[img]http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:fPux9lBCXlEC:cuisung.unige.ch/gif/crown.gif[/img] You are absolutely correct. The term hispanic is a fraudulent term used first in an official capacity by the U.S. Government Office of Management and Budget in 1978, but the term 'hispanic' was coined by Nixon to undercut the civil rights movement.

Once black and brown people that spoke Spanish were grouped with Argentinian and other "white" Spanish speakers, then there seemed to be a bigger division between black and brown Spanish surnamed-americans and black americans; eg. a Puerto Rican with African genes who was in essence "Black"(anything from Halle Berry looking to Sinbad to Denzel to Wesley Snipes) except for being Bi-lingual, was now grouped with blonde blue-eyed "Cameron Diaz/Martin Sheen" types.

This "lumping together" was very shrewdly orchestrated by "slick polititians" in order to confuse and divide folks with African "blood".

It is tantamount to calling a Jamaican, an Englishman, a Southerm American man and a bi-racial man "The Anglo Race", just because they all speak English.

New immigrants of all colors readily accept this categorization because since the USA is infamous all over the world for it's treatment of their African-American Citizens (say what you want about "whining" the US has an ugly history which we call ancient but 100 years is a blink of an eye to China, Africa and the middle east) they ignorantly think they can escape this treatment. But pigmentation doesn't allow them to blend in like Europeans and Eastern-Europeans are able to do in one generation, or "White" so-called hispanics can do by changing their name or marrying a white american.

So, Saladbar, you are right,Hispanic is NOT a race.