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>Calling themselves THE Americans and the rest latinos "Latinos" are what Spanish and (to a much lesser extent) Portuguese-speaking people living in the USA ca
by shiroiushi 2y ago
>Calling themselves THE Americans and the rest latinos
"Latinos" are what Spanish and (to a much lesser extent) Portuguese-speaking people living in the USA call themselves (and their relatives still living in other Latin-American countries). They seem to prefer it to "Hispanics". And the term only applies to people speaking Latin-derived languages (i.e., Spanish and Portuguese). So the people living in Belize, for instance, are not "Latinos" at all.
Similarly, African-Americans were named that way by themselves, to distinguish themselves from the majority white Americans, since they had a very different and unique culture and history. It wasn't some kind of pejorative they were stuck with by outsiders; they came up with it on their own because they were tired of being called "negroes", "colored", or much worse.
You seem to have a very warped perception of who thinks what, and as the other poster said, you obviously have an ax to grind.
People in the USA are called "Americans" because it's (part of) the name of their country, and there's no other convenient and pronounceable demonym to describe them, and there's no other country in the world that has the word "America" in it.
- jaimebuelta 2y agoAccording to surveys, most people in the US prefer to refer themselves as “Hispanic”, though there’s a generational change https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/09/12/u-s-hispanics-preferences-among-pan-ethnic-terms/ https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/09/12/u-...
- SllX 2y agoThey generally prefer to be called what they are: Mexicans, Salvadorans, Cubans, etc. The ones born here in the US of A even often just prefer Americans sometimes, although that differs from person to person. Pan-ethnic terms are the creatures of demographers, political scientists and others of the social sciences. We don’t really need that crap and it’s just there to make their jobs easier.
- fuzztester 2y ago>People in the USA are called "Americans" because it's (part of) the name of their country, and there's no other convenient and pronounceable demonym to describe them There is another demonym, although much less used: USian. It's quite convenient and pronounceable. Some HNers use it: >https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=usian&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... Also see the Wikipedia definition of the word you used - demonym: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym The first two sentences at the above link: >A demonym (/ˈdɛmənɪm/; from Ancient Greek δῆμος (dêmos) 'people, tribe' and ὄνυμα (ónuma) 'name') or gentilic (from Latin gentilis 'of a clan, or gens')[1] is a word that identifies a group of people (inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place.[2] Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place (hamlet, village, town, city, region, province, state, country, and continent).
- meiraleal 2y agoI'm going with this one for now on. Thanks! Thanks also to all USians that commented. As a fellow American, I think we should be more United! :)
- fuzztester 2y agoThe fact that my sibling comment (by me), about HNerds using racist and derogatory terms like Asian sweatshop, got flagged within seconds after I wote it, shows clearly that it is true, and that racist discrimination exists on HN, despite the vaunted claims by the mods of keeping it as a clean and nice community. Hah!
- fuzztester 2y agoAll you guys put together, i.e. all countries in both the American continents (North and South), need an American national anthem (not a USian one), to put you on the right track to continental and then world solidarity.
- meiraleal 2y ago
- PaulDavisThe1st 2y ago> "Latinos" are what Spanish and (to a much lesser extent) Portuguese-speaking people living in the USA call themselves (and their relatives still living in other Latin-American countries). They seem to prefer it to "Hispanics". In my part of the world (Santa Fe, New Mexico), people of "direct" Spanish descent prefer the term "Hispano" to differentiate themselves from both Hispanics (n-th cousins who might still arrive here, but did so after several generations south of Mexico City), and Latinos which is broadly equivalent to Hispanic.