President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans
Like it or not, we live in an hypenated country today, and it's been driven by several factors, chief among them our media.
One may well wonder where the term “Hispanic,” and for that matter, “Latino,” came from. The press and pundits are all abuzz about the Hispanic vote, Hispanic organizations, and Hispanic cultural influences. Back in the mid-twentieth century, however, they wrote about Mexicans or Puerto Ricans or Guatemalans, not about Hispanics. Of course, people of Latin American origin have become far more numerous in the United States since then and the immigration itself brings more attention. Nonetheless, the labels have changed. Starting in the 1970s, the media rapidly adopted the “pan-ethnic” term Hispanic, and to a lesser degree, Latino, and slowed down their use of specific national labels.* So did, organizations, agencies, businesses, and “Hispanics” themselves.
What was intially a media-driven terminology became widespread among the latter, and that transformation was largely driven by money. In the case of Spanish-language broadcasters like Univision, the shift was a market-driven strategy that enabled the companies to show advertisers that they could reach a broad market; not just Mexicans. And "Hispanics" themselves adopted the term - albeit reluctantly in some cases - in order to inflate their numbers, thus gaining more political influence (and government funding). At a time when their main competition for these resources emanated from black activists, adoption of this blanket label became an effective strategy.
And so today we have not simply Americans, but Hispanic-Americans and African-Americans, among other hyphenated Americans. You may be a Caucasian-American. It may be silly, but it's our present state of affairs.
And of course, in the era of institutionalized racism, certain hyphenateds get singled out for special treatment:
On Wednesday, a letter was sent to Olathe South High School students by Assistant Principal Candy Birch. In the letter, Birch said in her role as activities director that she wanted to give students an additional opportunity to connect with each other.
"So we are planning an outing open to our African-American sophomores and juniors," she wrote.
The Olathe, Kansas school district subsequently issued an apology after the letter triggered an uproar, clarifying that all students could attend the outing - although it's clear from the letter itself that the school's intent was to include only black hypenateds. They claimed on Friday that it was all a "misunderstanding". Of course it was.
The message today to Caucasian-Americans, or CAs (especially male CAs): Not Yours.
