Latin lovers & swarthy swindlers - Considering popular culture and the politics of race

“In 1973, the Nixon Administration divided Americans into five “racial” categories: White, Black, Asian/Pacific, Native American/Eskimo, and Hispanic. Previously, Hispanics had been a subset of each of the other classifications. Suddenly, they were grouped in a way that suggested a uniformity of culture and racial heritage that didn’t ”” and doesn’t ”” exist. The same is true of the other “minority” categories.

The Nixon Administration was reacting to the country’s growing Latino population, its increasing political clout, and xenophobia. Further proof of the politics behind the decision is provided by the dreadful miscegenation laws that once barred marriage between whites and blacks, whites and Asians ”” but didn’t prevent marriage between whites and Hispanics. (This reporter’s parents were Cuban and Panamanian, and his birth certificate lists their race as “white,” which is how they saw themselves, because they happened to be of European descent.) Recent statistical comparisons of ethnic groups refer to “non-Hispanic whites,” state that Hispanics can be of any race, but still group them together.”

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