Academic

Hispanics and Latinos--Stuntz

By David Skeel and Bill Stuntz

This is a trivial comment, but I note that all the early reports on Sotomayor's appointment refer to her as 'Hispanic.' This puzzles me. Brazilians aren't Hispanic—they speak Portuguese—and Spaniards are. Why should Spanish ancestry matter more than, say, Dutch or Swedish ancestry? (Full disclosure: I'm descended from Swedes. We've already had our Supreme Court Justice—Earl Warren, whom his political ally Tom Dewey once called 'that big dumb Swede.') And why should Brazilians count for less than, say, Argentines or Bolivians? This is the great advantage of the label Latino: it encompasses all whose ancestry is Central or South American, and it excludes Europeans. Why a politically correct culture continues to use the un-politically correct terminology is beyond me.

Full post as published by Less than the Least on May 26, 2009 (boomark / email).