Monday, July 28, 2008

Comment on Being White

Through Facebook, a friend responded to the post To assimilate or not to assimilate:

It is funny about the white thing, because as you know if you are Hispanic you can consider yourself, White, Black, Asian or Indian (not in the Sub-continental sense) In my experience everyone who can will say they are Hispanic and white unless it's glaringly obvious they are not. Although in the case of Lulu's birthmother, who indicated she was white, it is only the absence of Mayan surnames that made her white! In places like Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican (and really all Spanish speaking places) there is a distinct white and black hierarchy or where there are Indians white/mixed/Indian. Not so different from the US!

What is interesting to me is Middle Easterners and those of Middle Eastern ancestry. Certain countries: Greece, Turkey, Lebananon, Israel, etc seem to be accepted as white, but not in the WASPY sense that is valued in the US. Tom's family is from MI and all the well-to-do communities at the time would not allow blacks, Greeks or Jews to move in. In the town I grew up in there were not too many WASPs (a lot of Puerto Ricans and African Americans). The kids who were WASPs were the only ones that considered themselves to be white. Even though I was as Caspar as they come, I was too ethnic looking to be accepted in the white clique.

My friend is of Greek descent. She and her husband (Tom) have adopted two adorable girls from Guatemala.

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