distinct and proud race. I think it's the result of Spanish and Portuguese (same racial background) interaction with South American Indians.
53
posted on
12/29/2004 8:29:15 PM PST
by
Ready4Freddy
(Carpe Sharpei !)
To: Stoat
The term "Hispanic," its politically correct successor "Latino," and "Asian" are all empirically meaningless. A Cuban immigrant doctor in Miami has nothing more in common with a Mexican farm worker living in Watsonville than he does with someone descended from the Mayflower. No one in Latin America says "Latino," and someone who comes here from Asia thinks of himself as Indian or Japanese, not "Asian." It is only after the racial determinists in the U.S. get hold of their offspring that they begin to think in this way.
The ideas of "Hispanic" and "Asian" were invented out of whole cloth by the Census Bureau in the early 1970s. They mean nothing except to people who benefit from their meaning so much.
To: Stoat
55
posted on
12/29/2004 10:55:53 PM PST
by
Melas
Comment #56 Removed by Moderator
Comment #57 Removed by Moderator
Comment #58 Removed by Moderator
To: Ready4Freddy
59
posted on
01/01/2005 11:21:17 AM PST
by
seppel
To: GOP Jedi
Where the heck did you hear that? Most Spanish Christians would never intermarry muslims. In fact, those that did were later marginalized during the "Blood Purity" frenzy of the 15th and 16th century.
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