not Hispanic or Latino

[James A. Landau]

Wilson Gray wrote:
<quote>
What I've never been able to get ready for is why it is that any
Latinos / Hispanics / etc. who have been off the boat or across the
border longer than fifteeen minutes would ever opt to be black,
automatically dropping themselves to the bottom of the American glory
hole.
</quote>

I once talked to an eighth-grade history class about segregated buses, which I had ridden during a stay in Birmingham, Alabama, when I was nine years old.
The class had half a dozen Hispanics (Latinos?) in it, including the teacher.  One of the Hispanics asked what would have happened if a Hispanic had tried to ride such a bus.  My answer was that there probably weren't enough Hispanics in Birmingham in 1956 to set a precedent, and my guess is that the Hispanic would be seated by his skin color.  I was then asked to judge each Hispanic in the classroom by skin color, and as I recall I said that two were dark-skinned enough that they would have to sit in the "Colored" section, but that the rest (including the teacher) could probably pass and be seated in the "White Only" section in the front of the bus.

     - James A. Landau

"White people have no souls" - Baron Munchausen

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