My grandparents immigrated from Germany. I am partially German. Does that mean I’m “disgusting” to claim that? Does everyone have to identify only as ALL-AMERICAN for you to be happy? Where your ancestors are from is a part of you. OP’s ancestors are Latino/Hispanic, as already proven. Get over it.
Thank you for your comment @bodangles
As far as you @debe3445, I grew up in a Portuguese speaking home, all of my relatives are Brasilian. I have been immersed in this culture for as long as I can remember, and I find it to be more dominant than my Israeli roots. I’m sorry you feel the need to go on sites like this and call other people disgusting because they are not as Hispanic as you. It’s a shame. As a Brasilian-Israeli-American, you disgust me.
^lol, if you grew up in such a family why are you having a crisis of identity right now. It doesn’t seem that you’ve faced the real discrimination that minorities do… If so, this would be a problem. You’ve been comfortably passing as white, but now you want an edge. Not blaming you, but hey it’s obvious that racism hadn’t really affected you.
Like I said previously, you will succeed anywhere base in your posts. You know how to take advantage of any situation that is advantageous to you. I wouldn’t worry about what college you’ll be able to attend.
Do you think everyone marking Hispanic has faced discrimination? @dancelance I’m not buying that. The q isn’t “were u oppressed?” It’s “are you Hispanic”. Big difference
You are Brasilian. Check off Hispanic/Latino.
@basketball135 I agree with @dancelance, not about the discrimination part, but about the confusion over why you’re having an identity crisis.
If your mother is “100% Hispanic” and you are 50%, then you can check it off. There might even be a little follow-up question that says, “If yes, please describe your background.” You can put “Brazilian,” all confusion will be resolved, and if for some reason adcoms don’t see that as a Latin American country, you won’t be faulted for thinking that it was. Especially since the fact that you’ve checked off “White” doesn’t mean that you’re not Latina.
Keep in mind, though. This:
is very different from this:
Checking off Hispanic “for colleges” because you want the advantage is different from checking it off because you feel that you are Hispanic. It’s fine if you aren’t sure how your specific ethnic background translates to the little check boxes; I’ve been there too. But the first reasons you gave? That is what is offending people.
You know, I once read something that was written to a college, and the student slipped in a little sentence about how his/her great-something-or-other was Black, so even though he/she’s White, that fact “makes him/her” X% African-American, and thus a URM. The student literally wrote that. I was appalled. People do try to game the system, and it really rubs people of color the wrong way. Don’t take it personally if you feel like that isn’t you.
@basketball135 The fact that you admit you grew up in a Portugese household is enough to call you out. Portugal has nothing to do with Hispanic/Latin culture. Brazil is very fringe in regards to whether it is considered Hispanic and it usually only is because of the surrounding countries that frequently have people move to Brazil. You are not Hispanic.
@debe3445 that was a very uneducated thing to say. Portuguese is a language and does not have anything to do with me being from Portugal, which I am not. Both of my grandparents grew up in Brasil, and their families have been in Brasil forever. Brasil does count as Latino, so that issue is not the question.
Thank you my point is you’ve agreed you were white for most of your life–this suggests that you thought there was some advantage to claim you were white, or in the least you identified as white for all you life. Now you feel Hispanic–why the switch. I would assert that you don’t seem to related to Hispanic or Latino culture enough to check it off of you’re whole life, so why switch now? If you were consistently discriminated against which is part of the affirmative action mandate you would feel comfortable identifying this way. Since you’ve comfortably been white, why Hispanic all of a sudden.
Just check if off, don’t inflate this whole situation by reveling in the fact that you can garner benefit as being white, and garner benefits from being Latino. That is exactly what this post comes off as. You are indirectly flaunting that you have the luxury of doing both.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: This thread has gone south, so I am closing it. Do not start another thread on the subject.