Reader Objects to the Label ‘Anglo’

An item in Westside Watch April 25 discussed the results of the recent election as they related to the “many enclaves of L.A.” The article stated that Richard Riordan ran first in the four council districts on the Westside with the “largest percentage of Anglo voters.”

As a Westside resident and a third-generation Irish-Hungarian American female, The Times’ persistent use of the term “Anglo” to describe me has been a growing source of irritation. This reference, with its implication that all Anglo voters are a homogenous group, was the last straw.

This misleading and incorrect characterization comes from a newspaper that rightfully prides itself as taking great pains to designate racial and ethic groups correctly. For example, the ethnic group formerly called “Hispanic” is now described correctly as “Latino.” Furthermore, if the article is discussing the female gender, the article refers to them as “Latinas,” consistent with the Spanish grammar. The same respect for correctness should likewise be accorded to the group of Angelenos whose skin color happens to be white.

Webster’s New World Dictionary (1970) defines the term “Anglo” as “English or Anglican,” and this designation is consistent with my understanding of that term. However, I am not English and, furthermore, I resent that designation. In fact, my ancestors on my father’s side left Ireland to escape English rule after numerous members of the family had starved to death in the potato famines of the mid 1800s.

Webster’s New World Dictionary (1970) also defines the term “Anglo” as having a unique application in the Southwestern United States, that it means a “white person of non-Mexican descent.” While it is correct that I am a white person and I am not of Mexican descent, this is an unacceptable definition because it defines by exclusion, and it is as objectionable as defining blacks as “nonwhites.” But more important, in the migrant labor area of northern Indiana where I was raised, as well as Los Angeles, the term “Anglo” has definite negative connotations and is at best a slang term and at worst an ethnic slur. Frankly, I am surprised that The Times would use this term.

Unfortunately, I do not have a universally applicable word to use instead of “Anglo” that would encompass the many groups of white people that The Times is attempting to group together. While I would have no problem with The Times’ using the term “European-American” to refer to me, this term would exclude individuals that are Iranian-American, North and South Africans, as well most individuals of Turkish descent. Consequently, I can only conclude that when The Times wants to be all inclusive of white people, it should simply use the term “white.” Perhaps the inability to find a term that correctly encompasses all white people should be an indication that such a grouping is not possible and certainly not politically correct.

MARY ELLEN HOGAN

Los Angeles