Census: Hispanic not a Race?

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Permalink Reply by Miriam on April 7, 2010 at 8:21am

I think it is just the fear white people have that LATINOS are taking over the US! I would never consider myself white, I am 100% proud slightly Americanized Mexicana. I really don't understand why Hispanic wouldn't be on the form, I think my form had hispanic.

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Permalink Reply by Claudia on April 14, 2010 at 12:57pm

Well I hate to be the one that will be negative to this discussion, but I took a course two semesters ago and this issue came up too. Doing reasearch on ethnicity and race they are two different things. Race deals with physical characteristics of the person and ethinicity will have to do with our heritage background. Since there are three main race categories that are considered in the U.S (white, black and yellow)., I would prefer to be called "white" because since most Hispanics/Latinos do have European blood they were considered to be white because the color of their skin. I would not want to be called brown because to me that is even more offensive than being called white. As far as the term Hispanic...it is an ethnic group not a physical characteristics.

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Permalink Reply by Helen Rodriguez on October 12, 2010 at 5:34pm

I know this is a super late reply but I agree with Claudia that race is different from ethicity. Hispanic is also a term that decribes a group of Spanish speakers. It's the reason why it includes Latin Americans as well as Spaniards. Latin Americans are considered to be either of the white or black race.

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Permalink Reply by Clara Mandujano on February 19, 2013 at 7:05pm

Race: Mestiza

Ethnicity: Latina

Nationality: American

That's how I identify, but I agree it's all just so complicated. 

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