As an American I agree and this was also my reaction to the comment.

There are a number of these things, though. I personally get a little irritated with the way many people here use terms like "Hispanic" to contrast with "white people". To me, "Hispanic" is a wide spectrum of ethnicities but really more of a linguistic, cultural and national/political specifier, with lots of overlap with "white". People who are trying to be correct about this will pull out complicated phrases like "non-hispanic whites" which may be correct but are also clumsy, reflecting the absurdity of the way we categorize this country's social boundaries in the first place. "White" itself has had a fluid definition in the US over time, previously having excluded southern or eastern Europe, Jews, or even the Irish.

I know that in my own recent ancestry I have at least 4 European ethnicities, some of which would have been ridiculed by other Americans in the past. But this nuance washes away and I am a "white guy" which lumps me together with cultures I don't particularly identify with. There is no sense in denying, for example, that I am less discriminated against by appearance than other groups. But I do not think either that there is one homogeneous "white people" living in the United States.

Thanks for you comment! After all, the concept of "ethnicity" is highly debated and numerous definitions exist (just have a look at the wikipedia article). Many European countries don't even ask for "ethnicity" in their census; cultural minorities are often rather defined by their language because this is what practically matters regarding things like school, traffic signs, offices, court, etc.

Therefore I find it pretty odd that in the USA the idea of a uniform European "ethnicity" - largely defined by skin color! - is still very common and even officially practiced. I remember how I had to fill a form when entering the USA which asked for my "ethnicity". I was flabbergasted and just ticked "unknown" or something like that because I didn't want to identify myself as "Caucasian".

Officially practiced doesn't mean ideas are current and common. Government forms tend to be fossilized examples of culture and conventional wisdom from (sometimes many) decades ago. This is not unique to the US.

"To me, "Hispanic" is a wide spectrum of ethnicities but really more of a linguistic, cultural and national/political specifier"

Every form I can remember seeing in the US that asks whether you are Hispanic says that it includes people of any race.

So how do you like this election season?

> Every form I can remember seeing in the US that asks whether you are Hispanic says that it includes people of any race.

Yes, that is the "correct" thing that goes on the form, written by people who have bothered to look into this question. It isn't how people talk in casual speech.

What kind of "casual speech" are you referring to?

The kind you are likely to hear talking to random Americans. A lot of people you are likely to meet, of diverse backgrounds and origins, will talk about it imprecisely, and as if white and hispanic are contrasting terms.

I personally do not. Nor do those forms you are talking about. But it something I hear a lot out in the world.

Caucasian is a funny word to apply to Europeans since its a part of the area around present day Georgia and is a highly diverse ethnic mix of people which most people would classify as Central Asian (like Turks and Armenians for instance). Not exactly what you would think would be "white" which is what many Americans assume it means.

It does mean white/of European origin in American English. Just like entree means main dish. Both don’t correspond to the original meaning of the words. You can find similar shifts in meaning in other languages too (e.g., German calls a mobile/cell phone “Handy” which makes no sense to a native English speaker).

I question the wisdom of telling native speakers that their language uses a word wrong/that doesn’t mean what “they assume it means”. Stuff in AE (and other language) means exactly what AE speakers (and speakers of other languages) assume it means.

Cau·ca·sian /kôˈkāZHən/ NORTH AMERICAN white-skinned; of European origin.

‘Handy’ comes from the WWII ‘handie talkie’, a transceiver small enough to hold in the hand¹, which followed the ‘walkie talkie’, a transceiver small enough to walk around with².

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Portable_radio_SCR536.png

² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scr300.png

Meanwhile, at least in the modern US, "walkie talkie" is the name of the handheld unit and "handie talkie" would get weird looks because it's not really known.

Same in Germany when you're talking about radios.

I find that highly doubtful, since around 50 years passed between WWII and the advent of mobile phones. I heard that "handy" was some early model by Motorola.

And why did Motorola name it the “handy”?

Probably because it was handy.

I wonder if "Cauc" would be flagged.

> Not exactly what you would think would be "white" which is what many Americans assume it means.

Because that's exactly how some people teach the definition to mean.[0] I've always been told that to the people in Persia, the people that came across the Caucasus were much more pale skinned. Teachings also say those same people helped populate Europe. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people

Race is not a uniquely American concept. The Germans were the ones who first came up with the idea of a Caucasian race back in the 18th century. You're not wrong though, we should use White European instead since that's what it means today.

> The Germans were the ones who first came up with the idea of a Caucasian race back in the 18th century.

Yes, but it has been completely abandoned by the scientific and political mainstream for decades now. Using the word "Caucasian" will definitely give you some strange looks ;-)

> You're not wrong though, we should use White European instead since that's what it means today.

I agree, because it would make it clear what it is really about: lumping people together by their skin color. This is one of those examples where PC speech only helps to hide a problem instead of solving it.

That really doesn't resolve anything, and just further demonstrates the really weird relationship with race and nationality that Americans have.

Namely: Why would it be called "white EUROPEAN" when basically none of the people it is applied to are European in any reasonable sense of the word? They may have great-great-great-grandparents who were European, but that does not make them European.

Americans do this all the time - they call themselves "german", "irish", or "italian", even when they are not born there, do not speak the language, have never even visited the country, and have zero exposure to the culture of that country.

This is a debate about language conventions, I can assure you that 0% of Americans claiming to be European in this sense actually think they live in Europe or are actual Europeans. There are some that speak the language and have exposure to the culture, but that is not what they are saying in this context.

In America, a nation of immigrants, people are often proud of where their family came from. This can trickle down a few generations. There is an increasing number of people that identify as "American" instead of where their family originally immigrated from, particularly in Appalachia and the South, so this could eventually change.

I understand the frustration from a European point of view, but I just wanted to provide some context to the phenomenon.

> have zero exposure to the culture of that country.

Even when that’s true—-and it often isn’t--they usually mean that they’re part of a specific American subculture.

Italian-Americans, for example, traditionally celebrate Christmas Eve with a “Feast of the Seven Fishes.” This dinner isn’t traditional in Italy, but it’s also not common in other American cultures either. An Irish-American family might have a turkey instead but they’re more likely to “observe” St. Patrick’s Day by eating soda bread and corned beef.

Sure, those that have their own culture do exists, but a lot of times, it's not even that.

It's a weird mindset, and it's definitely tied in to the toxic streak of white supremacy that runs through all of American culture.