The War on Empathy continues…
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
19 Comments
Are people for Puerto Rico really immigrants?
they’re Hispanic aren’t they?
depends on who is doing the definition. ‘Hispanic’ is a term people are increasingly loathe to self-apply.
and is poorly defined. I always thought it was language-based culture: both Portuguese speaking and Spanish speaking peoples and cultures. It’s morphed into some sort of racial identity, although Hispanics can be of Spanish, Native American, Chinese, African, Filipino and other backgrounds and mixtures of backgrounds (for lack of a better word).
PS
I went through graduate school with someone from Brazil. This person was born in Brazil to parents who were born in Germany. Did not leave until years after the PhD was completed in the US. Speaks German, Portuguese, Spanish and English. Has been on the faculty of several Brazilian universities and is still actively pursuing research in Brazil. Physically, this person is blond and blue eyed. Question. Is this person Hispanic?
Apologies, my comment was meant to be construed as ironic – as in “their hispanic, so they must be immigrants” as in, only white dudes are real Americans, which is doubly ironic in that white dudes are, by definition, immigrants. Oh irony of irony, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to use irony…
No! Native-born Americans cannot, by definition, be immigrants. And Puerto Ricans are native-born. I work with several (four that I know of) Americans born in Puerto Rico, and they are very proud of being native-born citizens.
By this person’s logic. I was an immigrant when I lived in Virginia. I do remember one incident in K-Mart. The checkout girl, looking at my Italian surname on my credit card, asked me in a very pronounced dixie drawl, “You all has a funny accent. Are you all foreign born?” To which I replied, “Yes, I was born in Chicago.” I can’t reproduce in text the way she said “accent”, two definite syllables, stress on the first and a drawn out second. “Foreign” was proniunced like “forn”.
I was born and grew up mainly in Wisconsin. When I was 17 I found myself living for a year in Charlotte, N.C. and going to school.
Absolutely true story..One day sitting in the cafeteria during lunch time by myself two other students came over to me and asked what country I was from-they thought I was a foreign student from Cuba. Why Cuba…well according to them because I had such dark brown eyes-even though I am pale with very dark red hair..but they did think I spoke English pretty well albeit with quite the accent. They were absolutely astounded and dumbfounded to find out I was apparently as American as they were-unless maybe they thought Wisconsin was a foreign country. Some of the smarter kids seem to realize while I talked ‘funny’ it was because I was one of those Yanks from up North.
Then again it took me awhile to understand that standard greeting of kids there which was ‘hyawl’..which of course meant ‘hi you all’ even if you were only saying it to one person.
To this day that experience continues to make me laugh.
Pale with dark red hair and dark brown eyes and born in Wisconsin. My guess would be some German ancestry. Am I right?
Germans are dominant in Wisconsin. Beer & Brauts!
Hi Voice. Good guess but I’m Polish and Bohemian. Red hair on both sides of family actually(dad was from Illinois and had dark red hair and tanned very well and he was a mixture of everything)
Well, Bohemian is almost German. No! No! Please don’t throw things at me!
Ha, I suppose some people might think so but I’ve never considered it that way.
Judge Sotomayor self-identified her family as immigrants. It’s complicated because PR is a colony and its people are not given the full rights bestowed upon those born within the 50 states. If we’re talking semantics, then no; but I think she’s referring to a state-of-mind as well as the manner they are treated by the system.
Puerto Rico is a Territory and a former colony. The residents of Puerto Rico do not have representation in Congress. If these residents move to one of the States they have the same rights that anyone born anywhere has. If a citizen born in New York moves to a territory, he or she can no longer vote for president. The issue is residence in a territory not being born there.
you’re right, bad wording on my part all around.
Um…no. Puerto Rico does have representation in Congress. Res. Com. Pedro Pierluisi (D-PR At Large) sits on the following committees in the House:
* Education and Labor
* Judiciary
* Natural Resources
I should have said that they don’t have voting representation. They have a representative to Congress that doesn’t vote.