people of color & Chicano

[Dennis R. Preston]

>>I am sure these speculations are meant in good faith, but I have
>>never quite understood (foolishly empirical as I am) how one can
>>know what is offensive to members of various groups without asking
>>the groups themselves (although, as this discussion has alrady
>>pointed out, that does not lead to one simple answer). The
>>absurdity of proceding otherwise was nicely illustrated in a
>>Manchester Guardian notice of several years ago, following a
>>complaint,  which declared that "Jap" was inoffensive because it
>>was simply a clipped form of "Japanese," and, therefore [sic],
>>couldn't possibly be insulting [sic sic!]. Whether labels for
>>groups are based on ethnicity, race, language, national origin, or
>>even character traits does not seem to be the major contributor to
>>the group's perception of whether or not a label is offensive.

>>  By the way, last weekend Juan Williams conducted a very nice panel
>>discussion on NPR (with Mexican-Americans) on this very topic -
>>what do you like to be called, what do you call yourself, what does
>>context (the most important part of the discussion as it turned
>>out) have to do with use and preferences. Unfortunately, I did not
>>record the exact broadcast data.

dInIs





>>Indigo Som wrote:
>>
>>>  If anybody wants to know why "Hispanic" is offensive I'll be glad to
>>>  explain that too, but I've rambled enough for today!
>>
>>I wonder if there are other groups besides "Hispanics," Arabs and Chinese who
>>are defined by their language/linguistic group rather than race, religion,
>>common culture, or nation.
>>--db
>
>Actually, I would like to know why "Hispanic" is offensive.  My
>impression has been that Chicano/a referred to Mexican-Americans and
>that Latino/a referred to those from other Latin or South American
>Spanish speaking countries.  And re David's comment, why would
>defining people by their language/linguistic group be any more or
>offensive than definition by race, etc.?  It would seem a more
>neutral definition to me - less informative, perhaps, in many cases -
>but more neutral.
>
>Rima

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736