Let "Anglo" stay - Letters - Letter to the Editor

Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino, June-July, 2003 by H. Schwartz

I'd like readers to hear a different view about use (or misuse) of the term "Anglo".

In my native Canada, Anglo is simply an abbreviation of the term "anglophone". The term Anglo applies to anyone who speaks English at work and at home. It is not considered to be derogatory. Quite to the contrary, it is an economy of words.

Canada is a country where politics and demographics are defined by the Anglophone and Francophone populations. The term "allophone" is also used to describe someone whose mother tongue is neither English nor French. In her letter (Latino Leaders April/May 2003) Anita Savio brings to light a daunting task for some of us who immigrate to the United States: changes in "politically correct" terminology for race and ethnicity. Sometimes those changes happen rather quickly.

For example, an outsider who learned "Hispanic" was the proper term in its time, is now taught that it has been replaced by "Latino" (unless that has changed too). We don't have to look too far back to remember when it was correct to use the term "Negro" and then "Black" before "African American", and even then it is difficult to know whether a black is of African American lineage or Caribbean. Ms. Savio's letter reminded me of how easily a term can inadvertently cause hurt or insult. But it is worth keeping in mind, sometimes a word--is just a word.

H.Schwartz

Connecticut