Hey, David, do you consider yourself Hispanic? What about Latino? What about an immigrant?
Uh, speaking of identity politics, uh, a question about what is my identity?
This is like a really, really long thing. Um, obviously I'm an immigrant in the sense
that I was born in Argentina and I immigrated to the United States. There's this really
funny story that I'm reminded of. When I was in middle school, um, there was an assembly
where they announced we are going to be giving awards. My earpiece fell out here. Uh, we
are going to be giving awards for achievement by Latino students. And all of a sudden they
say, David Pakman, please stand up. And I was genuinely confused and I went home and
said to my parents, are we Latino in Spanish? Of course the language I grew up in still
speak at home. Are We Latino? Are We Hispanic? What's the difference? So here's my take on,
on this question, not that my identity matters, but because it is the question that was asked.
I was born in Argentina and I grew up speaking Spanish.
So I am clearly of what I call Hispanic culture or Argentinian culture. That's the culture
I was raised in. Now, oftentimes there are racial or ethnic questions tied up in these
questions. I was born to a Jewish family who moved to Argentina from eastern Europe. Much
like many Jews moved to the United States before World War II. So my ethnicity is Ashkenazi
Jewish in the United States. Aside from some white nationalists, I guess Typically Ashkenazi
Jews are considered considered white when it comes to their race or ethnicity. Had I
been born in the United States, I would clearly be considered white by the definitions of
the census. To the extent that Jews are considered white, so let's maybe dig in a little more
to the like Hispanic Latino thing. One version of Hispanic versus Latino is that Hispanic
is everyone from Spanish speaking countries in south and Latin America and that includes
Spain in Europe as well.
Uh, while Latino is all countries that are physically in south and Central America, but
not Spain, which is in Europe and it's more complex because you have places like Haiti
and Martinique and St Martin there, there's sort of not Latino there. They're not really
Hispanic by any of these definitions and so it starts to get a little bit complicated.
And then Brazil as a Portuguese speaking a South American country also, sometimes it's
complex. I actually think that that's basically a distraction for us. I'm definitely a Hispanic
immigrant to the u s from Latin America. I am definitely ethnically Jewish and I pass
as white in the United States because I'm ethnically Jewish and I learned English at
a young enough age so that I don't have an accent other than some specific words that
slip out every once in awhile. I tend not to use the term Latino because it does feel
a little bit tainted in the context of the immigration debate.
But at the same time I feel like Hispanic is very imprecise because you might be talking
about a Guatemalan immigrant or a family of multigenerational wealth in Spain and politically
it's not just class, uh, in terms of money politically, those are very, very different
things. And the idea that Hispanic encompass encompasses all of it. Okay. It just seems
extraordinarily broad and imprecise anyway. People have often seen me sort of mess with
my own identity when guests try to use my perceived identity against me in some way.
And I sometimes would have joked with my girlfriend, I'm not white, but the truth is I'm Hispanic
by culture. I'm ethnically Jewish, which is white in the United States for all intents
and purposes. Uh, so I would say yes, I am Hispanic. Uh, I think, I think I, I guess
I am Latino if I have to use that phrase, that term.
Although I try not to use it because I feel like it is stigmatized in the immigration
debate. And I am definitely an immigrant. My passport will confirm that. Uh, we've got
a great bonus show planned for you today. Please become a member at David pakman.com/membership
and also I am now streaming on twitch behind the scenes, more casual streams with a lot
of audience participation. Follow me on twitch at twitch.tv/david Pacman. And please, if
you have Amazon prime for free, you can subscribe to my channel with twitch prime. It costs
you nothing, but it's a paid subscription for us. Okay. Just Google.
How does subscribe to twitch prime and, um, it'll take you if you'd be like a minute and
that it's a really, really great thing for us. Speak to you on the bonus show in just
a couple of [inaudible], the David Pakman show@davidpakman.com.