Hispanics in the United States are a group that consists of mainly from Latin America, regardless of their race. The United States has annexed many realms that used to belong to the Portuguese and Spanish, usually called Latins. In light of such historical occurrences, being Hispanic cannot be construed as a matter of race since most American Hispanics are multiracial. Still, United States federal policy notes that Latinos can be of any race regardless of their ethnic origins. In fact, the increase in the population of Latin Americans in the United States has stabilized these groupings despite many conscious nationalistic debates that advocate them to be dropped. This essay explores many questions surrounding the ethnicity of American Mexicans and Latin Americans and illustrates several ideas and concepts that surround them.
Essentially, a Latino can be of any race so long as they are from realms that used to be occupied by the Spanish or Portuguese. Noe-Bustamante et al., 2021 argue that these classifications originated due to these communities’ many correlations with Spain. Still, many questionable patterns are behind classifying individuals as Hispanics or Latinos. Firstly, the classification illustrates the embedment of racism in many segments of society. Instead of accepting individuals with their nationality, they are classified based on their cultural heritage, descent, or ethnicity (Noe-Bustamante et al., 2021). Therefore, these classifications of certain races or individuals as Hispanics reveal specific inconvenient facts that Americans use to prejudice or scapegoat their fellow citizens based on their historical underpinning. Gonzalez-Barrera and Lopez, 2020 also observe that identifying people based on racial identity can lead to conflict.
The existence of conflict explains why white people are unlikely to see black Hispanics as Americans despite being born in the United States (Gonzalez-Barrera & Lopez, 2020). Race and gender conversations are usually thrown into the mix to inhibit some groups from benefiting from socialization and social integration. Meraj, 2020 notes that many elderly Hispanics are unaware that being referred to as Latinx is gender friendly. Hence, social inequality can also be observed in individuals who are consistently grouped in this manner (Meraj, 2020). For instance, Americans of British descent are seldom called Anglo-Americans or classified as British-Americans, but black Americans of Caribbean descent are likely to be classified as Black Hispanics. Another interesting idea from these groups is socialization and social integration. In this regard, individual attributes of these communities are usually constrained because they have been marked as people of dubious origins.
In summary, ethnic identities are not supposed to be used to classify citizens of the same country. People of the same nationality should not be grouped as Latinos or Hispanics. Classifying people based on their historical, cultural, or linguistic origin can stabilize multiple forms of inequality, for example, racism and racial bias. Behind these racial groupings, there is a lack of sociological imagination because if Latinos can be of any race, it means Americans can also be of any race. Evident concepts in racial groupings are racial inequality, conflict, and economic biases in specific communities. Even though ethnicity could have internal and external perspectives, addressing people based on nationality can enhance positive norms and behaviors since skin color can change between family members. However, skin color cannot change one’s nationality.
References
Gonzalez-Barrera, A., & Lopez, M. H. (2020, August 18). Is Being Hispanic a Matter of Race, Ethnicity or Both? Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2015/06/15/is-being-hispanic-a-matter-of-race-ethnicity-or-both/.
Meraj, S. M. (2020, August 11). ‘Hispanic,’ ‘Latino,’ or ‘Latinx’? Survey says ... NPR.org. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/08/11/901398248/hispanic-latino-or-latinx-survey-says.
Noe-Bustamante, L., Mora, L., & Lopez, M. H. (2021, Marc
h 15). About One-in-Four U.S. Hispanics Have Heard of Latinx, But Just 3% Use it. Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project. https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/11/about-one-in-four-u-s-hispanics-have-heard-of-latinx-but-just-3-use-it/.
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