1) "African-American" is a stupid le for black americans. Many black americans have been in the USA for GENERATIONS, 200 years+, at what point do they stop being 'african' and just 'american' ?
Do we call white americans 'british american' still ?
2) I am an American, born in California. My family is composed of Spaniards, White Americans, and Italians. My father came to America from Madrid, Spain when he was 33 years old. He came here legally, with the help of a U.S. Senator. He requested, and was granted, american citizenship for something he did for the US Government. I cannot say more on that. I still have all of their correspondence that my father left behind after he passed away. He was very proud of becoming an Spanish-American, so he saved all of the letters and I read it all myself.
He met and married my mother, an american (white) woman, and a few years later I was born in Coronado Hospital in San Diego, CA.
So, one could conclude that I am a caucasian euro-american, right?
Well, in this country, I am classified as latino, such as Mexico and Central and South America. Even though Spain is in Europe.
You see, in the USA, I am classified as "Hispanic / Latino" because Spain speaks Spanish, (actually Castellano).... and by this logic, Spain is lumped in with Central and South America, even though Spain is in Europe. I am European white caucasian, not latino, or what have you.
Spain TAUGHT the Central and South Americans how to speak Spanish through conquest. Are the British "Indian" because they conquered India and so now the Indians speak english? Are French in France actually "Canadians" because they conquered Canada and Canadians speak French?
You see, Spain, along with half of Europe, was busy conquering lands in the New World way back when. It just so happens that the Spanish were very successful at this, and conquered a lot of people, taught them to speak a civilized language (Spanish), and then converted away from the barbaric sacrificial religions and made them Christians.
How does it make any sense to classify me as latino, when Spain is in Europe? I have absolutely nothing to do with Central and South America. My ancestors have nothing to do with it.
My ancestors fought as Roman soldiers in the Roman Empire.
My country is known as the "cradle of chivalry", the birthplace of the European Knight and the chivalric code of honor.
I have as much in common with latino's than I do with asian's.
It's annoying and I think the USA needs to fix it.
Makes no sense.
No, they call them White Americans or White people. So why cant people refer to black Americans as African Americans?
As for referring to Spanish with the word Latino. Yeah, it is kinda stupid. But they just do so because it's a latin kind of language. Comes from Latin Europe, reference to the Romance speaking countries; Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Romania and Moldavia.
Why don't you have your dad's senator fix it.
same as Caucasian
I love the forms to "check your ethnicity" and they have all these boxes for every single sub-group but they forget to put one for white/caucasian. Are we supposed to check "other"?
What forms are you filling out, CC? I've never seen a form that asks you for that information that doesn't have a White/Caucasian option.
If you live in Texas and you have brown skin and aren't wearing a turban or sari, you're considered Mexican. That's one of my pet peeves.
Katy...I have hit that on filling out reps and certs on fed government contracts.
Oh, that's not personal - it's based on your business. And this is because the federal government is mandated to spend a certain amount with federally recognized minority owned and small businesses.
It's funny how things change. When my husband was born (here in San Antonio), there were only three race options on the birth certificate: White, Black and "Other" - so my Hispanic husband is forever classified as "Other"
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Thus the reason our sister company is a minority owned company (woman-owned). Automotive companies and the government yearn for that .
Oh, I know all about 8A set asides, I'm not claiming minority status...I'm saying the forms didn't have a block for white/caucasian.
How about just calling everyone Americans? Makes it a lot easier.
Then again, I prefer Texan.
"Spaniards, White Americans, and Italians"
so you're an EA, Euro-American.
"Spaniards, White Americans, and Italians"
so you're an EA, Euro-American.
Anglos came from Britain. Note the Anglican Church.
(actually Germany, but they invaded Britain and then were conquered by the Normans)
so yeah
...but i agree with you. ins utionalized racism has been an american favorite since the beginning. with it, we can never achieve a true sense of "democracy."
reverse discrimination (affirmative action, which directly violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964...championed by hypocrite Tgood) was actually challenged by Regents of the University of Califronia v. Bakke in 1978 in which Bakke wasnt admitted to med school because he was white and the school needed to meet a quota.
he won the case, but unlike Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the courts neglected to establish the case as law.
so here we are today.
thanks Thurgood Marshall, attaway to be a hypocrite
(argued for Brown v. Board, Civil Rights Act, etc, voted against Cal v. Bakke)
Last edited by The Reckoning; 12-04-2009 at 12:29 PM.
Not all white people are Caucasion. If your family is German, you're Teutonic, but you'll never see that on a federal form. My husband made the mistake of refering to a Korean girl as Oriental and she lit into him about Caucasians using the wrong words, so he politely returned the favor and informed her of the difference between Caucasian and Teutonic.
I have had an issue as I have no idea how to classify myself.
This is why I oppose all interracial relationships and the immigration of non-anglos. Everyone thinks I'm a racist, but I really just want to simplify paperwork. We could save so much time and ink if this country could just dedicate itself to the ideal of a pure white race.
The way I see it, if you personally have emigrated to this country from another, go ahead and refer to yourself as whatever/American. Fine. But if you were born in this country, you're American, in my opinion.
Example: I was talking to my friend's fiancee when he (my friend) was thinking about moving back to Oregon to be closer to his kids here and wanted her and their kid to come with him. Her reason for not wanting to move to Oregon was this:
I understand being close with her family and wanting to stay where she is for that reason. But using her ethnic background as a reason for her family being close irked me. Most of my family is white. Doesn't mean we're not close. Well, we're not, for the most part, but our race has nothing to do with it. She was born in Colorado, her parents were born in this country. Yet, she referred to her family as "Mexican". So, I asked her "In the first place, what does your ethnic heritage have to do with the closeness of your family? And second, you're not Mexican, you're American. You were born here." She got a bit irritated when I said that."Well, I'm mexican so my family is real close. I wouldn't want to be 1,500 miles from my family."
actually you would be classified as a tween, but in all honesty its up to how to define yourself. introduce yourself as however you want, american, alien, whatever. , during the census why not just check every box?
if it bothers you so much, you should make it a point to tell every african american you meet that they are stupid for not wanting to be called simply an american, but do it in person and not over the anonimity of the internet, ok?
or when you leave middle school you can take a few sociology classes and try to understand the reasoning behind other peoples' classification of themselves and maybe that would help too. at least read the autobiography of malcom x for some more insight...
Last edited by panic giraffe; 12-04-2009 at 02:15 PM.
How about just calling everyone Americans? Makes it a lot easier.
Then again, I prefer Texan.
have to say i would rep texas before this country too. just to deflate any stereotypes people have of texans. i usually say texan, or tejano, or texan of chicano decent.
insight
fixed, never said texas public schools were good.
Word. "African-American" is a dumb ing politically correct term.
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