'White Hispanic' In Crosshairs As Conservative Commentators Challenge Media's Description Of George Zimmerman

George Zimmerman

George Zimmerman, the self-appointed neighborhood watchman who shot and killed black teenager Trayvon Martin last month in Florida is of mixed ethnic background. He's been described as a "white Hispanic" by news outlets including The New York Times, Reuters, and The Huffington Post, prompting some conservative commentators to accuse such media of weaving a false narrative of white-on-black crime.

Some, including Trayvon Martin's parents, argue that Zimmerman, who was born to a white father and a Latina mother, acted out of racial bias. Still others, including Zimmerman's father, maintain that his ethnic background precludes him from such discrimination.

"He would be the last to discriminate for any reason whatsoever," Zimmerman's father wrote in a letter to the Orlando Sentinel, citing his son's Hispanic makeup and multiracial family.

While Zimmerman's motivations remain hotly contested, political pundit Bernard Goldberg says the "liberal media's" motivations in the case are clear.

"While no decent person is happy about what happened, no matter what your politics, there are some people whose purposes are served by what happened," Goldberg said to Fox News' Megyn Kelly on Tuesday. "The national media," he said was one of such groups.

“He’s only a 'white Hispanic',” said Goldberg, “because they need the word ‘white’ to further the storyline, which is ‘white, probably racist vigilante shoots unarmed black kid.’”

Goldberg added that the use of the term "white Hispanic" is almost "a parody of liberal media."

Rush Limbaugh, echoing Goldberg's claims, said that in his research he found the term "white Hispanic" has only appeared five times in The New York Times' history.

"Mr. Zimmerman—who, again, the New York Times refers to as a 'white Hispanic' and the rest of the media has now picked that up, 'cause that fits the template. You need white-on-black here to gin this up," Limbaugh said on his radio show.

"By the way, it's not just the New York Times referring to George Zimmerman as a white racist. I think the whole media is doing this now," Limbaugh added.

Checking Off Boxes: Race vs. Ethinicty

Limbaugh and Goldberg's outrage may however stem from confusion surrounding the term Hispanic.

The categorizations of Hispanic and Latino, often mistakenly thought of as racial classifications, in actuality refer to ethnicity. Alluding to a group of people of various racial backgrounds, "Hispanic" and "Latino" most commonly describe those peoples united by the Spanish language and Latin American culture.

While collecting population data, the Census Bureau now identifies the white racial category as "white, non-Hispanic," and allows for Latinos to use both racial and ethnic identifiers to categorize themselves. Some groups of Latinos, such as Afro Latinos, often self-identify in both racial and ethnic terms.

Ruben Rumbaut, a professor of sociology at the University of California at Irvine, told NPR last year that, "in the year 2000, persons that checked that they were Hispanic, when they answer the question on race, approximately 48 percent check white and another 43 percent check some other race."

Fair skinned celebrities such as the blonde Cameron Diaz, the blue-eyed Alexis Bledel, and the red-haired Louis C.K self-identify as Latino based on their ethnic make up.

While it remains unclear if Zimmerman would classify himself as a "white Hispanic", his case surely draws attention to the increasingly complex racial and ethnic make up of many Latino Americans.

Some Latinos believe the current debate over Zimmerman's appropriate racial categorization is behind the times.

Guy Garcia, the founding executive director of AOL Latino, argues that young Latinos often identify themselves and each other in complex terms.

"Recent studies have shown that Latino identity is malleable, contextual and constantly evolving. Younger Latinos in particularly see no contradiction in calling themselves Dominican, American and black, or Caucasian, Hispanic-American and Colombian, or gaysian, blaxican, or any other racial-cultural-sexual amalgam that fits their nationality, genealogy, sexuality and mood," Garcia wrote last year in a blog for The Huffington Post.

Rumbaut concluded in his 2011 interview with NPR that race "is not a biological given category." Rather, he says, it's "a social and legal and political construction whose meaning changes over time."

Quick Poll

Should media outlets refer to Zimmerman as a 'white Hispanic'?

