Oh please, it has nothing to do with being ignorant.
The real question is why this shit even belongs in the census or why we are so eager to classify dozens of ethnicities and cultures, stretching from Mexico to Argentina, under one broad and obsolete term.
Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin?
can bet your life if you're Italian you're a Latin Europe, despite all their racism and misuse of the term in the U.S., which confuses origin ethnicity, with street slang.
There are whites in Brazil (or as some prefer to "Aryans"), of course, especially in communities and towns in the far south of the country founded by immigrant Italians, Germans, Swiss, Poles, etc ...
But the vast majority of those who call themselves "white" around the area have any descendants black, indigenous, in the family.
Does everyone know all your ancestors, there is actually a pure breed in the world?
Some of them have mixed with the indigenous, of course, but just like making broad generalizations that you accused me of doing, you're doing the exact same thing saying that all whites have non-white blood. Unfounded.
It has everything to do with being ignorant. There is only one (correct) answer to this question, and the answer is the Brazilians who have origins in the Latin world (Italy, Portugal, Spain, etc.) ARE Latin! "Brazilian", like "Canadian", is just a nationality. It says nothing about the person's ethnicity! For anyone to suggest that they'd be pissed if they were Italian, and were called "Latino" or "Latin", clearly demonstrates a failing of the educational system here. The only reason an Italian would have a problem being referred to as a "Latino" would be if he has some xenophobic concept of Hispanics, and incorrectly associates that term with that group. The Romans were Latins. The Romans brought civilization to Italy (and a great many other parts of what is now Europe - it wasn't jack crap back then). My great grandfather was Italian. My great grandfather was Latin/Latino. End of story.
Latin has NOTHING to do with being Hispanic. But ignorance (not stupidity, not idiocy) tells some people that it does. There is no sin in being ignorant. All of us, myself included, are ignorant of a great many things. It is the failure in attempting to overcome that condition that is a sin.
Italians being Latin wasn't the question or the argument. It was that the Census Bureau doesn't consider Brazilians to be Latinos. I guarantee you that most Americans would readily consider Brazilians Latinos (thought most Americans probably have no idea that they speak Portuguese) and yes, through ignorance, somehow exempt Italians (and Romanians).
But some bizarre perversion of political correctness, not ignorance, was the reason that the Census Bureau neglected to include Portuguese-speaking Brazilians from the category. I can only imagine the overreaching scrutiny the Census forms were put through before receiving the thumbs up.
The Census Bureau actually added the term "negro" to the form (I think just this year). Talk about fucked up. It was because southern blacks still prefer the term over other terms (black, African American). :dunno:
Oh please, it has nothing to do with being ignorant. It's about the overly sensitive politic correctness that has eroded language in our society. You can't say negroid, mongoloid, mestizo, mulatto or any other suitable words that small groups of people found "offensive" because of their ignorance.
Why the Census doesn't list Brazilians as "Latino" is most likely because they are so overly paranoid about offending some group that they acted like idiots and butchered the language further.
Remember, we live in a society where Regis Philbin had to apologize for this:
The real question is why this shit even belongs in the census or why we are so eager to classify dozens of ethnicities and cultures, stretching from Mexico to Argentina, under one broad and obsolete term.
Italians being Latin wasn't the question or the argument. It was that the Census Bureau doesn't consider Brazilians to be Latinos.
I guarantee you that most Americans would readily consider Brazilians Latinos (thought most Americans probably have no idea that they speak Portuguese) and yes, through ignorance, somehow exempt Italians (and Romanians).
But some bizarre perversion of political correctness, not ignorance, was the reason that the Census Bureau neglected to include Portuguese-speaking Brazilians from the category. I can only imagine the overreaching scrutiny the Census forms were put through before receiving the thumbs up.
I'm still not sure what exactly is wrong with "negro" as a racial classification but whatever. It just shows you what a clusterfuck this shit has become.
This is a great country. But we have had some really twisted morons writing things down on pieces of paper over the centuries. :rofl:
You can claim that it's "political correctness" that makes a man call a mule a horse. I just cut to the chase and call it ignorance... whether in reference to Portuguese speaking Brazilians, Italians or whomever. Here's another one from back in the day... what percentage of Latino blood would make you Latin/Latino? And would it be different in Lousiana than in New York state? What was funny about the race classifications that the U.S. and the state governments developed was that a person could be 7/8 Latino and only 1/8 Black... and yet he'd be classified as Black.
This is a great country. But we have had some really twisted morons writing things down on pieces of paper over the centuries. :rofl:
I'm still not sure what exactly is wrong with "negro" as a racial classification but whatever.
Really? Then it's probably because you aren't one.
What's wrong with it is that it is a term invented by "white" people and not what "black" people call(ed) themselves. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want the people that enslaved my people to tell me who I was.
There's nothing offensive about the word itself, other than it is a fairly useless way of categorizing people. What's the point in classifying people by a vague physical description that doesn't take into account genetics and ancestry, geographic location, culture and language?
Much like Europeans who weren't united as the "white race" until a few hundred years ago, Africans never thought of themselves as one group of people. Someone who lived 20 miles away could be thought of as just as different as someone who lived 2,000.
The truth is, negro is no more offensive than black.
I suppose we should eliminate words like, "Jews" and "Mexicans" 'cause, hooboy, I've heard some vile adjectives attached to those nouns.
Dumb.
I'm still not sure what exactly is wrong with "negro" as a racial classification but whatever. It just shows you what a clusterfuck this shit has become.
Brazil is not part of Western civilization? We have evangelicals, Catholics, politicians liars, mercenary health system, etc ...
Not to mention that this country fought in World War II on the Allied side, like the Canadians and Australians.