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Nadia_M
Joined: 15 Jun 2010
Location: Daejeon, Korea
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 Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:53 am Post subject: They think I'm white because I have a US passport |
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| Ok, so I'm American, but I'm not white. Not Caucasian. I have dark hair and brown eyes, but I'm pretty pale. I was at a pool with my vice-director and her friend. I said, "Oh look! I'm paler than you." She said, "Of course you are. You are white, and I am Korean. You are white, because you're American!" I was confused for a bit. I've told her a lot about my family in Mexico, so I thought she understood that I'm Mexican, but born and raised in the US. I was going to tell her that I'm not white, but decided I didn't care. Has anyone else had something similar happen to them? Any insight into my vice-director's thoughts on the matter? |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 2:17 am Post subject: |
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| Could you clarify: in your mind, are all Latinos non-white, Mexicans in particular, or are you talking about yourself in particular? |
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Louis VI
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
Location: In my Kingdom
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 2:22 am Post subject: |
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| Remind them of The American Story: Almost everyone has ancestors from somewhere else and your parents are from a country where Spanish and native Indian heritage is mixed. And 15% of all U.S. citizens have similar heritage. You are American, your parents were Mexican. End of story. |
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Nadia_M
Joined: 15 Jun 2010
Location: Daejeon, Korea
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 2:52 am Post subject: |
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northway Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 2:17 am Post subject:
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Could you clarify: in your mind, are all Latinos non-white, Mexicans in particular, or are you talking about yourself in particular?
In my mind, and most of the people I know (although probably not absolutely everyone), Latinos are not white. Some may have white skin, blond hair, blue eyes, but they are not Caucasian. If someone asks "Are you white, asian, black? what?", the response would be "I'm Hispanic/Latino/etc." When filling out forms and it asks for race/ethnicity, we check the Hispanic box.
It doesn't bother me to have people think I'm white, but it does lead to confusion on my part. "Of course you're white. You're American." It just boggled me. |
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NYC_Gal
Joined: 08 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 3:25 am Post subject: |
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| When you have to tick off boxes for government forms, there's usually a spot for ethnicity. This optional spot has 2 slots for white. One is white of hispanic ancestry. |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 3:27 am Post subject: |
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| Ok, so I'm American, but I'm not white. Not Caucasian... I'm Mexican |
As far as I read, the overwhelming majority of Mexicans are of primarily Spanish blood. Spaniards are caucasians, are they not?. Europeans. They are 'white". From what I read the Spanish killed or displaced 95% of the native population.
of course there are varying degrees of mixing. If you want to claim your native heritage as dominant, then thats fair enough I suppose.
On the same subject, I was surprised to meet white new zealanders with scottish and english surnames claiming to be maoris, and one white guy from tennessee claiming to be mohican based on having a native maternal great-great grandmother. He used to chant in his room on saturday nights. That was at university.^^
it seems that being white is unfashionable these days, and people would prefer to identify with an ethnic minority instead. i think a lot of people who tell bar stories about being sexy maori or mohican warriors in their 20's stop the act in later years and just admit to being white. (as if that were so shameful).
Last edited by Junior on Sun Aug 22, 2010 3:31 am; edited 1 time in total |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 3:29 am Post subject: |
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| Nadia_M wrote: |
| It doesn't bother me to have people think I'm white, but it does lead to confusion on my part. "Of course you're white. You're American." It just boggled me. |
That's an extremely common East Asian logic trap that even my well-educated friends who are from all over the region typically fall into. "American", for many people, equals "white", for whatever reason. I find people who make this mistake will often get confused when called out on what the hell everyone else is. I think it's more a matter of semantics than anything else, whereby "American" has come to mean "WASP" throughout East Asia (in my experience). Why that might be I'm not really sure.
