Why do Americans think Spanish people (aka Spaniards aka Europeans) are non-white? (carry, country)

[stlouisan]

Probably because the closest spanish-speaking people to us are from Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America. Not to mention, the spanish-speaking people in our country are generally from those areas, not from Spain itself.

[kleinberglowenstein]

Part of the reason the Spanish Empire split into so many different pieces was racial differences. For example, most Hispanic countries besides Spain are majority mestizo: of Spanish and aboriginal heritage. The old Spanish colonies in the Caribbean (Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico) are majority white origin, unlike British Caribbean colonies and Haiti which are overwhelmingly black. Indians are extinct in the Caribbean. The Incas are still very much alive in Peru, and ironically Peru has a government more like Spain's than any other ex-Spanish colony. Argentina and parts of Chile (along with Brazil) have a huge white population. There are many many Italian families in Argentina and a lot of these people look American.

[gwillyfromphilly]

Originally Posted by kleinberglowenstein

Part of the reason the Spanish Empire split into so many different pieces was racial differences. For example, most Hispanic countries besides Spain are majority mestizo: of Spanish and aboriginal heritage. The old Spanish colonies in the Caribbean (Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico) are majority white origin, unlike British Caribbean colonies and Haiti which are overwhelmingly black.

Actually Cuba and the Dominican Republic had(and still does) a very large Afro-Latino population. Haiti and the Dominican Republic's history are intertwined.

[PosterExtraordinaire]

Hahaha, never heard an American say that.... What's awesome about you guys is you can check 'Hispanic' on all applications and get the benefits intended for Mexicans and other mestizo Latins.

I'm Serbian by ancestry btw, and while Serbians come in all shapes and colors I happen to be on the darker side of our distribution. When people guess I'm either Brazilian, Turkish, Iranian, Arab or something else exotic (lol I got Filipino once). So it affords me a nice way to walk through life, technically 'white' but no one will believe me I still remember this one girlfriend fussing about showing me off to her dad because he is traditional and doesn't like the idea of her dating 'nonWhites'. It was hilarious, I played up everything to make myself seem like some uncivilized, clueless foreigner. He ended up liking me though

Anyways, who cares whom thinks you're white or not?

[dculross]

Originally Posted by LS Jaun

Italian, Spanish and Portugese are all non-White

exactly. end of discussion. moderators, please close this thread.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by LS Jaun

Italian, Spanish and Portugese are all non-White

Yeah, none of these people are white...

Originally Posted by dculross

exactly. end of discussion. moderators, please close this thread.

That's not the way it works...

[gwillyfromphilly]

Originally Posted by Deezus

Yeah, none of these people are white...









That's not the way it works...

I wonder if Spaniards go through some type of identity crisis when they come to the U.S. in which they are longer white but lump into the Hispanic racial category and are considered not white by many ignorant Americans?

[johngxx]

Originally Posted by gwillyfromphilly

I wonder if Spaniards go through some type of identity crisis when they come to the U.S. in which they are longer white but lump into the Hispanic racial category and are considered not white by many ignorant Americans?

More than that what I consider dramatic is the existence of Americans that their only knowledge of the rest of the world is what the have learned through Hollywood movies so they consider Antonio Banderas non-white but they see Al-Pacino, Robert De Niro or Mr. Bean as a Caucasian whites?. Spanish people are as white (or non-white) and come from all colours (dark hair, brunette, blonde) exactly as French, Italians, British, Irish or Italians, and I choose those nationalities since there are genetic studies (Oxford University the most recent0 that tell us that you can not separate those people because of their genetic content.

Of course in large cities everything is more mixed and you may have difficulties because of these Hollywood stupid bias who is a Spaniard or who is a mixed Latin-American (we have a large population of emmigrants from those countries, as it happens in the States), as well as people from North Africa, mostly from Morrocco.

Regarding the "arab" influence, I guess nobody has heard about that Christians from the North literally expelled the Moors from the South coastal cities and at that time mixed blood between white Christians from the North and Moors from the South was a sin, persecuted by the Inquisition. Those people that refer people from the South as a dark-skinned, have their point since in the South (one region of the 17 that conform the modern Kingodm of Spain), about 3-4% of the population is Gippsy or has some gipsy blood, but in the whole county this might represents less than 1% there feature a country (99% of the population) as some mixed people it would be like represent the Americans as native-Americans since many white Anglo-Americans have Indian blood.

To see how the real Spaniards look like you should leave big cities, just a few miles away and inmerse on those areas where we have less inmmigration, when you do that, you will see how you can never distinguish an Spanish from any other white American kid. Here a picture of a judo team from a small town of Spain, the regular average kid from Spain. If you don't see the difference between those kids and a person Arab or mixed indian Latin American, you have a really big problem that is called ignorance.




Judo Club Usurbil: Campeonato de Euskadi Junior y Sector Norte Senior 2012

[kleinberglowenstein]

Just my opinion, but I just don't like the way blonde hair looks on dark-skinned whites. Until I read this thread I assumed such people I had seen used blonde dye.

[robertpolyglot]

A white or Caucasian person is one who has his or her origins in Europe, North Africa or the Middle East.

I don't know how that impacts "minority status" on an application. Does being born in Peru or Uruguay despite obvious ties to Spain make you a "minority?" Can a Spaniard from Spain claim to be Hispanic non-white and get "minority status?" I think not. This is a slippery area, because I'm sure there are some Latin Americans who, for social reasons, would scoff at the "minority" issue, but "check the box" if it's advantageous. LOL.