Race is a pigment of our imagination. It is a social status, not a biological one; a product of history, not of nature; a contextual variable, not a given. The concept of race is a historically contingent, relational, subjective phenomenon, yet it is typically misbegotten as a natural, fixed trait of phenotypic difference inherent in human bodies, independent of human will or intention.
Racial categories (and the supposed differences that they connote) are infused with stereotypical moral meaning. What is called "race" today is chiefly an outcome of intergroup struggles, marking the boundaries, and thus the identities, of "us" and "them" along with attendant ideas of social worth or stigma. As such, "race" is an ideological construct that links supposedly innate traits of individuals to their place in the social order.
The dominant "racial frame" that evolved in the United States — during the long colonial and national era of slavery and after it — was that of white supremacy. But how do persons classified as Latinos or Hispanics fit into the country's racial frame today?
Are Hispanics a "race" or, more precisely, a racialized category? In fact, are they even a "they"? Is there a Latino or Hispanic ethnic group, cohesive and self-conscious, sharing a sense of peoplehood in the same way that there is an African American people in the United States? Or is it mainly administrative shorthand devised for statistical purposes; a one-size-fits-all label that subsumes diverse peoples and identities?
This article considers these questions, focusing primarily on official or state definitions and on the malleable way the categories of Hispanic and Latino are incorporated into the psyches of those so classified.
The Hispanic-Latino Population Today
The groups included under the label "Hispanic" or "Latino" — Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Salvadorans, Colombians, and the many other nationalities from Latin America and even Spain itself — were not "Hispanics" or "Latinos" in their countries of origin; rather, they only became so once they arrived in the United States. As such, the labels of Hispanic and Latino have a particular meaning only in the US context in which it was constructed and is applied, and where its meaning continues to evolve.
The Hispanic population of the United States reached 50.5 million in 2010, comprising 16.3 percent of the US population. (This total excludes the population on the island of Puerto Rico, who are US citizens by birthright but not US residents.)
Hispanics surpassed African Americans in 2003 to become the largest pan-ethnic minority in the country. According to the latest estimates of the US Census Bureau, by 2050 the Hispanic population is projected to grow to more than 130 million people, or 30 percent of the national population. By comparison, the non-Hispanic black population in 2050 is projected to comprise about 13 percent of the national total, and the Asian population 8 percent.
Hispanics or Latinos are a diverse group, made up both of recently arrived newcomers and of old timers with deep ancestral roots in what is now the United States. But it is also a population that has emerged seemingly suddenly, its growth driven both by accelerating immigration from the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America — above all from Mexico — and by high rates of natural increase. Indeed, over 40 percent of Hispanics in the United States today are foreign born, while about one-third consists of a second generation of native-born children of immigrant parents.
Creating a "Hispanic or Latino" Category in Official Statistics
Although certain methods of identifying and counting people of Mexican ancestry in the United States were in place as early as 1850, efforts to distinguish and enumerate the "Hispanic" population as a whole using subjective indicators of Spanish origin or descent date back to the late 1960s.
At that time — in the context of surging civil-rights activism, new federal legislation that required accurate statistical documentation of minority groups' disadvantages, and growing concerns over differential census undercounts — Mexican-American organizations, in particular, pressed for better data about their group.
The White House ordered the addition of a Spanish-origin self-identifier on the 1970 census "long-form" questionnaire and, to test it, the question was added to the November 1969 Current Population Survey (CPS) — the first time that a subjective item such as this was used in the collection of government statistics.
Later analyses comparing the results nationally of the (subjective) Hispanic self-identification in the CPS against the (objective) use of Spanish surnames in the identification of Hispanic households found significant differences between the two measures, raising questions of validity and reliability.
For example, in the Southwest, only 74 percent of those who identified themselves as Hispanic had Spanish surnames, while 81 percent of those with Spanish surnames identified themselves as Hispanic. In the rest of the country, 61 percent of those who self-identified as Hispanic had Spanish surnames, and a mere 46 percent of those with Spanish surnames self-identified as Hispanic.
Then, in 1976, Congress passed a remarkable bill "relating to the publication of economic and social statistics for Americans of Spanish origin or descent" — the first and only law in US history that defines a specific ethnic group and mandates the collection, analysis, and publication of data for that group.
The law asserted that there was a need to identify the "urgent and special needs" of the 12 million Americans who identified themselves as being of Spanish-speaking origins in the 1970 census, a large number of whom "suffer from racial, social, economic, and political discrimination and are denied the basic opportunities that they deserve as American citizens"
In 1977, as required by Congress, the Office of Management and Budget issued Directive 15: Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting to standardize the collection and reporting of racial and ethnic statistics and to include data on persons of "Hispanic origin."
