people of color & Chicano

[Tony Glaser]

>--- Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> > Rima writes:
>...
> > A more troublesome case is posed by Brazilians:
> > they're not
> > Hispanics, but they are (by definition) Latinos
> > (since they're from
> > Latin America), or Latins (a label we haven't yet
> > touched on, and one
> > which may itself be offensive to some).
> >
> > larry
>
>Iberio-americans

That doesn't quite make sense to me. Are you talking about Brazilians
in the US, or Brazilians in general? What about black Brazilians -
what connection do they have with the Iberian peninsula other then
from living in a Portuguese-speaking country? And would Ibero- or
Iberio-Americans include Portuguese living in the US, or Cape Verde
islanders, or Angolans or Mozambicans?

I also have a problem with African American - it conflates ethnicity
with nationality. I know lots of black people in the US who are of
African ethnicity but are not American - I can tell they are black by
looking at them, but I can't tell if they are American until I look
at their passport. And what about black Cubans. And then there are
the white South African immigrants to the US who will tell you
(tongue in cheek I trust) that they are African Americans.

And Caucasian is the worst of all. How many white people have a clue
where the Caucasus is (are? I don't even know if that's a plural or
singular), let alone whether that is where their ancestors originate!

Tony Glaser