>> Are Hispanic people White?
Well, That depends on who you’re talking to.
There’s a very confusing statistic
about the percentage of White people in America
thanks to a clause in the US Census that refers
to “White, Non-Hispanic”.
Now, if you’re White with European ancestry,
Asian with Asian ancestry, or Black with African ancestry,
this may not be something you’ve ever even thought about.
Let’s look at the 2010 Census.
If you check the box that simply says “White”,
this registers you as White Non-Hispanic,
which makes up 62 percent of the population.
But together, White Hispanics and Latinos
are 77 percent percent of the population.
Now if that seems like a quick way
to boost the number of White people living in this country,
that’s because it kind of is.
And if that also seems really confusing, that’s because it is.
So if you ever hear anyone say,
“This is America and 77 percent of it is White,”
whether they know it or not, they are in fact
including a very large number of people
who identify as Hispanic or Latino.
If you look at the 2010 Census application again,
the difficulty is that Hispanic is not considered a race.
The census asks you to choose your Hispanic, Latino,
or Spanish origin, then choose your race between the six categories offered.
Not only is this a hell of a shock
when you consider that over 55 million US citizens are Hispanic,
but I guess the “Some Other Race”
category is supposed to be a passive aggressive
catchall for their beautifully diverse culture?
And even that option doesn’t really work —
according to the US Census Bureau,
most people who mark
“Some Other Race” are often counted as White.
So if Hispanic isn’t a “race”, then what is it?
Well before we get to that, we actually have to settle another important thing:
what’s the difference between Hispanic and Latino?
So I’m gonna enlist some help from my friend Kat Lazo.
>> Thanks for having me, Franchesca!
So it may get little confusing if this is your first time hearing this,
so I’ll try to keep it as simple as I can.
Hispanic refers to people of Spanish-speaking origin.
It means you have a family history in a Spanish speaking country.
This means you have origins in these countries, including Spain.
But notice how Brazil isn’t included in the map?
Well that’s ‘cause they don’t primarily speak Spanish,
they speak Portuguese.
Which bring us to “Latino” or Latinx if you want to be gender-inclusive.
(Which you should be!) Latinx refers to having origins in Latin America,
which is basically the countries in North and South America
that are geographically south of the United States,
including most of the Caribbean.
And unlike Hispanic, Latinx excludes
much of Latin America’s colonizer, Spain.
So one more time:
Hispanic refers to language
and Latinx focuses on a geographic location.
But whichever term you use,
neither of them actually refers to a racial identity.
Just like America, Latin America
has a long and complex history
that intersects between Native People,
European colonization, African slavery,
and global immigration patterns.
Which is why there are White Latinos, Native Latinos,
Black Latinos, Asian Latinos
and every kind of mixture
you can think of. Does that help?
>> Yeah, that does help.
But I think part of the problem we’re dealing with here
is the broader confusion between ethnicity and race.
As we’ve covered, race is not biologically real.
It’s basically an ever-shifting categorization
that sometimes includes ethnicity
and sometimes doesn’t.
But when it comes to ethnicity,
there are legitimate differences between groups of people
that aren’t based on external characteristics.
And yes, ethnicity can get fuzzy,
but there are cultural practices
you can associate with it, like language,
cultural values, and traditions.
Which is why if an Argentinian couple adopts a baby from China,
that baby will most likely grow up speaking Spanish
and routing for Lionel Messi.
The simple answer: race doesn’t exist,
but ethnicity does. >> Exactly.
The reason this gets so confusing
when we’re talking about Latinx in America
is that there’s a broad ethnic Latinx identity
that has a complex history,
with lots of different racial groups living together.
Latinx isn’t a race but we’re definitely racialized
as a people, which is confusing and I’m the one who said it.
The US and Latin American media has done a great job
at constructing an image of what Latinx look like,
and that image is rarely Black
or fully indigenous, for example.
We, like the rest of the world,
have internalized these messages of White supremacy
through the media and our education,
so it’s no wonder that when Latinx here
in the US are confronted
with deciding their race based on the Census,
in a predominantly Black and White binary society,
many of us default to White.
I personally identify as a mixed race Latina
with indigenous ancestry,
but that’s just me.
There are a multitude of ways Latinx choose
to identify racially,
but it’s up to us to unlearn much of
what we’ve been taught about race and demand better
and more accurate forms of representation.
>> Damn! There has to be a better way to talk about this.
Well there is a better way!
The Census is planning to make changes in 2020
in one huge way:
they’re going to stop using the word race altogether.
Hispanic, Latino, and Spanish Origin will be a category
like everything else, with no qualifiers.
That means now people will check the “categories”
that best describe them.
This will not only give us a better idea
of how many people identify as Hispanic or Latino,
but could also give us a better idea of multiracial
and multiethnic numbers.
So to return to the original question,
are Hispanic or Latino people White?
Well, some are and some aren’t.
But to quote 2013 Census Bureau Report,
“Race and ethnicity are not quantifiable values.
Rather, identity is a complex mix of one’s family and social environment,
historical or socio-political constructs,
personal experience, context,
and many other immeasurable factors.”
Hmm! Surprisingly woke coming from the Census!
Special thanks to to Kat Lazo.
Tell us where we can find you online.
>> You can check out my work at mitú
or my personal channel, TheeKatsMeoww.
>> We’ll put links in the description box.
Thanks so much for watching,
we’ll see you next time right here on Decoded.