Directive 15 specified a minimal classification of four races ("American Indian or Alaskan Native," "Asian or Pacific Islander," "Black," and "White") and two "ethnic" backgrounds ("of Hispanic origin" and "not of Hispanic origin"), and allowed the collection of more detailed information as long as it could be aggregated within those categories.
Since that time, in keeping with the logic of this classification, census data on Hispanics have been officially reported with a footnote indicating that "Hispanics may be of any race."
Later criticism of the ethnic and racial categories led to a formal review of Directive 15, beginning in 1993 with congressional hearings and culminating in revised standards, which were adopted in 1997. The changes stipulated five minimum categories for data on "race" ("American Indian or Alaska Native," "Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander," "Asian," "Black or African American," and "White"); offered respondents the option of selecting one or more racial designations (an option used for the first time in the 2000 census); and reworded the two "ethnic" categories into "Hispanic or Latino" and "not Hispanic or Latino."
The notice in the Federal Register of these revisions to Directive 15 pointedly added that "The categories in this classification are social-political constructs and should not be interpreted as being scientific or anthropological in nature... The standards have been developed to provide a common language for uniformity and comparability in the collection and use of data on race and ethnicity by Federal agencies."
Nonetheless, Directive 15's definitions of racial and ethnic populations are used not only by federal agencies, but also by researchers, schools, hospitals, businesses, and state and local governments — and are conflated, abridged, and diffused through the mass media, entering into the popular culture and shaping the national self-image.
Nation, Race, and Place in the 2000 Census
Much has been made in the media and even in academic discourse about "the browning of America," a misnomer based on stereotypes of an appearance presumed to characterize people of Spanish-speaking origin.
But does the Hispanic population differ significantly from non-Hispanics by race, as it does by place, socioeconomic status, and national origins?
The American system of racial classification, employed variously since the first census of 1790, has been the epitome of externally imposed, state-sanctioned measures of group difference, primarily distinguishing the majority-white population from black and American Indian minority groups, and later from Asian-origin populations.
Yet Hispanics were incorporated in official statistics as an ethnic category, and considered as being of any race. Moreover, prior to 1970 Mexicans were almost always coded as white for census purposes, and were deemed white by law (if not by custom) since the 19th century.
How then are racial categories internalized by Hispanics? Are there intergroup and intragroup differences in their patterns of racial self-identification? Since 1980, the census has asked separate questions for Hispanic or Latino origin and for race, permitting an examination of how Hispanics or Latinos self-report by race and country of origin.
Intergroup Differences in Racial Identification
Despite increasing immigration from a wider range of Latin American countries over the past few decades, persons of Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban origin comprised 77 percent of the 35.2 million Hispanics counted by the 2000 census, with Mexicans alone accounting for 63 percent. (This trend is sure to continue when the detailed data from the 2010 census on the specific countries of ethnicity within the Hispanic/Latino category are released. The proportion of persons of Mexican descent almost certainly increased to account for two-thirds of the 50.5 million Hispanics counted in 2010.)
Much of the remainder of the Hispanic population in 2000 was made up of six groups of relatively recent immigrant origin: Dominicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans comprised 7 percent of the total while Colombians, Peruvians, and Ecuadorians made up nearly 4 percent.
Hence, nine nationality groups accounted for nine out of ten (88 percent) Hispanics in the United States in 2000. Persons who trace their identities to the ten other Spanish-speaking countries of Central and South America, plus Spain, comprised only 4 percent of the Hispanic total. And only 8 percent self-reported as "other Spanish, Hispanic or Latino" in the 2000 census, without indicating a specific national origin.
Overall, only half of the 35.2 million Hispanics counted by the 2000 census reported their race as white (48 percent), black (1.8 percent), or Asian (0.3 percent). In contrast, 97 percent of the 246.2 million non-Hispanics counted reported their race either as white (79 percent), black (14 percent), or Asian (4 percent).
Most notably, there was a huge difference in the proportion of these two populations that chose "other race." While scarcely any non-Hispanics (0.2 percent) reported being of some other race, among Hispanics that figure was 43 percent — a reflection of more than four centuries of mixed European and Native American heritage in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as differing histories and conceptions of what race means.
In addition, Hispanics in the 2000 census were more than three times as likely to report a mixture of "two or more races" — 6.4 percent of Hispanics compared with only 2 percent of non-Hispanics — although among Hispanics who listed this option, the overwhelming majority (85 percent) specified "white" plus another race.
Still, the main divide among Hispanics was between the 48 percent who self-identified racially as "white" in 2000 and the 43 percent who rejected all the official categories and reported "other race" instead. (The corresponding aggregated figures have widened to 53 percent and 38 percent in the 2010 census, but the main patterns analyzed below continue to apply a decade later.)
Examining the results for each of the main Hispanic nationality groups, the proportions who identified racially as "white" ranged from a low of 22 percent among Dominicans to a high of 84 percent among Cubans.
