Social Question
If George Zimmerman is a "White Hispanic", what are the color descriptions for the other Hispanics?
Until this recent trial, I never saw a color modifier applied to the ethnic group called Hispanic. Leave it to the American press to give me one more thing to be confused about.
Not that isn’t already confusing. Hispanic comes from Hispania which is a word that used to mean the entire Iberian peninsula, which is where Spain is in case you skipped geography.
These days, though, I think the word gets tossed around less about Spain, and more about indigenous Mexican people like the Nahuatl, and many others.
Either way, if he is Hispanic (Spanish), he is European and Caucasian. So the modifier is redundant.
But if he has biological roots in the indigenous people from Central and South Americans (his skin is not pink like mine, plus his mom is from Peru), then he is no more white than Native Americans.
So what is the defining characteristic of this whole new ethnic group, the “White Hispanics”? Will there be a new box to check on college applications and government jobs? Are “White Hispanics” evil racists, while the “Other Hispanics” are sympathetic victims.
Will we need boxes that say “Brown Hispanics”, or “Red Hispanics”? When the Chinese set up shop in Central America, will we have to add “Yellow Hispanics”?