No. It weaves a false narrative of racial victimization.

Yes. It's the most appropriate term to describe what he truly is.

Zimmerman's racial/ethnic categorization is ultimately trivial.

VOTE

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WATCH: Bernie Goldberg Attacks Term 'White Hispanic'

SLIDESHOW: OTHER WHITE HISPANICS:

WATCH RELATED:

Comments

[leo leo]

01:50 PM on 12/06/2012

It is alarming that there are people in the United states who do not realize that Spain and Spanish culture is located in Europe. The reason many regions in the Americas (Northern and Southern continents) were Spanish colonies and that is why the language and culture of Spain as well as people of full and partial Spanish ancestry live there. In addition Latin (Latino) refers to the languages and cultures who evolved from the Latin language spoken in the Roman empire that later became Spanish, Italian, French, Romanian and other Romance languages. This is common knowledge in other countries e.g. Canada were French speaking regions consider themselves part of Latin America (Romantic Language speakingregions in the americas). It is alarming that our cultural awareness is so backwards that people do not know that the Hispanic (Iberian region of roman empire) link in the countries in the americas were the spanish and Portuguese empires. In addition when we use the term Latin (o) or Latin America we must add French speaking countries and regions such as Haiti, Quebec and French Guiana. In addition as there is a Latin America there is also a Latin Europe and for anyone interested, a Latin Union (http://www.unilat.org/).

[Vindictra]

07:44 PM on 05/22/2012

Then that makes obama a White African American!

[jodacollins]

01:02 AM on 04/27/2012

The point is that he is Hispanic. For example, is Obama called a "black-white man" or a "white-black man"? How come Another thing, does the media think all of us are stupid and do not know that Hispanics are not, typically, black? If you asked GZ what his nationality is, would he say, "White-hispanic"? Of course not. And, before the TM shooting, no one else would either. Why now? It promotes black-white tension in America and hate sells and promotes the personal agenda of some. No other reason. End of story.

[humanraces]

04:58 AM on 05/22/2012

There's also racism in the black community!.....Racism is everywhere but I strongly believe it was not a factor in this case (point period)...

[cop2122]

05:38 PM on 04/07/2012

Tell the GOP nit wits to pound sand Mr ZIMMERMAN IS WHITE!!!!!!! If he was not in this jam would he dispute that NO!!! If he was not in a jam would his DADDY dispute that Hell NO!!!!!!

[jodacollins]

01:03 AM on 04/27/2012

If you ask a hispanic what their nationality is, would they say "I am white?" Nope.

[humanraces]

05:05 AM on 05/22/2012

Hispanics/Latinos are consider a group and not a race

[leo leo]

01:52 PM on 12/06/2012

I sure it would depend who you ask.
Charlie Sheen would have an answer and Sammy Sosa will probably have a different one.

[fairchilds]

07:11 PM on 04/04/2012

This whole thing is silly. The initial media reports had GZ down as white, since that was the description on the police report.
After GZ's father came out with he was white and Hispanic, the media used white Hispanic since it was already out there that he was white.
I see it as more an attempt at clarification without appearing contradictory or erroneous on the part of media.

[court99]

05:58 PM on 04/05/2012

I agree that it is silly. What I find sillier is the argument that the media is using old pictures of Trayvon to gain sympathy....yet these same people making the argment have no problem with Zimmerman's ethnicity being used to say that he isn't racist.

In the end, it doesn't matter. A child was killed by a man who told 911 that he was following him. Any fight that followed, was still initiated by the man that followed the child. Conflicting reports means full investigation, and that wasn't done until the media pushed the issue.

[nvonr]

12:47 AM on 04/03/2012

President Obama is as much White, (50%) as Mr. Zimmerman. So, if the left wing media calls Zimmerman a White Hispanic why don't they call Obama a White African American?

[Rush Libraughl 83]

03:40 PM on 04/03/2012

I know a lot of people don't understand this but "African" and "Hispanic" are broad terms.
Meaning there are a LOT of African's around you wouldn't consider black, and there are a lot of Hispanics you wouldn't consider black, but there are in fact White Hispanic people, and Black Hispanic people, just like there are White Africans (see South Africa), Arab Africans (see Egypt), and Black Africans (see Nigeria).