More than half of Dominicans (59 percent) and Salvadorans and Guatemalans (55 percent) reported "another race," as did 46 percent of Mexicans, 42 percent of Peruvians and Ecuadorians, 38 percent of Puerto Ricans, 28 percent of Colombians, and less than 8 percent of Cubans. The most likely to identify as "black" were Dominicans (8.2 percent), while the "other Spanish, Hispanic or Latino" were the most likely to identify as multiracial (10.7 percent).
Intragroup Differences in Race and Place
Self-reported race varies not only between origin groups, but also within them — and over time and place as well.
An examination of 2000 census data on self-reported "race" for the largest Hispanic groups broken down by the largest states — California and Texas in the Southwest (where Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans are most concentrated), and New York-New Jersey and Florida along the East Coast (where the Caribbean groups are concentrated) — is quite revealing.
In California, 40 percent of the Mexican-origin population reported as "white" and 53 percent reported as "other race," compared with 60 percent who reported as "white" and 36 percent who reported as "other race" in Texas. Similar, if less pronounced, patterns were observed for Salvadorans and Guatemalans in those two states: they were significantly more likely to be "white" in Texas and "other" in California.
Table 2. "Race" Self-reported by Largest Hispanic Groups in Selected States, 2000 Census
Even more striking is the degree of difference in the geography of race among Caribbean groups: all were far more likely to be "white" in Florida than in New York-New Jersey. For example, 67 percent of the Puerto Ricans in Florida reported that they were "white," compared with only 45 percent in New York-New Jersey; the respective percentages for Cubans were 92 and 73 percent; for Dominicans, 46 and 20 percent; for Colombians, 78 and 46 percent.
If race were a biological and permanent trait of individuals, no such variability would exist. Instead, these data exemplify how race is constructed socially, historically, and spatially. Lingering historical prejudices in the former slave states of the American South and the relatively more-open social dynamics of the Northeast and West coasts may invite varying degrees of willingness to self-identify in different ways.
Such contextual differences are supported by other relevant data. A census conducted by the United States when it occupied Puerto Rico in 1899 found that 62 percent of the inhabitants were "white," as were 65 percent of those counted in the 1910 island census. That proportion grew to 73 percent in 1920, and 80 percent by 1950 — an increase that could not be accounted for by demographic processes, institutional biases, or other explanations, and has been attributed to changes in the social definition of whiteness and the influence of "whitening" ideology on the island.
The 2000 census conducted in Puerto Rico found that 81 percent of the population on the island self-reported as "white" — notably higher than the 67 percent of Puerto Ricans who self-reported as "white" in Florida and the 45 percent who did so in the New York region.
The Malleable Meaning of "Race"
While the Census Bureau has established "Hispanic" and "Latino" as ethnic categories and not racial ones, the meaning of "race" to individuals seems to vary depending not only on social and historical contexts, but also on the way in which questions are asked and the response format provided in conventional surveys.
In a survey of more than 400 Dominican immigrants in New York City and Providence, Rhode Island, the adult respondents were asked a series of three questions about their racial self-identification.
First they were asked in an open-ended format how they defined themselves racially. Next they were given a close-ended question, asking if they were white, black, or other (and if other, to specify). Finally they were asked how they thought that "mainstream Americans" classified them racially. All three questions were basically getting at the same thing: the respondent's racial identity. The results are summarized in Table 3.
In response to the first open-ended question, 28 percent gave "Hispanic" as their race, another 4 percent said "Latino," and still others offered a variety of mixed "Hispanic" or "Latino" answers; 13 percent said "Indio," and another 13 percent gave their Dominican nationality as their race. Of all respondents, only 6.6 percent chose "black" and 3.8 percent "white." The rest of the responses showed the extraordinary range of racial categories and labels common in the Spanish Caribbean.
When asked to choose their race in the close-ended format of the second question, the largest response remained "Hispanic" (written in by 21 percent of the sample, in addition to 3 percent who chose "Latino"), though the categories "black" and "white" now more than doubled to 16.8 and 11.6 percent, respectively.
And when asked how they thought others classified them racially, the category "black" dramatically increased to 37 percent and "white" decreased to 6.4 percent. "Hispanic" was still selected by almost one-third of the sample (30.4 percent) as the racial category that they perceived others used to classify them. Indeed, "Hispanic" was the label most consistently given by the respondents to characterize their own racial identity, whether self-asserted or imposed upon them by others.
The "Race" of Immigrant Parents and their Children
Another study found that, in addition to significant change in their ethnic self-identities over time and generation in the United States (as measured by open-ended questions), the offspring of Latin American immigrants were by far the most likely to define their racial identities differently than their own parents.
