Because I was responding to Der Trihs, not to someone else.
Der Trihs has regularly, on multiple occasions referred to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the ongoing hostilities between Iran, other Arabs and the US as being wars against “Brown people”.
Now, are Iranians, Arabs, or Afghans more “brown” than Cuban Americans?
http://dantri.vcmedia.vn/Uploaded/2009/08/03/tinvan308092.jpg
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38970000/jpg/_38970533_203b_qusay97_ap.jpg
http://images.allmoviephoto.com/2005_Paradise_Now/2005_paradise_now_010.jpg
http://images.allmoviephoto.com/2005_Paradise_Now/2005_paradise_now_006.jpg
http://cdn4.wn.com/ph/img/81/1d/e05fd36a717fbd6ba9e965be32ed-grande.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3352/4642538520_64993cae11.jpg
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/1193/zallaschtsadat3.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cMZ4E0I-3iM/Tohe99GtA_I/AAAAAAAABJU/d1xbpnnkny0/s400/Mahmud+Jan+Afghan+model+%25283%2529.jpg
He has in fact continued to repeat this when pointed out what the skin tone Arabs(excluding North Africans), Iranians, and Afghans looks like.
His view seems to be that Americans consider them “brown” so that’s what he’ll call them.
Well, generally speaking, Americans consider Hispanics to be “brown” or at least “non-white” regardless of their skin tone or even what they themselves might think.
To give one example, not that long ago on the dope, I got into a long, long argument over the actress Eva Longoria. I objected to some people automatically classifying her as “non-white”. Pointing out that she came from a high-class Mexican American family that had lived in Texas long before it was part of the US and people from that background tended to identify themselves as “white”.
Everyone else on the thread vehemently disagreed, insisting that she was “obviously not white”, that “she doesn’t look white, she looks Mexican” and other assorted comments.
Similarly, if you look through the George Zimmerman threads you’ll notice many people mocking the idea that Zimmerman was “a white hispanic”.
And, of course, if you look through the US media you’ll notice Latinas who would most certainly be classified as “blancas” in Latin America, being classified as “women of color” such as America Ferrara, Sofia Vegara, Salma Hayek, and Penelope Cruz(who’s not even from Latin America)".
I was engaging in a certain amount of hyperbole and because based on Der Trihs seeming world view, I assumed he viewed Hispanic Americans, including Cuban Americans as “brown” because that would be completely consistent with his prior statements.
In fact, you’ll notice he doesn’t actually deny that he thought of them as “brown-skinned” merely that he wasn’t referring to all “brown” people.
His statement is similar to someone who’s made nasty comments about Israelis being accused of being anti-Semitic and then saying, “I said nothing about Jews, I was referring to Israelis.”
Moreover, is classifying Cuban-Americans as “brown-skinned” foolish IMHO?
Yes, just as I think the people who automatically insisted that Eva Longoria, Sofia Vegara, George Zimmerman and America Ferrara aren’t “white” are being foolish, but it’s hardly any more foolish that classifying the people in the pictures I linked to as “brown” which is what Der and plenty of others have done.
In fact, I’m not sure how often I’ve seen anyone other than myself challenge Der’s classifying the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan as a “war against brown people” the way you and Red challenged my terming Cuban-Americans as “brown-skinned”.
We live in a society in which Arabs, Iranians, Afghans and Latinos are assumed to be “brown”.
Obviously, to people familiar with Latin American society, that’s silly, but it should be noted that increasingly even many Hispanics in the US buy that.
For example, I met numerous Cuban-Americans and Puerto Ricans in college who repeatedly insisted they were “people of color” and would have been insulted by being called white even though they were the grandchildren of people who would have been insulted by being told that they WEREN’T white.
FTR, my own personal view is I’ll let people decide for themselves. If Rick Sanchez and Jose Canseco(two prominent Cuban Americans who would have been considered Blancos in Havana circa 1955) insist that they’re not white(which both do) and refer to themselves as brown(which Sanchez has) then I’ll accept them at their word, particularly growing up in a society where Anglos made it clear to them they weren’t considered white.
After all, who’s skin is considered “white” and who’s is considered “not white” often has little to do with their actual skin tone.
I’ve never been considered white by anyone I knew because I’d never be mistaken for a n Anglo-Saxon, my first name is Ali, and I’m Iranian. However, if I claimed I was Tony Moretti, I’d be considered white, while if I said my name was Miguel Montoya, I definitely would not be.
To make things more complicated, since I’m living in Rhode Island, if I said my name was Jose Rodriguez and I was Puerto Rican I would definitely not be considered white, but if I said my name was Jorge Garcia and I was Portuguese, I definitely would be.
