"Steve" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Sep 16, 1:51 pm, "David Eduardo" wrote:

What is inconsistent? The term "Hispanic" used to mean someone from what
was
the Roman province of Hispania. Since that was a little used term, when
the
Census was ordered to break out what we now know as Hispanics before the
1980 Census, there was no term that fit the mandate. Latino includes
Brazilians, Portuguese, French, Italians, etc. So the OMB and Census came
up
with a word that covered persons of the "Hispanic culture" which really is
just anyone who speaks as their principal language or comes from a
heritage
where it was the principal language of Spanish. Of course, even this is a
defective term in the sense that many Hispanics' heritage tongue is
Náhuatl,
Quechua, Aymará, etc.

But, it had been impossible to separately enumerate this group before
(most
were under "white" racially) the term worked.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

You are inconsistent. First, when some posters object that there's a
distinction to be drawn between race and nationality, you respond that
there is no distinction because two people can be categorized as
belonging to the same race anytime they share some characteristic
(e.g., nationality) in common. However, when someone later describes
Hispanic people as belonging to the same race, it turns out that being
Hispanic is not, as a characteristic, sufficient for two people's
belonging to the same race.

Thsat is because "Hispanic" has no common characteristics save language use
or heritage, and even there inconsistencies are found. Hispanic is not a
nationality, an ethnicity nor is it, under any standard definition, a race.
What common characteristic does an English speaking Tejano have with someone
from Buenos Aires... or either of them with a Quechua-speaking indigenous
person from Otavalo, Ecuador?

The usage by some US Hispanics of "raza" means (from the additonal Spanish
definitions... it is, after all. a Spanish word) "brotherhood " or "people."
There is a commonality there of language, origin, ethnicity and even (mixed)
racial characteristics. But to say all Hispanics are a race is patently
absurd.

So, it appears you can't make up your
mind about whether to employ a very 'thin' notion of race or a
substantially thicker one. When pressed on this apparent
inconsistency, you seek shelter behind your dictionary and the Census
Bureau. Pathetic.

In the US, the Census defined the term "Hispanic" by taking a little-used
term and adding a meaning. For all practical purposes, it is a neologism,
like the contemporary "downsize" term applied to layoffs or the word "crib"
used to indicate abode. Language is dynamic, of course, and such changes are
why dictionaries have new editions constantly.