During the 1990s in South Florida and Southern California, the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) surveyed a sample of more than 5,200 second-generation youths representing 77 different nationalities, including all of the main Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America, and their immigrant parents. In one survey, the youths (aged 17 and 18) were asked to answer a semi-structured question about their race, and were given the option to check one of five categories: "white," "black," "Asian," "multiracial," or "other." If the latter was checked, they had to specify the other race.
Among the Latin American-origin youths, less than a fourth of the total sample checked the conventional categories of white, black, or Asian; 12 percent reported being multiracial; and over 65 percent checked "other." When those "other" self-reports were coded, it turned out that 41 percent of the sample wrote down "Hispanic" or "Latino" as their race, and another 19.6 percent gave their nationality as their race.
The explicit racialization of the Hispanic-Latino category, as well as the substantial proportion of youths who conceived of their nationality of origin as a racial category, are noteworthy both for their potential long-term implications in hardening minority-group boundaries and for their illustration of the arbitrariness of racial constructions. It is indicative of the ease with which an ethnic category developed for administrative purposes becomes externalized, diffused, accepted, and finally internalized as a marker of social difference.
The latter point is made particularly salient by directly comparing the youths' notions of their race with that reported by their own parents. The closest match in racial self-perceptions between parents and children were observed among Haitians, Jamaicans, and other West Indians (most of whom self-reported as black), among Europeans and Canadians (most of whom labeled themselves white), and among most of the Asian-origin groups (except for Filipinos).
The widest mismatches by far (and hence the most ambiguity in self-definitions of race) occurred among all of the Latin American-origin groups without exception: about three-fifths of Latin parents defined themselves as white, compared with only one-fifth of their own children.
Table 4. Self-reported “Race” of Children of Immigrants and their Parents, by National Origin Groups
The results of this survey point to the force of the acculturation process and its impact on children's self-identities in the United States, providing another striking instance of the malleability of racial constructions. More fully exposed than their parents to American culture and its ingrained racial notions, and being incessantly categorized and treated as Hispanic or Latino, the children of immigrants seemingly learn to see themselves in these terms — as members of a racial minority — and even to racialize their national origins.
If these intergenerational differences between Latin American immigrants and their US-raised children can be projected to the third generation, the process of racialization could become more entrenched still.
Conclusion
Although a single label implies otherwise, "Hispanics" or "Latinos" are not a homogeneous entity. Many families classified as such can trace their roots in the United States back many generations, and even the newcomers differ notably in national and social-class origins, legal statuses, cultural backgrounds, and phenotypes (many mixing indigenous pre-Columbian ancestries with European, African, and Asian roots).
And, as the data show, there are vast differences in the way in which these various groups see themselves racially and ethnically, and in the way in which they are perceived by others. Divisions are evident between regions and groups, within groups, and even within families.
Nonetheless, despite sometimes profound group and generational differences among them, the tens of millions of persons classified as Hispanic do share a common label that symbolizes minority-group status in the United States. This is a label developed and legitimized by the state, diffused in daily and institutional practice, and finally internalized — and racialized — as a prominent part of the American mosaic.
That this outcome is, at least in part, a self-fulfilling prophecy, does not make it any less real. But the reliance on "Hispanic" or "Latino" as a catch-all category is misleading, concealing the multiple origins and the uncertain destinies of the peoples so labeled.
Author Bio: Rubén G. Rumbaut, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine, is the author of numerous publications on immigration topics and the founding chair of the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association.
This article is based on an earlier essay, "Pigments of Our Imagination: On the Racialization and Racial Identities of 'Hispanics' and 'Latinos'," which was originally published in the 2009 book How the U.S. Racializes Latinos: White Hegemony and Its Consequences, edited by José A. Cobas, Jorge Duany, and Joe R. Feagin.
The full text of the original essay, which includes a more in-depth historical and legal discussion than that which is presented here, is Available online.Pigments of Our Imagination: On the Racialization and Racial Identities of "Hispanics" and "Latinos."
Originally published on Migration Information Source: April 2011
Editors Note: Free downloadable PDF version available by clicking here and selecting the Add to Cart button.
Sources and further reading:
Alba, Richard D., Rubén G. Rumbaut, and Karen Marotz. 2005. "A Distorted Nation: Perceptions of Racial/Ethnic Group Sizes and Attitudes toward Immigrants and Other Minorities." Social Forces 84, 2: 899-917.
Aleinikoff, T. Alexander, and Rubén G. Rumbaut. 1998. "Terms of Belonging: Are Models of Membership Self-Fufilling Prophecies?" Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, 13, 1: 1-24.
Almaguer, Tomás. 1994. Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Choldin, Harvey M. 1986. "Statistics and Politics: The 'Hispanic Issue' in the 1980 Census." Demography 23, 3: 403-418.
Duany, Jorge. 2002. The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identities on the Island and in the United States. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Fears, Darryl. 2003. "The Roots of 'Hispanic:' 1975 Committee of Bureaucrats Produced Designation," Washington Post, October 15.
