Talk:Steven Mintz

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Steven Mintz' introduction to "Mexican American Voices reads largely Eurocentric and rather uninformed on current terminology and the importance of word choice to communicate ideas. What is his ethnic background and that of his parents? I see no indication of this history here on Wikipedia. I am curious to know what qualifies him to testify as an expert on Mexican American experience and sentiment. Mercedesamacias (talk) 20:39, 24 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The ethnicity of his parents is no more relevant to validity or shortcomings of his views than the ethnicity of your parents is to the validity yours. From the pieces of the Introduction that the Google Book allows, he seems to be introducing Mexican Americans to speak on their own in the rest of the volume. If nobody whose parents are not of a certain group can speak about that group, then can Mexican Americans speak about any group but their own? I, for one, argue that Mexican American voices are essential in the general conversation and would not exclude any group from speaking.

Of course, any particular voice can be right or wrong, helpful or not, so this is not necessarily to defend what Mintz says, only the need for him to say it.ch (talk)