That's why people like me talk till we're blue in the face saying that, for instance, the term "Hispanic" should be banned. You could have a white man like Emilio Estevez, an Indian like George Lopez, a negro like Sammy Sosa and an Oriental like Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori all list themselves as "Hispanics". It's not a racial but a linguistic category. And if one is second or third generation, it's no longer even linguistic.
That's the insanity of it--even more so when one considers other glitches and idiosyncrasies of the census system. Like the fact that--due to lobbying--non-European groups like Arabs or North Africans have had the "white" category extended to include their groups, while people of 100% European extraction are denied "white status" if they happen to have a Spanish surname.
For instance, according to the census--though he's 100% European--he wouldn't be considered "white":
But his co-star from "The Mighty Ducks," Jewish-American actor Shawn Weiss (who is routinely mistaken for a mulatto), would:
This is more than just about status, it's about helping people who truly need it. What I mean to say is--under the law--she'd be eligible for grants to help "oppressed minorities who have suffered":
But the next woman--who is actually part of a historically oppressed group, which was mistreated for not being "Indo-European"--wouldn't be eligible for help, upon the theory that--magically (within the same century that her people were rounded up, thrown into concentration camp for being Middle Eastern, and killed), suddenly--she's [thanks to a bureacratic pass of the pen] "white":
That's the insanity of it: Allowing whites like Cameron Diaz or Emilio Estevez to scam and get"victim status," when in fact their ancestors were the slave-owners, not the slaves; and people like Shawn Weiss and Jami Gertz--whose families and relatives were murdered as recently as the 20th Century--are denied "racial minority status".
It's even more egregious for Arab-Americans--who have zero connection to Europe at all--when they come to America to be treated horribly and discriminated against every day; but because of the census extending them "white status," they can't sue on the basis of racial discrimination*:
But these two Spanish women--from a street in Barcelona--can come to America and get grants and subsidies on the false premise that they're part of a "racial minority" . . . people who have "suffered"--when in fact, they're the lily-white descendants of lily-white slave-
masters:
* Footnote: This fact was brought to my attention by my aunt who's a civil rights attorney, and has run up against problems in helping Arabs who have experienced discrimination.
