Ignorance is Bliss, but Knowledge Matters

When people are unaware of some facts, it is usually tolerable to let it slide when their act was a mistake of ignorance. Those mistakes can sometimes be little, or grave, but often offensive when it comes to race. I remember to be strike in shock by the diversity that exist in the United States when I first came here. It was amazing for Hispanics, Africans, Caucasian, and Asians to leave peaceful all in the same community, but maybe I should not have been so much in shock because this is why it is called the land of opportunities.

However who says diversity, must speak of advantages, and disadvantages too. I have come to also be aware of the real problem of segregation between minority and majority groups. A middle class, and upper class differentiation of classes. The fact that one race fits in more than another one, depending if you are Caucasian or Black, or  if you are part of the minority group, but is lucky enough and to live among people of your kind; then there are chances of fitting in, and solidarity among those that identifies as the same as you.

In the same light, I have come to realize that there are other categories that individual can be placed in in the United States. It could be one that defines a person as a U.S citizen, a permanent resident, a business visa holder, a diplomate, a student, which I am, or an illegal immigrant, some of the last two categories referred to sometimes as alien. Really? From which space?? As time goes by I came to realize how this so called melting pot comes with a rainbow of serious divergence. The direction I’m leading to is the level of negligence American could be when it comes to ethnicity, cultural, and geography differences. It might not be a big deal, but it is offensive for some people if everyone decides to throw them all in one category.

It is fair to denounce this act as a lack of education, close mindedness, but until I had to experience a similar shock, it has never crossed my mind that such small classification was a serious hasty generalization. The matter I’m addressing is the fact that in the U.S (we may all be guilty of this at one point) people tend to refer to all Central or South American as Hispanics, or Latino.

Latino and Hispanic are not interchangeable. Latino is a term that is telling you about geography, whereas Hispanic is a term that is telling you about Language. Latino means those people that descend front Latin America including the Caribbean. Hispanic means a group of country or people whose primary language is Spanish.

Central America has countries such as Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador just to name the most popular, and South America is compose of countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, just to name a few. It is important to note that some of these countries do not even speak Spanish; some of them speak Portuguese, or other dialect. This is offensive of many people that identify as a specific group instead of referring to them as Spanish. “I feel like knocking the sense right into people with a fist punch when they assume that I’m Spanish, or call me plain Hey Amigo.” Confessed Felix Garcia, my former classmate.

Terry Blas, a writer/cartoonist wrote numbers of series about the confusion people make by referring to all tanned skin, fair hair texture individuals as Spanish or Latino, or Hispanic, while among Spanish speaker there is a variety of dialects. His writings depict perfectly how to correct people, and recognize how easily people can fall into this hasty generalization.

 Blas says that “The views expressed in this comic are mine and come from an American perspective. While I'm Latino and Hispanic, I'm American as well and my experiences in respect to my ancestry and culture have been seen through that lens."

One of the main reason why I find the offensive, and is careful to not fall in the same ignorance act is when people would assume that Africa is a country too. This statement, which is a complete shock for me to know that some American do believe that African, who belong to the second biggest continent of the world with 54 countries in totals, and an estimated 1500-2000 languages according to Nations Online, all speak the same language. http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/african_languages.htm. Consequently, ignorance might be bliss, but in a world of globalization, and full of information, it is precious that people gets their facts right by informing themselves, and stop certain madness such as fixing a salad full of ingredients of ignorance.