I personally don't like the term White Hispanic in this context because it sounds like the media are deliberately trying to make this case a black and white one, but I don't like the term African American either because people assume that African American equals black.

I'm not saying that just because it's done on one end validates doing it on another, but I am saying that we should consider people as they are before we try to categorize them.

[Bigg Rodd]

01:53 PM on 04/06/2012

AGREED. He should be called a White-African American ... I don't get why all of white male America calls him a "Black" President .... Herman Cain would've been closer to being what is termed as a "Black" President ....

[sambiron]

04:24 AM on 04/02/2012

For anyone who is confused about what a Latino/Hispanic looks like, get a passport and pay a visit to various Spanish speaking countries. Take your pick from a few in the Caribbean,(Cuba, Dom. Republic and Puerto Rico) then choose among a few in North- Central America (México, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panamá) continue to South America (Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia) finally hop over to Europe and visit Spain (including The Canary Islands). When you come back answer the question: To what Race do Latinos-Hispanics belong?

[okitori]

05:27 AM on 04/02/2012

If they are here in the US they are Americans.

[serdelp]

06:15 PM on 04/02/2012

Very well put. Hispanics/Latinos are as varied as any other nationality in the world. They all certainly don't all look alike nor have the same racial traits or come from the same racial background. They are as White, blond, blue eyed to the darkest Ebony and everything in between. Ignorance, poor education, prejudice's and biased agendas is what perpetuates this terminology into something that is not. Once again....well said!

[Ciao99]

09:07 PM on 04/01/2012

Most Americans fail to see that Latin America is melting pot, and that includes lots of folks who have European ancestries. Puerto Rico takes the same US Census that the rest of us do, in 2000 82% checked off White.

[Texamigo]

07:15 PM on 04/01/2012

So if Hispanic is just an ethnicity and black is a race, I would hope no one here is advocating greater rights for a racial minority than an ethnic minority. Here's the test I'd apply: If Obama (half black and half white) is a "White African American" then I'm fine with Zimmerman being a "White Hispanic". What is bothering people is the effort at media manipulation here.

[Johnangry]

08:17 PM on 04/01/2012

There are plenty white African Americans. That would be someone who is white or descended from whites who moved from Africa to America. Orange County, CA is loaded with white African Americans. This extends to Indians, Arabs, Chinese, etc. The world is fairly complex. Also, a pure African from Equatoreal Guinea is considered Hispanic, Latino, but not Latin American.

To compare what a white Hispanic is, I will distinguish between them and Anglos. See below.

If the Anglo world was like the Hispanic world, this would mean US Americans, Nigerians, British, Australians, English-speaking Caribbeans, Canadians, Kenyans, South Africans (all races), Hong Kong residents, Singaporeans, Indians, etc are all exactly the same thing. This means the guy with dreads in Kingston is no different than Donald Trump.

[Dandywalker]

09:58 PM on 04/01/2012

Dude , it is obvious what orifice you speaking from. It is so ridiculous funny , it is sad

[redbird74]

11:06 AM on 04/02/2012

I witnessed a fist fight one time because a white person from S. Africa claimed to be an "African American" .. the black American didn't appreciate it one bit and popped them a good one.

[serdelp]

07:21 PM on 04/02/2012

No, there's no effort here to apply any manipulation. The fact is that the so called "Liberal Media" accurately portrayed Zimmerman as a "White Hispanic Male", making the right wing conservatives hit the ceiling because they all think that the "Liberal media" is falsely trying to make this into a "white on Black" crime. Mr. Zimmerman's father quickly came out in support of his son by exclaiming that his son wasn't a racist, because his son was half Hispanic. that logic is astounding, as if Hispanics are devoid of racism and a race. Regardless of any one's opinion on this issue, the fact remains that Mr. Zimmerman is indeed a white Hispanic, having a white father and a white Peruvian mother. Nationality and racial backgrounds are very much different and to say that Mr. Zimmerman isn't white because he's half Hispanic is not only an inaccurate statement but a very ignorant one. Hispanic is a culture not a race. One can be half Jewish and have Peruvian and still be 100% white. No no one here is advocating any greater racial to ethnic rights or vise a verse, I think people are just reading into this very hot controversial issue.