Feagin, Joe R. 2006. Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression. New York: Routledge.
Foley, Neil. 2004. "Straddling the Color Line: The Legal Construction of Hispanic Identity in Texas." Pp. 341-357 in Nancy Foner and George Frederickson, eds., Not Just Black and White: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Franklin, Benjamin. 1751. "Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, &c." Available Online.
Gates, Jr., Henry Louis. 1986. "Race," Writing, and Difference. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gómez, Laura E. 2007. Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race. New York: New York University Press.
Haney López, Ian. 2006. White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race. Revised and updated edition. New York: New York University Press.
Haub, Carl. 2006. "Hispanics Account for Almost One-Half of U.S. Population Growth." PRB Report (February). Washington DC: Population Reference Bureau.
Itzigsohn, José. 2004. "The Formation of Latino and Latina Panethnic Identities." Pp. 197-216 in Nancy Foner and George Frederickson, eds., Not Just Black and White: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Johnson, Kevin. 2005. "The Forgotten 'Repatriation' of Persons of Mexican Ancestry and Lessons for the 'War on Terror." Pace Law Review, 26, 1: 1-26.
Kanstroom, Daniel. 2007. Deportation Nation: Outsiders in American History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Landale, Nancy S., and R.S. Oropesa. 2002. "White, Black, or Puerto Rican? Racial Self-Identification among Mainland and Island Puerto Ricans." Social Forces 81:231-254.
Langley, Lester D. 2003. The Americas in the Modern Age. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Loveman, Mara, and Jerónimo O. Muñiz. 2007. "How Puerto Rico Became White: Boundary Dynamics and Inter-Census Racial Reclassification." American Sociological Review 72, 6: 915-939.
Maltby, William S. 1968. The Black Legend in England: The Development of Anti-Spanish Sentiment, 1558-1560. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Menjívar, Cecilia, and Rubén G. Rumbaut, "Rights of Racial and Ethnic Minorities and Migrants: Between Rhetoric and Reality." Pp. 60-73 in Judith Blau, David Brunsma, Alberto Moncada, and Catherine Zimmer, eds., The Leading Rogue State: The United States and Human Rights. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2008
Montejano, David. 1987. Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Ngai, Mae N. 2004. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Olivas, Michael A., ed. 2006. "Colored Men" and "Hombres Aquí:" Hernández v. Texas and the Rise of Mexican American Lawyering. Houston: Arte Público Press.
Passel, Jeffrey S., and D'Vera Cohn. 2008. "U.S. Population Projections: 2005-2050." Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center.
Portes, Alejandro, and Rubén G. Rumbaut. 2001. Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation. Berkeley and New York: University of California Press; Russell Sage Foundation.
Rumbaut, Luis E. and Rubén G. Rumbaut. 2007. "'If That Is Heaven, We Would Rather Go to Hell:' Contextualizing U.S.-Cuba Relations." Societies Without Borders 2, 1: 131-152.
Rumbaut, Rubén G. 2006. "The Making of a People." Pp. 16-65 in Marta Tienda and Faith Mitchell (eds.), Hispanics and the Future of America. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
— — — . 2005. "Sites of Belonging: Acculturation, Discrimination, and Ethnic Identity among Children of Immigrants." Pp. 111-163 in Thomas S. Weisner, ed., Discovering Successful Pathways in Children's Development: New Methods in the Study of Childhood and Family Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Snipp, C. Matthew. 2003. "Racial Measurement in the American Census: Past Practices and Implications for the Future." Annual Review of Sociology, 29: 563-88.
Telles, Edward E. and Vilma Ortiz. 2008. Generations of Exclusion: Mexican Americans, Assimilation, and Race. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Tienda, Marta, et al. 2006. Multiple Origins, Uncertain Destinies: Hispanics and the American Future. Washington DC: National Academies Press.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. 1969 [1832]. Democracy in America. Translated by George Lawrence; edited by J.P. Mayer. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor.
U.S. Census Bureau. 2010. 2010 Census Questionnaire Reference Book. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Available Online.
— — — . 2008. "U.S. Hispanic Population Surpasses 45 Million, Now 15 Percent of Total." Available online:
— — — . 2003. "Guidance on the Presentation and Comparison of Race and Hispanic Origin Data." Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Available Online.
— — — . 1997. Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Available Online
— — — . 1975. Comparison of Persons of Spanish Surname and Persons of Spanish Origin in the United States. Technical Paper No. 38 . Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Walton, John. 2001. Storied Land: Community and Memory in Monterey. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Weber, David J., ed. 1973. Foreigners in their Native Land: Historical Roots of the Mexican Americans. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Weber, David J. 1992. The Spanish Frontier in North America. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Zolberg, Aristide. 2006. A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
In its definitions of ethnicity, the US Census Bureau says ethnicity is a distinct and separate classification from race in the census. All respondents are asked to categorize themselves as a member of one of two ethnicities: "Hispanic, Latino or Spanish Origin" or "Not Hispanic, Latino or Spanish Origin."
