A question and thoughts on race

I’m curious as to people’s thoughts about race and racial classification. Part of my curiosity is things that I have seen on this board and in the news recently. A gazillion posts concerning George Zimmerman who has been called a “white Hispanic”, and more recently Elizabeth Warren commenting on “Indian” (Native American) heritage.

I’m not entirely sure how I should go about listing things in this post, so please forgive my random organization of my ideas and points.

I’ll start with the term “white Hispanic”. I find that an odd way to refer to a person. First of all, I’ve never heard anybody use the term “white Negro” to refer to a person of mixed ancestry that included black (African) descent in their family lineage and white Europeans. Similarly, I’ve never heard the term “white Asian” or “white Indian” (as it refers to Native Americans or people from India).
I don’t know, maybe this is because Hispanic isn’t classified as a race according to the latest US Census. (More about this later, plus a link). My understanding of the classification of Hispanic is that people of mixed ancestry – Native American and white European – resulted in what we call Hispanic or Latino (primarily Spaniards when it comes to Mexico and South America). A blend of two “races”. Yet, most people from mixed black (African) and white (European) ancestry are still considered racially “black” (African) while people of mixed Native American and European ancestry are not called Native American, they are called “Hispanic” or “Latino”, and again, not defined as a specific race.

So, let’s look at the 2010 US census.
Question 6. What is this persons race?
Here are the possible choices,
White
Black, African Am., or Negro
American Indian or Alaska Native
Asian Indian
Chinese
Filipino
Japanese
Korean
Vietnamese
Native Hawaiian
Guamanian or Chamarro
Samoan
Other Asian (option to elucidate)
Other Pacific Islander (option to elucidate)
Some other race (Print race)

Please note that Hispanic and Latino are not included (but there is a shit-ton of Asian related choices).
But wait, there was a question on the Census about Hispanic/Latino affiliation, it was question number 5, here it is….

Question 5. Is this person of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?
Here are the possible choices,
No, not of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin
Yes, Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano
Yes, Puerto Rican
Yes, Cuban
Yes, another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin (option to elucidate)

Link to support the above US Census questions, The 2010 Census Questionnaire: Seven Questions for Everyone - Population Reference Bureau

So, who gets to decide if a certain group of people is a “race”? The US Census?
On this board (and others) I’ve seen people being called racists for making disparaging statements about Muslims (a religion), Jews (a religion), Mexicans (a nationality), whites, blacks or Asians (actual defined races).
Is it time to define Hispanics/Latino’s as a specific race? Why are there so many “Asian” descent races listed on the US Census? What are your thoughts in racial classification?

 

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Sorry to disappoint.
Just some people that call themselves Negro even if Gremlin-USA thinks it's "old racist".