Why Aren't Mexicans Considered White?

I was just watching the Daily Show and it was running a story about how the Arizona School Board had banned ethnic studies classes because supposedly the Mexian/American history course was teaching the students to hate white people. Of course the segment showed this to be absolute hogwash but it brought up something I've been thinking about for awhile.

Why are Mexicans considered to be a race apart from "white" people? They are decended from Spanish immigrants and Spain is part of Europe. I would think that this would make them as "white" as people decended from other parts of Europe, yet there are a lot of people who say they are not.

Why is this?

I got a few points about this:

1) I got into a debate with one of my friends about this, "What does one 'consider' to be 'White'?" Which is hard to define and has no 'real' definition from what I've seen, the skin color issue is a problem I love, since I know Mexicans who are light and dark. I am light skinned and might pass off as White to some people for example, but someone I know who is dark might be called a Mexican instead. The "true" Mexicans are the Aztecs, short and very dark, but since the Spanish conquered the area and became known as Mexico, both skin colors "are" considered to be Mexican. The whole issue is a citizen and home country issue then it is more of a race issue I think. Just how one identifies themselves.

However, my main problem is, what is "truly" White? Is it the blond haired and blue eyed people? Anyone with White skin?

2) I remember visiting a state university back in high school, for some "Hispanic/Latin pride" thing, we all split up into groups to decide which presentations to attend. A lot of the "cultural" ones brought us into people supporting EZLN and some even said that the only way to get attention and probably succeed is through force. Other presentations had people supporting Pancho Villa, which is a problem. I myself adored Villa and dared call him a hero, but he was a ruthless killer with some Robin Hood sympathy for the poor. He classified pretty much ANY rich person as corrupt and evil, took their money and probably killed them if it didn't go his way. He has been romanticized and is seen more of a nice guy. He was up against the Mexican and American government in his lifetime, so due to kids trying to be rebels, they will support his ideas and some go all the way to hate either or both countries. Others might get unfortunate enough to get a biased teacher, so the hate might be worse. So it is no surprise that some end up hating White people. I was also like this for a long time, both hating the country and White people.

3) A lot of "cultures from the world" classes whitewash history of that certain culture, hardly anyone speaks of the atrocities of the Mexican revolutionaries for example and over-glorify the famous people and only speak of the battles they took place in, not the "other" events. Like I said, sometimes he killed rich people due to his strong views on them. I remember skimming through my friend's book and it never mentioned any atrocities besides the "crimes" the American and Mexican governments did.

4) As for the "Mexicans are not White" question, same can be said for some Eastern European not wanting to be associated with Russia and much less the Soviet Union, I remember getting told that the Polish are like this. For others, it's a nationality thing. For example, I see myself as White in skin color, Mexican in "home country", Spanish from 'direct' heritage. But I have White cousins who have dark skinned kids on one side of the family and in the other side of the family, we all look like a White family.


In the end, we determine people first by their skin color and totally forget nationality. Which is unfair unless it has been proven that they are not from said country.

EDIT: Just thought of something, seeing how a great number of Europeans are White. Hell, let's say all of Europe was White. They would have to be classified by nationality to differentiate themselves from the rest.

What is white? Why think Mexicans are a different race of people. What's the difference between Mexican and the 19 other latin people? Does Mexican culture base history bad mouth the white man? Isn't Mexican just a nationality and not a racial thing since it's Mestizo. What the difference between a Mexican and "Peninsulares", "Creoles", "Indios" and Negros.

Good example is me since im half Mexican and half Catalan, a Spanish, French and Andorran inhabited people who don't speak the Spanish, or much french either. Neither does half of Spain. I never heard one Spanish word in the north outside of Barcelona and the government. I am White.

As I understand it, the American concept of "white" stems from the old British concept of "civilised people" where in Europe the British considered people that lived closer to the equator (Spain, Greece, Palestine, etc exclusing Italy) were not white, while those that lived closer to north-western Europe British Isles, France, Austria, Germany, Scandanavia) were civilised. But the concept of "white" changes over time. Before the 20th Century, the British didn't consier Greeks or people from Easter Europe to be white in the same sense they were. I guess it all comes from that old British sense of superiority and the fact that whomever is the superpower at the time makes the rules. Since most Hispanic peoples are descendents of Portugal and Spain, I suppose that the concept crossed the Atlantic along with the British. This is just me guessing, of course.

Most Mexicans are Mestizos, i.e. a mix of the European settlers and the natives. Since in the USA people with mixed ancestry are not considered White unless the Caucasoid element is very dominant, Mestizos are not considered White. Now this has two main reasons:
- The native Americans are Mongoloids(anthrop.), thus differing physiologically from the Caucasoid Europeans
- White racial traits are recessive, meaning that they will not be represented as strongly in the offspring as other racial traits. This is why Obama is considered Black, although he is genetically as much White as he is Black.