People of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin are defined as "those who trace their origin or descent to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Spanish-speaking countries of Central or South America, and other Spanish cultures."
Once a respondent claims "Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin," they are asked to further designate which country or countries to which they trace their origin.
Origin can be the "heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States."
"Hispanics or Latinos" may be of any race.
Race is not defined biologically, anthropologically, or genetically by the US Census Bureau. Racial categories in the 2010 Census were:
- "White"
- "Black, African American, or Negro"
- "American Indian or Alaska Native"
- "Asian Indian"
- "Chinese"
- "Filipino"
- "Japanese"
- "Korean"
- "Vietnamese"
- "Other Asian"
- "Native Hawaiian"
- "Guatemalan or Chamorro"
- "Samoan"
- "Other Pacific Islander"
- "Some Other Race"
Comments
Race is not always a definite
Race is not always a definite variable. I am of my different backgrounds, yet when given a survey I will only mark off one of my backgrounds. People tend to either put down what they believe they are based on skin color, based on where they and their parents were born, or based on what ethnicity they mainly are.
People self- identify with what they want to identify with. People who are raised being called a minority, identify with that. Race does not truly define who we are and we should not let it. People are from different and mixed backgrounds, but they are all human.
I definitely agree that
I definitely agree that individuals should be viewed as humans, not by their skin color. In an ideal world, institutional racism would not exist. Our skin color would be the last thing someone notices, and it would have no impact whatsoever on our success. Can you imagine how many conflicts would be avoided if race were not an issue?
Unfortunately we live in a world far from perfection. Biologically and anthropologically speaking, race is insignificant. Psychologically and sociologically speaking, however, race makes all the difference in the world. We are not color-blind, we are raised to discriminate, to categorize, to generalize. It is because of this reality that we must have the difficult conversation on race, privilege, and oppression. Regardless of how deep we bury our heads in the sand, the problem unfortunately still remains.
People need to embrace who
People need to embrace who they are and where they come from. The second people are ashamed of their race or background, the second you give others to act racist toward you. America has so many different people with different cultures and ideals. This is what makes us a great country. We are not one dimensional. We can learn new things from people everyday, and continue to grow as people and as a nation. They key is just to have an open mind and not be too quick to judge. You may think that someone is completely different than you are, but unless you interact with them you will never know for sure.
T totally agree with
I totally agree with this everyone should be treated equal and also that even thought many people come from different countries, they still deserve the same opportunities that the others get.
Race as a Social Construction
Race can definitely be seen as a social construction in today's society, most especially, in the racial order found in the censuses taken every 10 years. Since the first U.S. Census in 1790, White/Caucasion has always been placed at the top of the list of choices for one's race. It seems to me that white is always placed first because it is considered to be the norm of what being an American is, it is a social construct that implies that to be American one must be White. Why doesn't the Census just arrange and organize the racial categories in alphabetical order? Since race is not listed in alphabetical order there is no other logic except that it is reflecting societal and cultural norms.
The Ever-Evolving Census Categories
The fact that so many people are baffled by what to check off as their ethnicity is such an obvious indicator that something isn't right here. Hispanics/Latin Americans are a great example because we (loosely speaking) desperately want to bunch them together based on their common language even though they come from dozens of different nations with unique cultures and may not identify AT ALL with the person next to them who is checking off the same box. I never quite understood why forms asking about race have a section for the usual categories such as Black, White, Asian, etc. and then a separate section for Hispanic or Non-Hispanic. If the explanation is that Hispanics are an ethnic group and can be part of any race, then I'm sorry, but I'm still confused. Seriously, what genius sits around making these categories and why is this person still employed?
I agree. It's almost like
I agree. It's almost like saying all white people are the same yet there are some white people from Russia and some from Ireland. Just because we all speak English does not mean we're all from America.
This article was very
This article was very informative and re-iterated ideals that I have learned and believed for a long time. Race has become a social status. However, race should not be a determinant in the worth of someone. I think it's sad that Latino Americans seem to be embarrassed to classify them as such because that choice of ethnicity is not given on most surveys. I also find it interesting that Latino American offspring identify their ethnicity differently than their parents do. It seems as though Americanizing them has caused them to lose their sense of identity with their own cultures and ethnicity.
Race vs. Ethnicity
I think there are definite disparities relating to the conceptualizations of both race and ethnicity. As the article points out, race is a social construct that determines status and class rather than cultural heritage. It seems as though one’s race concerns society’s perception of that individual, whereas one’s ethnicity is a more personal sense of self that is characterized by nationality, culture, religion, etc.
