as a latino, i never felt such racism in my entire life until tonight in PGH

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by jimmyev

Anyhow, how did this woman figure out that you were Hispanic? Pittsburgh is the one place where almost no one would ever assume someone to be Hispanic. Most Italians look Hispanic, a fact my friends learned when I used to live in Texas. And Pittsburgh's got a lot of Italians.

Maybe most Italians in Pittsburgh look Hispanic, but a disproportionate number of Pittsburgh Italians are from Abruzzi, which was ruled by Spain for hundreds of years.


A don't think that a blanket statement about the appearance of Italians is necessarily true.

[Q-tip motha]

Originally Posted by BarqCider

i apologize if i started heated argument here. i just wanted to vent what I've seen since i moved here, visited here looking for a place to live and when i came up to visit the campus. i have met some great folks and have some friends who like me for me. i want to save my judgement when im done with college.

as far as the poster who said i need to get myself"educated", i'll say this: i lived in an area where a lot of folks hold a post secondary degree. racism doesn't mean it stops,ends by achieving a B.S,MD,PHD,etc. in fact, folks there judged you more for what you drive, clothes you wear and income. looks, race, doesn't carry as much. I took offense because my mom came to this country forty years ago with a degree, but the us back then didn't acknowledge her degree and she worked her tail off to raise her kids here in the US. i'll be damned if some small talk between a table about my ethnicity and how i'm inferior go. sorry, but i have self respect and in reality, it is more of an insult to my mother than it is to me.

i'm going to let it slide and i'm the type to forgive and move on. i'll keep tabs on how my experience in pittsburgh goes. worst is, by the time i'm done with college i move elsewhere for employment where i don't need to be judged on my looks,race but instead on my character and work ability.

Don't apologize. Debate is a good thing. Exposes us all to new ideas, challenges the ideas that we hold yet may not sufficiently be self critiquing, and causes people to articulate why they believe what they do.

[Oleg Bach]

Originally Posted by eschaton

The OP is Bolivian, so I'd presume he leans heavily towards the "indigenous" side of Hispanic looks.

Finally someone is understanding the genetics of it all - "Indigenous" - I never understood what the term Hispanic meant- in fact I only heard of it a few years ago...I only knew three types who lived in Mexico for instance...Those that are directly of Spanish heritage...and those who were a mix between Spanish and indigenous- and those who were purely indigenous (Indians) - In Canada when the French fur traders had children with indigenous woman...They were called Metis - So is a Hispanic similar to a Meti...are they people who are half Spanish and half indigenous?

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Oleg Bach

Finally someone is understanding the genetics of it all - "Indigenous" - I never understood what the term Hispanic meant- in fact I only heard of it a few years ago...I only knew three types who lived in Mexico for instance...Those that are directly of Spanish heritage...and those who were a mix between Spanish and indigenous- and those who were purely indigenous (Indians) - In Canada when the French fur traders had children with indigenous woman...They were called Metis - So is a Hispanic similar to a Meti...are they people who are half Spanish and half indigenous?

People from Spanish-speaking countries are generally a mixture of White, Black, and Native American, but the proportions vary dramatically from country to country. For example, modern studies of genetic admixture show the average Mexican is 50% Native American, 45% white, and 5% black. In contrast, the average Puerto Rican is about 67% white, 20% black, and 13% Native American. Even within countries there can be huge variations, with some people being almost purely one of the three races. Really, it just comes down to speaking Spanish as a first language.

[BarqCider]

you'll find a lot of argentinians with italians last name, since it was italians who went to argentina, especially during mussolini timeframe.

you'd be surprised how many german,french, even oriental( i dont know if korean or what, i know some koreas fled to bolivia during the 60-90s) folks live in bolivia. it's sad how americans think of latinos/hispanics in the sense we all look indigenous when the fact is..there are white bolivians,brazilians,etc with blonde hair, blue eyes.

[Yac]

Since apparently constructive discussion of race cannot be achieved here, I'm closing this thread before I'm forced to hand out more infractions/bans.
I hope one day some of you will be mature enough to be able to actually discuss important and emotional issues like this one without resorting to trolling, personal attacks, logical fallacies and generalizations.
Closed.
Yac.