[redbird74]

08:53 PM on 04/02/2012

Why would 'white Hispanic' make this more about white than just 'white'? That doesn't even make sense.

Is there a link to a picture of his mother somewhere? I'd like to see it .. and his father for that matter. I've seen a couple of videos of him being interviewed with his face blacked out.. but his picture must be out on the internet somewhere since he was a Magistrate.

[Scott-Michael Anderson]

04:30 PM on 04/01/2012

Hear, hear Bernie Goldberg! Exposing those who are using this tragic minority-on-minority incident to further their own agenda.

[charleyvldm9]

03:40 PM on 04/01/2012

In America, one drop of 'black' blood makes you a blackman. In Spain we use the same one drop rule,one drop of 'white'blood makes you white, thats why Hispanics associate with white.

[redbird74]

08:23 PM on 04/02/2012

One drop sounds crazy, period. What constitutes as a 'drop'?

Google is [not :)] my friend.

"Both before and after the American Civil War, many people of mixed ancestry who "looked white" and were of mostly white ancestry were legally absorbed into the white majority.

State laws established differing standards. For instance, in 1822 Virginia law stated that to be defined as "mulatto" (that is, multi-racial), a person had to have at least one-quarter (equivalent to one grandparent) African ancestry.[5] This was a looser definition than the state's 20th-century "one-drop rule" under the 1924 Racial Integrity Act. This defined a person as legally "colored" (black) for classification and legal purposes if the individual had any African ancestry. "

This only happened in the 20's? Years prior [when it was supposedly worse race relation wise] they were more lax? Now, why would that be? What happened in the 20's ..

[redbird74]

08:29 PM on 04/02/2012

oh also.. check out the article on the Melungeons. Some think Abraham Lincoln was a Melungeon. I think Johnny Cash might've been as well. Johnny looked like he had ameri-Indian in him, but then I read he was Scottish. Well, he was not full ethnic Scot. He had something in him and the Melungeon could be it. They were [are] people of overwhelmingly "mixed European and sub-Saharan African" decent in parts of Appalachia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melungeons

[redbird74]

12:31 AM on 04/03/2012

Actually, looking at the YDNA % etc. They have lots of stuff. Turk, Jewish, several European .. Iberia.... Prussian.. wow that is wild.

[AnimalLover6]

01:54 PM on 04/01/2012

No mention, of course, of the deep racism that infects the American Latino community. I remember seeing a documentary by Henry Louis Gates, the African-American scholar, who visited South America and said the racism there was much worse than in the U.S. Also, many Latinos are self-hating, racially, and often claim the "white" label. I knew someone from Colombia who insisted that she was "white" because her skin was light-colored. Yet one look at her and it was obvious she was Latina--i.e., not Caucasian. She actually thought that when people looked at her, they thought she was "white." I was astounded. When I asked her about her family history, when we were first getting to know each other, she immediately went back three generations to some supposedly German ancestors--skipping over the indigenous people in her ancestry. And it's a well-known fact that in the Latino community, the lighter the skin the higher the status. Sad.

