Re: Are we all White?



In article <1154270805.035441.168360@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"The Mad Afro" <madafro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Woof wrote:
Eric P. wrote:


We're not supposed to say "Oriental" anymore. The term
is "Asian" now.

My Oriental son doesn't mind this word, perhaps since he's from the Orient.
He's been called much worse. It has no negative connotation applied to
those from Oriental countries.

Misuse and abuse of terms like this leads to clumsy and redundant
qualifying statements in an effort to not offend or to simply be clear.
"He's a Mexican, you know, from Mexico?" The implication is that to say
only "He's a Mexican" is assumed to be a way of saying (sometimes
derisively) "he's Hispanic," or "he's Latino."

Latino appears to be a common word used for Hispanics, but applies to
many countries besides Mexico. Used to be, we referred to Mexican-
Americans as Chicanos, but that word appears to have fallen out of
common use. I just say Hispanic to refer to anyone from a culture
that includes Spanish influence at some point in history.

"He's an Indian, from India" is another example in the U.S.

--
Jay Knioum
The Mad Afro

That one is useful for those people who mistakenly refer to Native
Americans as Indians (and I know that some Native Americans have
come to refer to themselves that way, perhaps because so many
others were calling them that for so long).

- E
.



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