[Stoat]

Ken Masugi is the Director of the Center for Local Government. Its purpose is to apply the principles of the American Founding to the theory and practice of local government, the cradle of American self-government. Dr. Masugi has extensive experience in government and academia. Following his initial appointment at the Claremont Institute (1982-86), he was a special assistant to then-Chairman Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. After his years in Washington, he held visiting university appointments including Olin Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Dr. Masugi is co-author with Brian Janiskee of Democracy in California: Politics and Government in the Golden State (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002). He is co-editor of six books on political thought, including The Supreme Court and American Constitutionalism with Branford P. Wilson, (Ashbrook Series, 1997); The Ambiguous Legacy of the Enlightenment with William Rusher, (University Press, 1995); The American Founding with J. Jackson Barlow and Leonard W. Levy, (Greenwood Press, 1988). He is the editor of Interpreting Tocqueville's Democracy in America, (Rowman & Littlefield, 1991).

He is author of numerous essays and reviews of works on political theory, constitutional law, public policy, and films. Dr. Masugi has also published in the popular press, including the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, Washington Post, Washington Times, National Review, and the Weekly Standard.

[Stoat]

Race ping

[iconoclast]

Would one be un-PC but correct to translate Latino to Mixed?

[Clemenza]

The majority of Latinos in this country would be considered mixed, as most Mexican American are mestizo (Amerindian and European), while most Puerto Ricans on the mainland and Dominicans are mulatto. Of course, that doesn't stop certain people from calling all of the above "Spanish."

[GOP Jedi]

My understanding is that the Hispanic "race" arose out of intermarriage between the Celts who originally dwelt in Spain and various occupiers, most notably the Muslims (finally driven out in 1492). I crave correction if this is not so, but if it is, Hispanics are not a race, but a mingling of races.

[Welsh Rabbit]

I wonder what race Ian Haney Lopez considers himself? He looks like a white boy with a Spanish surname to me.
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/faculty/profiles/facultyProfile.php?facID=301

[InTheRight]

"Latino" means anyone whose ancestors were Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, or Romanian. I'm sure there are many Americans who would be surprised to find out they're both Anglo and Latino if they checked out their geneology.

[mandingo republican]

Where is the picture of the 1950s white guy that say not this SH-T Again?


Hispanics and Latinos:
A Culture - Not a Race!

Now, repeat after me: "Hispanic is not a race." Disregard nearly every U.S. Government form which asks for race and shake your head in dismay at the cultural ignorance of nearly every writer in practically every newspaper in the United States, yes! the United States, because the term "Hispanic" or the equally misused "Latino" is nowhere used in so many wrong applications as it is in our politically correct, but sometimes culturally incorrect nation.

Go ahead, pick any random issue of the Washington Post, or the latest book of essays by the great Camille Paglia or the wording in some of our 50 states' Equal Rights laws. You will also find countless medical surveys or economic studies where "races" are broken into Black, White, Asian and Hispanic; Congressional Black Caucus members complain that U.S. Government policy is different for Cubans because they are "light-skinned Hispanics." The samples go on and on.

For the last time: Hispanicism is NOT a race! Hispanicism is the cultural legacy which sometimes unites nearly every country in the New World south of California into a diverse group of peoples and races joined by a common language. Oh, by the way, I suppose one must throw in Spaniards, although I was shocked and amazed to listen to a San Francisco Mexican-American politician declare a few years ago that " Spaniards were not Hispanic because they were Europeans and white."

There are white Hispanics (Cuban-American actress Cameron Diaz and Spanish actor Martin Sheen a.k.a. Guillermo Estevez and his warren of sons come to mind), Black Hispanics (the late great Puerto Rican baseball player (and one of my childhood heroes) Roberto Clemente), Asian Hispanics (Peru's former President, Señor Alberto Fujimori), Indian Hispanics (sorry, but the term Native American is not widely used in Latin America and somehow the term "Native American Hispanics" just seems odd) and the 46,656 possible permutations found in colonial Spain's attempts to codify the races into 16 possible marriage mixtures. Since many Hispanics or Latinos are white (especially in Cuba, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and of course Spain) and some are black (also Cuba, Dominican Republic, Panama, etc.) and a small number Asian (Central and South America) and a large number are mestizo (most of Central America and Mexico) it is complete nonsense to categorize them as one race.

Given the huge cultural diversity among the people we call Hispanic in this country, it must be understood that the term comprises many ethnic groups and it is an arrogant and ignorant error to classify them, in race-obsessed America, as a "new" race. The key here is to recognize that there is ethnic and cultural diversity not only in our nation as a whole, but also within Latin American Hispanics as well. While Cubans may be culturally and historically closer to Spain and the United States, Mexicans are fiercely proud of their Indian heritage and Argentines share strong cultural and blood ties not only to Spain but also to Italy and Germany.

It is then no wonder then that we Hispanics shake our heads in disbelief when we read that Coppola initially wanted to film "Evita" in Mexico City. For anyone who has taken a stroll in the wide, elegant avenues of sophisticated Buenos Aires or has shopped in the wonderfully colorful markets of overcrowded Mexico City , the differences are as clear as black and white (yes, yes, pun intended).

[colorcountry]

My in-laws from New Mexico call themselves Spanish. That designation is as accurate as anything else.

Their ancestors occupied what was was part of Spain until it became part of the United States back in the 1800's. I doubt however that they consider themselves a separate race.

[hispanarepublicana]

Caramba! It's all I can do to stay out front in the rat race!!!

[TXnMA]

"The Birth of a 'Latino Race'"

"La Raza"?

[PFC]

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.

[combat_boots]

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...................

[untenured]

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.