This is really all there is to it.

Your terminology is incorrect and misleading. the spanish weren't just immigrants, they were conquerors. this is probably a factor in not wanting to be considered white. being ruled by others isn't something i'd be espescially proud of.

most of the mexicans i know don't consider themselves white, and don't want others to either.

I would consider ethnic Mexicans to be Hispanic no? just as I would consider Chinese to be Asian or Someone who is descended or from Europe ethnically to be Caucasian. I mean as far as I am aware ethnically people from Spain would be considered Hispanic as well? Either way is it really that important? these days things like race and ethnicity are becoming less and less relevant. Something I personally find to be a good thing.

If by ethnic Mexicans, you mean someone like the Aztecs, then no. They are not Hispanic. A Hispanic person has a relationship to Spain or even the old land of Hispania. Of course, due to context, people use it as a broad term to also describe someone who speaks Spanish or Portuguese nowadays.

Ah right my bad

Aren't mexicans white latinos?

That's an oversimplification. Undoubtedly he committed atrocities, however, he also was responsible for the redistribution of land to peasants, a feat that Lazaro Cardenas would later be highly touted for, as many presidents during the Revolution promised to but failed to do so. Also, his raids in the U.S. and the U.S.'s failure to apprehend Villa made him a folk hero when you consider that fact that the Mexican-American War(or the American Invasion as I like to call it) had made public opinion concerning the United States poor to say the least (think of it as a David vs. Goliath type of thing.



This isn't entirely true. The coup d' etat resulting in Madero's execution. The assassinations of Villa, Zapata, Carranzas are taught. Atrocities are also detailed in the literature of the time. Another often mentioned event is the Cristiada that took place due to Calles war against the church; in which both sides committed atrocities.



If we are talking about race, every mexican can be considered to be a mestizo. Undoubtedly, the most prominent indigenous group to Mexico are the Aztecs. They are also the ones we Mexicans mostly associated ourselves with. However, they were not the only indigenous group to Mexico. Furthermore, the Spanish were not the only european group to settle in Mexico. Certain regions, such as Jalisco, contain a lot of french ancestry (somewhat due to Maximiliano's short reign as emperor of Mexico) Mexico also experienced immigration from blacks and chinese groups to satisfy labor deeds. As such, those roots must be recognized as forming part of Mexico's racial make-up. Furthermore, Spain itself was a mixture of arabic blood and african blood as well as "white" european blood.

That being said, White privilege is very apparent in Mexico. Light skin, blue/ colored eyes are highly prized in Mexico, just look at every actress/actor and the majority of anchormen/women.



I hate the use of the term. I personally prefer Latinos. I believe the term Hispanic was coined by Napoleon. I also hate the concept of race. I personally like to deal with ethnicity due to the fact that while individuals may be multi-racial there tends to be a single culture he/she identifies with. That culture may be a mixture of more than one, but such is thing is extremely common in border-zones.

Most Mexicans are Amerindian. Just because they have european ancestry does not make them caucasian. Most blacks in america have European ancestry.

Mexicans are Mexicans, Whites are Whites, Blacks are Blacks and Chinks are Chinks.

I don't agree with that statement, but that may be due to my understanding of the term Amerindian, which may be wrong. While Mexicans due, in part, descend from the indigenous tribes in the area, the culture currently existing today in Mexico- while sharing some vestiges from the original indigenous culture, is one that is derived from a mixture of a myriad of migrant races/cultures. Furthermore, many mexicans do not consider themselves to be "indian" (meaning indigenous), in fact calling someone an "indio" is a quick way to escalate a situation and get your ass kicked.



Sarcasm hopefully? The situation is much more complicated that that, not to mention the derogatory term used towards the end of your statement?

On a certain level you could call it what teenagers commonly refer to as "trolling" but on a different level you could just call it racism to get a ruse out of somebody.

It's actually called, "hey guys I was only pretending to be retarded, i troll u lolol".

OT: I don't think it's something exclusive to Latinos/Hispanics. Other groups fit under this umbrella like Arabs, Persians, etc. etc.

But what makes up the race of white people is pretty broad, and there's tons of diversity amongst what is considered the white race. Eastern Europeans, those living near the Mediterranean, Scandinavians, UK(there's some difference between the whites there too), White Deposit such as Americans/Australians/Canadians/New Zealanders(?) and even Jewish groups.

And there's pretty noticeable differences between all of those even though they all fall along the "white race".

Talking about phenotypes rather than culture.

Well then you got me good and i guess I just got trolled :)



Then I would have to agree with you, most do. I also think your previous comment about blacks having european ancestry shows how stupid the concept of race is.