3. Let me put it this way: Today people are generally horrified by the IMMENSE pressure we put on southern and eastern Europeans to basically become as much as possible like the WASP majority. We made them drop their names, customs, food, religion, etc. But how successfully do you think Italians, Greeks, Poles, Russians, etc. would have assimilated into society if we had more modern policies in place? Like bilingual education, ballots, housing forms, mandated recognition of their customs/holidays, government recognition of them as separate ethnicities, etc..? They wouldn't have assimilated as fast if ever. Doubtful they'd be perceived as white eventually either. And obviously a lot of people in those groups are as dark if not darker looking than "hispanics"...
I would note that the Scots-Irish and Irish-Irish faced the same sort of treatment from WASPs (hell, it's still considered acceptable in 'polite' society, such as this site, to talk about the stupid lazy ignorant redneck hillbillies in the former case). This despite their coming from variations on the same culture as WASPs, and looking pretty much the same too. The fear and hatred of the 'other' is deeply ingrained and oftentimes highly irrational even by the standards of bigotry.
