General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I am Latina but pass as White [View all]BumRushDaShow
(128,958 posts)and who are exposed to the multiple Spanish-speaking ethnic groups, we learned this at a very early age - you can have not only "black" Hispanics or "white Hispanics", but "asian Hispanics" (e.g., Filipinos) as well. Here in Philly, the largest Spanish-speaking ethnic group is Puerto Rican and probably 2nd is Cuban and at one time, we had many Filipinos here as well (I grew up with some who lived up the street and we all played together) - although there is a growing Dominican population and a large Mexican population just outside of the city in Delaware County (originally brought in for the mushroom industry). Nowadays, there is a large migration from Central America (Guatemalan and El Salvadorian thanks to the destabilization of their countries).
Knowing this has always had us scratching our heads when the designation of "Hispanic" was suddenly thrown into the "race" mix, with attempts to insist that an apples to apples comparison could be made between "black" and "Hispanic" or "white" and "Hispanic" when no such comparison could be made being that it was apples to pears. And to counter the head-scratches, the term "brown" was adopted (although "brown" was never defined as a "race" by "the definers" outside of being a color variation of "black" . And this underscores the ridiculousness of "the system", notably because all of the Spanish-speaking ethnic groups and nationalities are aware of the differences between themselves... And although a number might also like to harness the "power" of being a part of a single large "language group" with similar interests, many also experience the racist after-effects of their physical appearance if it doesn't fit the U.S.-defined "normative".