I see this thread is really old, so I don’t know if I’ll get a reply, but I had to ask.
Being half Hispanic myself, and growing up in a primarily Hispanic neighborhood, but also having lived in primarily white areas as well, and having friends and acquaintances of many ethnicities, I have never in my life heard this terminology.
Although Hispanic people come in all shades and colors of the rainbow from very light to very dark and everything in-between, I can assure you that we do not define ourselves as “white Hispanic” and “non-white Hispanic”. We are just Hispanic (preferred term nowadays being “Latino” unless you are descended solely from Spaniards, although I believe the word “Hispanic” is now coming back into fashion).
Latino people generally do not define themselves as black or white. African Americans are called black, and Caucasian people are white. Latinos are Latinos. It doesn’t matter if you’re light or dark.
I don’t think you would call two Filipino people who had differing skin colors “white Asian” and “non-white Asian”. (And for those of you who don’t know, people from the Philippines are half Chinese and half Spanish, so they can have features from either or both. )
The only thing I can think you meant was people whose ancestors were from Spain, as they are the only Hispanics that would be considered “white”.
These people then would simply be “Spanish”.
In general, the Spanish are not considered to be “Latinos”. They don’t even settle in the same neighborhoods (at least in the northeast). Latino neighborhoods are usually occupied by people of Carribbean and South and Central American (and I guess in states where most of the Latino population is Mexican, they would be of Mexican descent. That’s how it is in SC but people here think everyone who isn’t white is “mexican”, lol, so I’m not quite sure if I can go by that “census”.). The Spanish settle in the same communities as the Portuguese or sometimes Italians. The Old Guard Europeans look down on Latinos. I guess they think them “impure” or something, because they’re not of pure Spanish lineage. (The Spanish don’t even speak the same language we do. Every time a person from Spain tries to talk to me I say: “I’m sorry, but I don’t speak Portuguese”, only for them to tell me they aren’t speaking Portuguese, but Spanish, lol. It sounds exactly the same to my ears. It’s not any kind of Spanish I’ve ever spoken.)
While we of course all have ancestors from Spain, Latinos are also generally mixed with Indian (In the Columbus sense of the word) and sometimes also African (depending on country of origin), or some combination thereof. Some people may have more of one than the other. Which is why you can find three people from the same country with completely different coloring. Someone with Cuban or Puerto Rican ancestry who has a Caucasian complexion or who has an African complexion (and we do run the gamut) will both identify themselves as “Cuban” (or Puerto Rican) and NOT as “black Cuban” and “white Cuban”. Or “black” (because a black person would mean African American) or “white” (because white would mean a Caucasian person) and they consider themselves neither. The identity is “Latino”.
I am going to be generous and assume you didn’t mean to be intentionally racist, as you said you grew up and lived in primarily white communities most of your life, so maybe you just didn’t know any better. Some people really don’t. A friend and I were talking to a group of Hispanic men once here in SC, and she referred to one of them as Mexican and his friend said: “He’s not Mexican. He’s Venezuelan.” And she replied: “What’s the difference?” She was dead serious. Lol. She really…didn’t know…
The only reason she probably never said I was Mexican is because I don’t think she knows my ancestry. If she did, she’d probably wonder what part of Mexico Puerto Rico is in and how I can be so fair-skinned if I’m Mexican. :smack:
I actually ran into someone here who mentioned a guy who was “Mexican or something” was running for president that year. I think he meant Obama! Lol.
So, I’m not offended by anything you’ve said, because as you can see, I’ve encountered worse, and you certainly are not in these people’s category, thank goodness! I just wanted to clarify A) What you meant by “white Hispanic” and B) Let you know that that wouldn’t be an acceptable (or accurate) way to define people of Latin descent, so you don’t wind up saying something in the wrong place at the wrong time and get yourself into trouble .