[Natec2]

03:20 PM on 04/01/2012

Sad & VERY true. I teach 95% Hispanic students and when racial issues are of conversation they say two things; they NOW hate white people, since all they see is white ppl on the news saying "go back to Mexico," & they have been taught to distrust, be racist, & NOT marry Black people.
Many of the Mexican women put their child's race down as "white" when they register them for school. A student told me 'the reason why Mexicans are so racist to Blacks is b/c when they get here (the US) they want to be white because they (whites) have all the money and nice cars. So like emulating the bully on the playground to become the bully, they do what they see white people do which is HATE & be racist to Blacks. They believe they must do what white people do in order to be white." It is incredible how the 1st social observation, after entry into the US by non-whites, is the apparent disdain for Black people. Such an acquiesce nature from a people whose reputation is derived from hard work & pride...
Many of these Hispanic children also believe that the FIRST humans on Earth were white, human life started in Europe, & Jesus himself was white.
The only reason why these Hispanic children (and white) are so honest with their "Black" teacher is that I, like most Black teachers at my school, am the complete antithesis of the racial bias they have been

[RobietheCat]

02:31 AM on 04/02/2012

Interesting, but I don't agree that this is something that first occurs as soon as they cross the border.

It is learned behavior. Taught by parents and the society they come from.

Ask any Black person in Mexico.

[serdelp]

04:26 PM on 04/01/2012

I'm sorry but I had a hard time understanding your post. I understand how this woman from Columbia claimed that she was white but you could see that she was obviously mixed with indigenous people of Columbia but are you also saying that all Hispanics cannot classify themselves as white?

[AnimalLover6]

06:46 PM on 04/01/2012

No, plenty of Hispanics are white, whether they are from Spain or Latin America. But, in general, I think Spain when I hear "Hispanic," and Central and South America when I hear "Latino." Of course I could understand that my friend came from "mixed" ancestry. My point was that she is racially dysmorphic: when she looks in the mirror, she willfully sees "white" and repudiates any of her very obvious indigenous racial features.

[Conservativepolicysucks]

02:08 AM on 04/01/2012

The original police report referred to Zimmerman as a "white" man, and the media copied this, until members of Zimmerman's family began to speak out.

[kushibo]

03:52 AM on 04/01/2012

Here's a snippet of the police report that says that:
http://www.monster-island.net/2012/04/disparate-thoughts-and-items-about.html

But was it his family that spoke out? He is part White, after all.

[serdelp]

12:22 PM on 04/01/2012

And the reason the Zimmerman family spoke against this description is because they didn't want it to seem like it was a white on black crime, preferring to say,since Mr. Zimmerman is half Hispanic,that he wasn't "white" and therefore not a racist crime. They forget that people aren't stupid, and know that "Hispanics" can be from any race, white, black or mixed. Simply saying that he wasn't being a racist because he was "Hispanic" is very ignorant and shows the length people will go to to say that this crime was not racially motivated. Hispanics can be just as prejudice as any other person, ethnicity doesn't negate this fact.

[Lorin Chane Partain]

09:38 PM on 03/31/2012

Does that mean that Obama is 'White-Black' ? When will we finally adopt MLK's view of racial apathy? WHEN?!?!?

[Nanab Nice]

11:56 PM on 03/31/2012

Yes. If that is how he self-identifies! Bi-racial means, two races...dUH

[chilidog 17]

09:47 AM on 04/06/2012

Nanab, Obama doesn't identify himself as "White-Black". In fact, he answered falsely on the 2010 census when he checked black instead of mixed race. Why would he not honestly answer that he has a white parent as well as a black parent, esp. since the white side of the family raised him? Maybe because he views the "typical white person", as he called his grandmother, as racist?

[RobietheCat]

02:36 AM on 04/02/2012

Racism is the height of folly, with many willing followers:

- Note the Spanish who are multi-racial and had been invaded by countless thousands, are ethnically 'diverse' to put it mildly.

The Japanese consider themselves racially 'pure' yet all evidence points to Chinese origins.

Practically no one is racially pure. But human beings will always find a reason to divide themselves along clearly demarcated lines.

[QuantumBios]

03:58 PM on 03/31/2012

Why don't they call him a jewish hispanic? Oh, yeah... From now on, Obama should be called "our first white black president", right?
Media race baiting...gotta love it. But it can only be against white people.

[dnorah]

04:46 PM on 03/31/2012

"...can only be against white people." Gee, would that be called racism?

[earthinretrograde]

05:56 PM on 03/31/2012

Now you understand the inanities or dividing people because of Race. Hopefully Race will go the way of other inaccurate science theories.