Hispanic and African-American are cultures, not races (well, black is kind of a race; hispanic is absolutely not), so you are factually wrong. Plus, the vast majority of black Americans don’t know where in Africa their ancestors are from; it’s not like they came here with passports and signed in at Ellis Island.
Re: The question of authorship of the dandy little piece in the OP: I thought it was blindingly obvious that Michael Richards didn’t write it, and still said it twice in OP anyway. Anyone who thought I was lying could’ve done a really quick and rudimentary google search to find out the truth. I figured links were only necessary when there was any question of doubt.
I’m not sure what your point is. “black” is just as much of a race as “white.” Anyway, it’s fascinating to learn that Brazillians share the same culture as Mexicans who share the same culture as Puerto Ricans. I never knew that.
One can make a rough approximately of where they are from based on the historical records of where slaves were purchased. One could also do DNA tests, I suppose:
Let me ask you this: Do you seriously believe that any significant percentage of black Americans can trace their roots to the area around Kenya?
I notice you conveniently cut off the very next thing I said.
You obviously don’t know a lot of things, including that Brazillians aren’t hispanic. But yes, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans do share many hispanic cultural traits. Glad I could teach you something.
I guess I could figure out where in Europe my ancestors from, and I kind of have an idea where some of them were from, but why bother? To your question: I don’t know. Haven’t studied it that thoroughly.
When my friends or associates post something equally retarded, I’ll often send them a message, telling them how stupid they are. I figure it’s more polite.
That’s what the entire OP was about. His response to someone complaining about why it’s ok for black and brown people to be racists, but not white people. So he went into the usual screed about historical oppression at the hands of whitey.
Wow, yes. I am saying your dictionary is wrong. Hispanic means, roughly, “in the Spanish style.” There is more to life, and knowledge, and words, and culture, than can be found in a dictionary. Wikipedia does somewhat of a better job:
No mention of Brazil in the entire article, because Brazil is not a hispanic country. Brazil is a Portugese-speaking country. I can tell you this because I am minoring in hispanic and latin-American studies in college, and considering switching it to my major. I’ve got dozens, maybe hundreds of hours in lectures, researching, and studying the topic.
If that doesn’t satisfy you, allow me to quote this article, from brazzil.com, entitled Once again: Brazilians Are Not Hispanic:
Most of the really racist items in the text are strawmen; when was the last time you were called a caveman or carjacked because you were white? I was mostly responding to why “they” can have black history month, BET, Caesar Chavez day, etc, and “we” can’t. When racial discrimination isn’t an issue anymore, “they” won’t need or want those things.
Of course it’s not ok for white people to suffer abuse at the hands of blacks. That’s silly. However, what the email in the OP describes is not either not racism or entirely made up.
In this country currently, “white” culture and history is still considered the default. If the blacks have BET, whites have every other channel. Looming large in the history books are the contributions of white men.
Blacks taking some time out to celebrate their culture and contributions is not racism.
. . . and goddamn the ignorance in that hateful screed. Caesar Chavez day has nothing to do with race; it’s a celebration of labor rights. But I guess since it honors a dirty fucking Mexican it’s racist :rolleyes:.
Thanks, I did not know that (though I, uh, didn’t ignorantly claim otherwise so I guess I should thank you for teaching me something pretty random.) Now will you also acknowledge that you learned something here?
Well partially, in it’s own inarticulate MySpace sort of way. Couched in the, “Why can’t I be a racist too?”, bubba logic. The correct answer shouldn’t be a screed that condescends to historical injustice, that’s an old trope that just causes confusion. The correct answer should be, ‘racism isn’t ok.’
There is however this injunction against there being such a thing as ‘white’ culture. White people are not allowed to have a culture that is their own. This isn’t such a problem for those who have an ethnic culture like Irish or Jewish, but for us Mutts it can be kind of sad.
You want me to go ahead and list about a thousand different things that are part of “white” culture or will you quiet’n down now? You’re starting to dig a hole.
Actually, I take back my last post. I’m not going to make a list because they always end up looking like a list of stereotypes; everything applies to someone and nothing applies to everyone. Instead, I’ll just point out that was torie said is right: white culture is the default in America. You’ve heard comedians say, “if you don’t who the [whatever archetype] is in your group of friends, it’s YOU!” Well, white Americans are the cultural equivalent.
Assuming that’s true, it does not change the fact that my interpretation of the word “Hispanic” was not unreasonable. But let’s assume for the sake of argument that Brazillians should not be considered Hispanic.
Since you are such an expert, why don’t you explain to me the similarities between the cultures of Western Sahara and Argentina. I would really like to know.
You seemed to be disputing my claim, which was that an African-American who identifies with Obama would seem to be a bit like an Irishman who identifies with an Italian or Frenchman.
Perhaps a better example would be a Dutch South African who identifies with an English South African.
Do you dispute my claim?
Sure, I learned that according to some definitions of the word “Hispanic,” Brazillians are not Hispanic. I also learned that according to some definitions of the word “Hispanic,” people from the African nations of Western Sahara and Equitorial Guinea are considered “Hispanic.”