Thread: doubleplus Humptyspeak

TRX
09-16-2010

I was reading a news report and came across the phrase "non-Hispanic white". I knew the politically-correct were using this term now, but it's the first time I've encountered it "in the wild."

I used to be a Caucasian. Not that any of my ancestors ever came from anywhere near the Caucasus Mountains, but it was an accepted term. Now I'm a "non- Hispanic white."

The key here, of course, is that Hispanics are now considered white. It's one of the stupider pieces of political correctness. If, say, you're a pure-blood Apache from north of the Rio Grande, you're a "Native American." That's a term that sets my blood boiling already, but the subject of a different rant. But if you're a pure-blood Apache from south of the Rio Grande, you're "white." Even though you have the same language, culture, and genetic heritage.

That's because State considers all Mexicans to be "Hispanic", which they apparently started off as meaning "Spanish-speaking." It referred to a language and culture. But now they're using "Hispanic" as a racial definition. Mexicans like to think of themselves as a mixed race, and have a whole racial status thing dependent on what percentage of the blood of the Conquistadores they might carry, but basically, they're Indians, just like the Florida Cherokee down the maternal side of my own family tree.

Meanwhile, if you're a blond haired, blue eyed Spaniard from Barcelona whose family tree goes back to the days Cato ruled Hispania as a Roman consul, you can't be "Hispanic." You're a "European", at least according to the way things are done in America...

The difference between "Hispanic white" and "Native American" now has nothing to do with culture or genetics, just which side of the river you came from.

Hel-loo? Is there any intelligent life down here?

I used to know a guy who had "African American" (as we all are, last the anthropologists were figuring, but thats yet another rant) on his naturalization papers and driver's license. His name was Weinstein, and he could trace his family *way* back in Europe, but since he'd immigrated from what used to be Rhodesia (his parents were British) he was "African" according to the US Department of State, which apparently decides these things...

It's getting to where when I fill out a form, I start to wonder about even apparently-simple questions. Common words that I thought I knew the meaning of suddenly have much different meanings, often dependent on circumstance. Am I getting paranoid? What made you ask?

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all."

Yep. If you can define the terminology on both sides of an exchange, you can pretty well guide things in the direction you wanted...