As for the first part of your post, I think you might be making a similar mistake. Caucasian is a race, Hispanic is an ethnicity. If your blood is European, you're Caucasian, simply put. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 3:36 am Post subject: |
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| northway wrote: |
| Nadia_M wrote: |
| It doesn't bother me to have people think I'm white, but it does lead to confusion on my part. "Of course you're white. You're American." It just boggled me. |
That's an extremely common East Asian logic trap that even my well-educated friends who are from all over the region typically fall into. "American", for many people, equals "white", for whatever reason. I find people who make this mistake will often get confused when called out on what the hell everyone else is. I think it's more a matter of semantics than anything else, whereby "American" has come to mean "WASP" throughout East Asia (in my experience). Why that might be I'm not really sure.
As for the first part of your post, I think you might be making a similar mistake. Caucasian is a race, Hispanic is an ethnicity. If your blood is European, you're Caucasian, simply put. |
Probably thanks to the Republican Party which basically treats 'American' and 'White' as synonyms. Of course they are progressive enough to include The Irish and the Italians in that mix.
There is a BIG chunk of the American population out there that has a certain picture of 'American' in its head that is all white, with maybe a token black guy in there.
Look at the media, East Asians are just picking up on what they see in the media and what they get from people that come here. |
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Nadia_M
Joined: 15 Jun 2010
Location: Daejeon, Korea
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 3:52 am Post subject: |
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| So because Mexico was colonized by white people hundreds and hundreds of years ago, that means I'm white too? Interesting. Maybe I should try to be more specific. I'm not Anglo-Saxon, or whatever the typical white American is. |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 4:05 am Post subject: |
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| Nadia_M wrote: |
| So because Mexico was colonized by white people hundreds and hundreds of years ago, that means I'm white too? Interesting. Maybe I should try to be more specific. I'm not Anglo-Saxon, or whatever the typical white American is. |
I've always been amazed at how americans identify themselves with their historic ethnic ancestry above all else. E.g. you get these americans of partly irish ancestry who casually call themselves irish. They've never even been to ireland, and no native irish person would regard them as being a fellow countryman.
The UK is similarly an ethnic melting pot. You don't, however, meet people of italian ancestry in England who say that they are Italian. They just say they're british, and nobody would think of them as anything else..Even immigrants who have only been there a few years are proud and keen to be known solely as british.
I think the US is more racially segregated, and people cling to old racial identities. The UK is a more successful example of multiculturalism. |
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Nadia_M
Joined: 15 Jun 2010
Location: Daejeon, Korea
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 4:13 am Post subject: |
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| I made this post so I could gain some insight into why some Koreans think people are white simply based on the country they are a citizen of. Can we stick to that? |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 4:43 am Post subject: |
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| Nadia_M wrote: |
| I made this post so I could gain some insight into why some Koreans think people are white simply based on the country they are a citizen of. Can we stick to that? |
Actually I think they probably think you're white because you look Caucasian to them. |
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Leslie Cheswyck
Joined: 31 May 2003
Location: University of Western Chile
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 4:57 am Post subject: |
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| Nadia_M wrote: |
| I made this post so I could gain some insight into why some Koreans think people are white simply based on the country they are a citizen of. Can we stick to that? |
Sure we can.
But this first.
According to wiki, 17% of Mexicans are white.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Mexican
Your Korean friend's logic is no worse than yours if you think Latinos cannot be white. |
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ontheway
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Location: Somewhere under the rainbow...
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 5:44 am Post subject: |
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| Leslie Cheswyck wrote: |
| Nadia_M wrote: |
| I made this post so I could gain some insight into why some Koreans think people are white simply based on the country they are a citizen of. Can we stick to that? |
Sure we can.
But this first.
According to wiki, 17% of Mexicans are white.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Mexican
Your Korean friend's logic is no worse than yours if you think Latinos cannot be white. |
+1 |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 5:45 am Post subject: |
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Obviously its just a matter of degree of skin tone.
If you look white..then obviously, you are.
if you have predominantly amerindian blood and only a fraction of spanish blood..then you may as well identify with that heritage.
I think nadia's point is cultural. A white latino is different to an american white. Culturally yes. Genetically? not really. |
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