Great point
I can definitely agree that by Americanizing causes oneself to lose a sense of identity with their own cultures and ethnicity. I can attest to that statement because of firsthand experience within my own family. My aunts and uncles are trying their hardest to past down traditions and the heritage they were given by their elders, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. These days people young people don't want to have much to do with their roots and heritage, but are more concerned about fitting in and looking the part.
Hispanic/Latino Classifications
I was intrigued by this article because I have recently contemplated the ambiguity associated with Hispanic/Latino racial classifications when completing grad school applications that present optional sections for reporting one’s ethnic background. For example, on one school’s application, a question states “What is your ethnicity?” with the options “Hispanic or Latino” or “Not Hispanic or Latino.” There is no gray area whatsoever. According to statistical definitions of race, one can either be Hispanic or Latino or not Hispanic or Latino. The next prompt reads, “Select one or more races to indicate what you consider yourself to be.” The racial classifications are “American Indian or Alaska Native,” “Asian,” “Black or African American,” “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander,” or “White.” Here, there is no option for those who identify as Hispanic/Latino, implying that “they” as an individualized group are racially white but ethnically Hispanic or Latino.
The statistics introduced in this article demonstrate the uncertainty faced by those who may have a Hispanic/Latino ethnic background but may or may not also identify as white. Because race is a social construct in which white people are the dominant privileged group, it appears that abandoning one’s ethnicity to associate with the vague “White” option could allow for an altered perception of one’s social status.
Racialization of the Hispanic-Latino Category
Like most things in the United States, race and ethnicity have been “dumbed down” to oversimplified extremes so that broad and generalized statements can be made about diverse peoples and complex issues and therefore more easily consumed by the masses. Hispanics, like whites, blacks, Asians, American Indians, native Alaskans, native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are diverse peoples with disparate languages, dialects, diets, customs and needs. Without taking this diversity into consideration, how can the government appropriately tailor social and economic programs to the needs of the community?
Response
I agree with many of the points made in Rumbaut’s post. Mainly, I stand by the claim that today people are obsessed with categorizing everyone (including themselves) into different groupings based off of racial stereotypes. One of the main problems that comes with racial categorizing is that, as Rumbaut suggests, we are using a “one-size-fits-all label” that groups people together based on superficial characteristics such as skin color. I found it very interesting that the United States has to make a footnote when talking about Hispanics that says, “Hispanics may be of any race”. I think this is very important because many people have the stereotype in their head that Hispanics are a certain group of people that are one specific race and that is completely false. I also find it beneficial that the US now refers to Hispanic and Latino as an ethnic category rather than a racial one. Something else I found to be extremely interesting was that in one census people of Mexican origin, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans were all more likely to state their race as “white” in Texas and “other” in California. That makes me wonder if it is because they are trying to assimilate more with the different cultures? Overall, I think the main point of this article is saying that “Hispanics” and “Latinos” are not one or even two groups of people. These people can be from many different nations with many different backgrounds. I think that the US is slowly taking steps in the right direction trying to break down the stereotypical method of categorizing those two ethnicities into racial groups. This is similar to one of the discussions we had in class when we were outside sitting in a circle in the sense that we talked about how just because someone is from the same place as a group of people, it does not mean that they are of the same race as them.
Yet another problem with race...
This article to me just emphasizes all of the wrongs with forcing race and, in this case, ethnicity on someone. As many people have said before me, race is not definite, yet as Americans, we are obsessed to find a way to classify everyone into one group. I think that Hispanics (or those who see themselves as such) are very similar to African-Americans not only because both are minority groups that have been marginalized, but because both groups have a wide array of skin tones that should force people to realize that it is impossible to classify people of both groups as what society wants them to be. For example, there are many Dominicans that, after stating that they are from the Dominican Republic, consider themselves Black because they are darker skinned. But what if we consider them Hispanic? Is it ok because it is less harsh than being Black or White in America? The same scenario would apply if someone tried to classify someone from Puerto Rico as Hispanic not knowing that they can trace more white ancestors than they can Puerto Rican ones. It is completely unfair and until we, as a people, collectively have more conversations like these and break with these historical classifications that were meant to keep people from being socially mobile, we can never progress.
