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An article published last Wednesday by the American newspaper The New York Times (NYT), on the racial diversity in the positions of power in the United States, identifies that the members of Congress of Portuguese descent are “people of color”.
In the text, which indicates the “922 Most Powerful People in America”, only 180 are “people of color”, a group that includes descendants of Azorean immigrants Devin Nunes and Jim Costa, Republicans and Democrats, and also of Portuguese descent Lori Loureiro Trahan, Democrat.
This group of “people of color” also includes Blacks, Asians, and Latin Americans. The remaining 80% who hold positions of power are “white,” says the newspaper.
At the end of the article, The New York Times adds a note warning that “The term ‘Hispanic’ is used in this work for people of Spanish or Portuguese origin, whatever their race”.
For the sociologist René D. Flores, from the University of Chicago, who analyzed the article on Twitter, the NYT “seems to classify anyone whose nickname sounds ‘Hispanic’ as non-white regardless of their ancestry.”
The sociologist also points out as “interesting” the fact that the newspaper classify as white citizens with origins in the Middle EastLike Farnam Jahanian, president of Carnegie Mellon University, an Iranian-born American, or Moroccan-born businessman Marc Lasry.
Flores concludes by saying that considering European Iberian culture as “non-white” is a phenomenon exclusive to the United States.
“It is a good example of how the boundaries of whites, as well as other racial categories, change with time and place and are shaped by political and social factors,” he wrote.
