The U.S. system of classifying people by race, due to limited categories, makes little sense and does not handle mixed race individuals (who are common in the U.S.). For example, a person who is half native American in the U.S. is an indigenous north American, but a person from Peru who is half Inca and half Spanish ancestry is – Hispanic. A person with Portuguese ancestry, from Brazil, who speaks Portuguese is – Hispanic. Yet Hispanic also includes Europeans of Spanish ancestry. Some Jews, who trace their ancestry back to Spain, can be classified as Spanish, and hence, Hispanic. (See the book – Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America, by Prof. David E. Bernstein – link in the right column of this post.)
To illustrate, Vice President Kamela Harris’ parents are both highly accomplished immigrants. Her late Mom was an immigrant from India, and was a cancer researcher, and her Dad is an immigrant from Jamaica, and is professor of economics at Stanford. His ancestry was a mix of African and Irish. Per Bernstein, Harris meets the legal definitions to optionally identify as Black, White or Asian – which highlights the problem with our racial classification system. She also qualifies for citizenship in Jamaica and India; however, India does not accept dual citizenship, while Jamaica does.
In 2024, the U.S. is revising its race classification system:
That will give respondents the option to pick multiple categories at the same time, such as “Black,” “American Indian” and “Hispanic.” Research has shown that large numbers of Hispanic people aren’t sure how to answer the race question when that question is asked separately because they understand race and ethnicity to be similar and they often pick “some other race” or do not answer the question.
A Middle Eastern and North African category will be added to the choices available for questions about race and ethnicity. People descended from places such as Lebanon, Iran, Egypt and Syria had been encouraged to identify as white, but now will have the option of identifying themselves in the new group. Results from the 2020 census, which asked respondents to elaborate on their backgrounds, suggest that 3.5 million residents identify as Middle Eastern and North African.
Because “white” was a catch all grouping for many, the above changes reduce the percentage declared “white” as many will move into the new categories. Oddly, the definitions of “race” have changed multiple times over the years – people who were once X are now Y.
Most people with European ancestry will be labeled as “white” based on skin shading, rather than the new geographic distribution. Hispanics may be white or black, and sometimes Asian.
Strangely, the new system classified people based on either estimated skin color, or an ancestral origination, or both. Which means that “race” means what?
Should I be “indigenous northern European”[1] to be comparable to the Middle Eastern or North African categories?
Shouldn’t they eliminate skin color completely from this categorization and instead go by geographic and cultural ancestry for everyone?
[1] The term “indigenous northern European” may sound odd but – we have some ancestral lines traced through official records (property or church records) to the 1100-1300 period. Genetic testing indicates common gene pools going back to 500-700 in northern Europe locations.
