Jeb Bush and His Hispanic “Descent”
It was recently reported that Jeb Bush self-identified as Hispanic in a 2009 voter-registration application. Yes, Jeb Bush, brother of former President George W. Bush and son of former President George H. W. Bush identified himself as Hispanic. It is not that hard to realize that this self-identification is blatantly false, considering that the Bush family is a well known and prominent family whose history can be traced back to the early colonization of the United States. Albeit this could have been an innocent mistake on Bush’s part, it leads us to the bigger issue of Bush and other politicians manipulating their identity for voter sympathy, in this case votes from Hispanic citizens.
In a recent tweet, which was re-tweeted by Bush himself, Jeb Bush Jr., son of Jeb Bush uses the hashtag #HonoraryLatino to describe his father, which in a sense trivializes being Latino. Using the phrase “Honorary Latino” completely ignores and undermines the Hispanic/Latino experience in America. I am not Latino myself, but I do know that being Hispanic in America goes far beyond the label, much like being black in America, which is something I do know about, being black myself. Growing up as any minority in America, you are persistently reminded of the fact that you are, indeed, a minority. These reminders come in the form of micro-aggressions, macro-aggressions, the media, etc. There is no escaping your identity.
And that’s what an identity is. It’s inescapable. It’s a part of you. Jeb Bush can escape this self-identification, because it’s not his original identity. It’s not who he is. Society will never see him as Hispanic, and therefore he will not receive the reminders and will not be ostracized from the “norm.” To say that he does would be nothing short of offensive. When Jeb Bush checks the box next to Hispanic/Latino in his voter registration form, he is saying, “I am Latino. Society says I am Latino, and therefore I am reminded everyday that I am Latino and not something else.”
Yes, Jeb Bush is married to a Hispanic woman, but what does that say about his identity? Not much. Many people claim that he can identify as Hispanic because of his wife’s own identity and the subsequent identities of his children as mixed race. At the end of the day, however, Jeb Bush was born Caucasian. It would be preposterous for one of my incredibly close non-black friends to identify as black because they are close with me.
Identity is also about how one was born. Jeb Bush was not born to Hispanic parents and has no Hispanic ancestry, so how can he possibly say that he is Hispanic? There are so many factors that play into one’s identification and to alter your identification for political means does not change who you are. Votes from Hispanic citizens are important in American politics, especially for a politician such as Bush. Identifying as a member of this ethnicity is not the right way to gain these votes. There is no such thing as an “Honorary Latino;” there is only a Latino.
Bush is not the only politician to fall under scrutiny for his or her own self-identification. In 2012 Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts senator, was engulfed in controversy when it was reported that she identified as Native American in her Harvard faculty directories. While it could very much be possible that Warren is of Native American ancestry, like many Americans, she is not seen in the public eye as Native American and was not born to Native American parents. My great-grandfather was white, but I will never identify and will never be able to identify as white because no one will ever look at me and say, “He is most definitely white.” Due to this, I am subject to experiences that define my identity as black.
It is hard to justify Jeb Bush’s identification as Hispanic. While it is a mechanism of campaigning in order to appeal to a specific group of voters, Bush can do so by tackling issues relevant to the Latino/Hispanic population in America. He does not need to convince Hispanic voters that he “understands” them or is Hispanic himself. He can show that Hispanic voters are important to him by showing a genuine care, a trait that politicians often overlook. That is the key to gaining voter sympathy, by showing sympathy yourself. ♥