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| Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]From: Virtual_GOD
Date: 28 May 2001
Time: 16:06:48
Remote Name: 24.27.77.83
From: Josh Wickett
Date: 01 Mar 2001
Time: 21:36:38
Remote Name: 205.188.197.168
What is the difference between "Hispanics" and "Latinos?" Is there a difference? A friend of mine told me that when she refered to a person as "Latino", the person corrected them and said, "Im Hispanic." So far I have been unable to get a person who is "Hispanic" to tell me what the difference is between a Hispanic and a Latino, or vice versa. So here is my theory, once again, I could be mistaken, I often am, but Im still learning. It appears to me that people who classify themselves as "Hispanic" as opposed to "Latino", do so in order to acknowledge their european(white) ancestry and mitigate their non white ancestry. I suspect this is why my friend was corrected when she called a person a "Latino."I see this as more evidence for the existance of a system of white supremacy.The correction tends to not happen in reverse, I.E, "Latinos" don't get upset if you call them "Hispanic."A Geographical look gives further insite into this phenomenon.In Places in the U.S where Spanish speaking people have existed the longest, they tend to classify themselves as "Hispanic." In places where they are recent immigrants the tend to classify themselves as "Latino." Hispanics are in California, and Latinos are in Washington D.C. What explains this pattern? I see it this way, The Spanish speaking people who have been here the longest are also the "whitess"(for lack of a better word)they are also the ones that have the better understanding of the system of white supremacy and how it works. They recognize that it is possible for them to "become white." The U.S census department even has a catagory called, "non white Hispanic." This very term requires the existance of "white Hispanic", There is no corresponding term for Latinos, all latinos are non white. Although I have other data, I will rest my case here, if anyone has any comment about this issue, I would like to hear them.