Funny how you dont see the ignorance and racism of such a comment.
I'll cut to the chase: Hispanics can be of any race.
Sure. So can Irishmen. Phil Lynott, for example. When I was in college, there was a guy on my dorm floor with blonde hair and blue eyes who was full-blooded Spanish on both sides of his family.
All true, but it's kind of disingenuous to pretend that there are not physical characteristics that people associate with certain origins. I suppose if you want to be technical, my stepsons are a mix of German, English, Native American (Aztec? Mayan? IDK.) and Spanish.
But they have brown skin and black hair brown eyes. People who see them for the first time will most likely assume, correctly in this case, that they have Central or South American ancestry. And most will assume Mexican (again correctly).
In the real world, people make initial assessments of people's origins by appearance. People with my stepson's appearance will generally be perceived to be Hispanic (or Latino) despite the fact that there are a great many Hispanic people who look otherwise. (Technically their appearance suggests a subset of Hispanic.) Noting that is not racism, it's observation.
Also, I don't consider it racist to make an initial "guess" of someone's ancestry based on outward signs. Making judgments on their character or acting differently towards them based on that guess is what is racist.
Now, I also know that the Hispanic community, in Chicago at least, is not homogenous. From comments from my wife's friends (Mexican, Chilean, Peruvian, and others) some of them look at the other groups negatively. ("He's a little too Columbian for my taste." Said by a Mexican friend. I think it was an insinuation about drugs. Another from Chile expressed a low opinion of Mexicans.)
