Seriously, I’ve been called an ILLEGAL for being from a Spanish-speaking country and coming to the U.S. with paperwork. Also, my friend’s weird dad saw my name on a social media account when my friend was texting me and he said I was a “typical Mexican”. I am a white European Spanish woman, why do people assume I’m automatically Mexican?
I am going to chalk that one up to prevalence. 20% of the US population is Latin*, half of which are Mexican. The brain kind of works like that, we presume the most common in lieu of other information. If most Spanish people they interact with are Mexican, they will presume Mexican. In your case, of course, they additionally held some preconceived bias about what “Mexicans” believe or act like, and seeing that you spoke Spanish and or said things that fit that cognitive model, it strengthened their (likely largely unconscious) decision to pigeonhole you as Mexican.
(Dumb) people have a need to express the differences they see in others. I have some Ukrainian blood and live in a Western European country, and I get a lot of “Where are you from?” (“I’m from here” “Yes but where are you originally from?” “I am originally from the capital of this country, where I was born” “Yes but what about your parents, or their parents?” “Sigh…”)
* in the broad definition
So, are ya Chinese or Japanese?
you’re in a country where this once happened 😬
I am a white European Spanish woman
Race is a social construct, and in the eyes of your friend’s racist dad you are apparently not white (even if he might have classified you as white if he had only your appearance to go by and hadn’t seen your name).
Here are a few somewhat relevant wikipedia articles:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_whiteness_in_the_United_States
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States_census
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_Latin_America
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Hispanic_and_Latino_Americans
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Latin_Americans#Being_white
Stupid. They are very very stupid.
Incest.
When all you are is racist, everyone looks like a Mexican.
Living in the U.S. I’ve met Spanish speakers from many countries. I must admit I haven’t met one from Spain. Also, no one is illegal on stolen land.
Because they are racist. They only identify you based on your difference, not on shared values.
Racism.
Against caucasians? Dudette said she was white.
Against Mexicans/Latinos. ie, the bit where someone throws all hispanohablante folk in to the “Illegal/Mexican” bucket, irrelevant of where they come from.
If you want to argue that’s xenophobia more than racism, sure, that’s probably accurate. But it doesn’t really change my point…
Your new point does indeed stand.
I don’t consider it a new point. I consider xenophobia and racism two slightly different manifestations of the same underlying mindset, and don’t consider the difference between the two really matter in this context.
Because their only experience with Spanish is from Mexico. It isn’t complicated.
Conservatives are generally a combination of stupid, ignorant, and cruel.
same reason people from canada get mistaken for americans.
Ignorance and prejudice.
The US has been drowning in assholes & idiots for the longest time. Now it’s official, from the top on down.
Significant portions of the demographic you identified don’t realize New Mexico is in the US, and couldn’t find Canada on a map, and you’re expecting them to realize there’s more countries than just Mexico to the south?
In OP’s case it’s to the east.
I mean… is this really not something you can figure out on your own?
It’s a complicated question, especially I imagine for someone not familiar with US culture. Whether a person from Spain is “white” is itself a complicated and irrational topic. IMO it’s a perfectly reasonable thing to be confused about. I’m from the US and I find it confusing myself.