Ruben Rumbaut creates an
Ruben Rumbaut creates an excellent argument in his article “The Racialization of the Hispanic-Latino Category”. He elaborates on the differences into what it means to be “Hispanic” in the United States. Due to the media and the melting pot of this country, it has led every single individual to feel the need to be labeled into a category of people. As one can infer from the evidence in the article, Rumbaut presents census statistics from 2000 displaying how Hispanics have placed themselves in categories of “white or black Hispanics”. It is interesting to see how most Latinos differentiate themselves not only on country of origin, but as well as their skin color and where they are located in the United States. For instance, more “dark colored” Hispanics such as Guatemalans and Mexicans live on the western portion of the country. While more “light skinned” Latinos such as Colombians and Puerto Ricans live on the eastern portion of the country. It is remarkable to see how Hispanics, who seem to be in a middle category of skin color feel the need to label themselves as a certain degree of whiteness. It goes to show that colorism and white privilege are still alive in modern day and existent throughout minorities. Although with Hispanics, most feel more comfortable or relate most with a certain skin color. As said in the article “Proportionally identified racially as ‘white’ ranged from a low 22 to Dominicans to a high of 84 percent among Cubans” (Rumbaut). This similar skin color theme is evident in the article “Whiteness’ and the Arab Immigrant Experience”. Sawsan Abdulrahim explains how Arabs would find the need both before and after 9/11 to identify with the being “white or non white”. There will always be that main pressure to either assimilate to the American mainstream, or find the need to identify yourself into a category to feel different.
Identifying As White
One part of this article that I found particularly interesting was in Table 1 where it showed how Hispanic/Latino people identified themselves. In all of the responses groups predominantly chose "other" or "white", and hardly ever did any of the groups choose "black." I found this interesting because Hispanic and Latino people have both faced discrimination in the United States for a long period time, so in theory one might assume that a higher percentage would identify as or with the "black" race. Immediately, I thought of a class reading from a week ago entitled, "'Whiteness" and the Arab Immigrant Experience" by Sawsan Abdulrahi. In this article, an Arab American immigrant says that he identifies as "white" because he believes that to be American you must be white. If he wants to indulge in the benefits of being American, he must identify as white. I thought of this article because I wondered if some Hispanic/Latino people have this same belief, that to receive the benefits of being American, one must also identify as white.
Different Roots for the Same People
In looking at the statistics fof immigrant parents who reported white, compared to their children, it is interesting. My belief would be that immigrant parents arrive in America with the goal in mind of assimilating and that by identifying as white, to some extent, is a way for them to better assimilate. The children of immigrants however, growing up in America, a society that known for the value it places on individualism, the would be more likely to be proud of the things that make them different depending on where it is that they live. For example in a place like New York where there are so many different cultures there is a sense of pride in ones culture and ethnicity.
Race/Racism is a double standard
As someone who has gone to high school with many different races, it is almost too obvious to notice that there is a double standard that comes with one's race. As we see in the census, on the SAT, and on college applications, every single one asks for you to check off your race. With policy such as affirmative action, this question is crucial to answer, especially if you are a minority, because that may be the ticket to receiving an acceptance letter to the college of your dreams. Lately, I've observed that there are more scholarships given (especially in my school, which is predominantly white), to people of minorities. I think diversity is a wonderful thing, but it irritates me how all these minorities are crying equality, but then assume that they will somehow get perks because they are black, Asian, Indian, etc. We are light years different in the racism category than what we were when our grandparents were out age, but American educational systems, corporations, and the government itself thinks it is okay to reward someone based on their race, a factor which none of us can change. We have a black president, and Hispanic Justice, and many other areas in our state's and local government are becoming much more diverse. I think if we just ended the question of race on these documents, we may be able to see more quality-based rewards, not color-based rewards.
Identification
When people identify themselves as Hispanic/Latino it is not on a spectrum of only white and black as many Americans do, but on a larger scale of varying ethnicities that aren’t marked on the American census (i.e. Argentinian, Venezuelan, etc.) However, as Evelyn Nakano Glenn writes in “Yearning for Lightness: Transnational Circuits in the Marketing and Consumption of Skin Lighteners” in many Latin American countries, colorism exists, and people choose to classify each other on a spectrum dependent on skin color. While that is the case in America also, people who identify as white or black in America tend to trace their family history to show elements of what makes them white, black, etc. I think people who identify with a certain race depends upon where they are currently living. This article wrote that Puerto Ricans are more likely to identify as white in areas that have a greater number of Puerto Ricans in the population. When in Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans identify more often as white than in New York or Florida. The article also mentioned the intergenerational role in race. The longer an immigrant family is in America, the more assimilated they become and lose the direct line to the country. This was seen with the Eastern Europeans change in identification: families that came over in the early 20th century identified with the country they came from, but the longer the family stays in America, the more prone they are to identify as simply white. In each of these cases, I think that the government wants to simplify individual identities to these general classifications because they think it will help them make institutional changes in the long run, even though that’s not necessarily true.
Next Group
It worries me that society some what make certain groups feel unwanted and ashamed of their own background. I believe that ever child should be pride to check whatever Latino population they identify with on the census. This also goes for other races not just Latinos. The thing is ever group will be targeted at one point in our life course. We already experiences and read about African Americans in slavery. Now the government is creating several documents about "illegal immigrants" which in my opinion most do not know they are illegal. Whatever the case may be this will be a ever lasting cycle. I hate to say it.