anglo

[Donald M Lance]

I recently spent a couple of weeks in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas,
where the non-Hispanic, non-other-categories-too population is only about
10% according to the 2000 census (in a total of something like 900,000
residents).  I heard both Chicano and Anglo residents use the term 'white'
to refer to non-Hispanic (choose your term) people.

DMLance

on 5/21/02 1:17 PM, Michael Newman at mnewman at QC.EDU wrote:

>>
> Now that it's been established that Anglo=White, I am wondering why
> people switched from White to Anglo at all. Was it to avoid saying
> White? I am not sure because it's really not used much in the NY
> area, where we do say White or even the more misleading 'Caucasian.'
> However, I noticed that when I was in Ohio that some people appeared
> uncomfortable when I'd mention people as belonging to racial
> categories.
>
> My problem with Anglo is that it appears to imply a cultural
> identification with Englishness that I don't feel. I suppose it's the
> same impulse that causes some Latinos to reject the term Hispanic.
> Maybe I should just get over it.
>
> On this point, I noticed how a number of inner-city kids don't
> consider me White because I'm Jewish. There's like a sense that
> Jewish isn't a category within White. They even had a debate on this
> subject, with about a 50/50 split on whether Jews were White. Of
> course, most Jews think we're White.
> --
> Michael Newman
> Assistant Professor of Linguistics
> Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders
> Queens College
> Flushing, NY 11367
>