Quote:
Originally posted by RedefinedDiva
They check other and list themselves as Black/White/Hispanic/Haitian/Italian/Swedish/Inuit/Aboriginal/German. Just because their great-great-great grandmother's aunt who's cousin has a niece on your daddy's side is Swedish DOES NOT make you such. If you are 1/256 Swedish, keep it to yourself.
|
Now this right here had me ctfu!!!
Ok, here is the deal on the Middle Easterners. ALL of the peoples of northern Afrika are considered Caucasian. Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, ALL of it. My theory? That way they can say that the pyramids were built by White people. I can think of no other reason for that mess.
Ok, as far as Hispanics considering themselves White... We have to remember that only here in Amerikkka do we have these crazy @$$ racial lines and stuh. In other countries (spanish speaking ones, specifically), there are White Hispanics, Black Hispanics, and a ton of Mestizos (mixed). So when we say many Hispanics "consider" themselves White, that leaves the open assumption that they are not, when that's not true. For example, I work with a lady from Puerto Rico. Her skin is white (or whatever :rollleyes: ). She said she was shocked to find out she was hispanic or whatever, because she had always considered herself White. She does, however, recognize that she is Latina. The word hispanic doesn't exist in the Spanish language the way that we use it here. It is more of a geographic connotation than it is a racial one. You have the Iberian peninsula (Spain & Portugal) and you have Hispano-America (South America and Central America). Now, if you ask a "hispanic" person if he or she is LATINO/A, then they will say YES!!! Sounds like semantics to us, but it's not. I hope this helps. All that studying in undergrad was not for naught afterall!
The census is not an accurate count. First of all, think of all that can change in the span of 10 years. Then, like you said, non-Americans classify themselves differently than our government would like. The even larger problem now is the growing population of Somali refugees. Well, I have a question. Does EVERYONE fill out the census, or just citizens? Because if that's the case, then it's definitely off. You have a grip of illegal immigrants here, who are surely not counted. And back to the Somali thing, they would be counted as Black. I'm not EVEN gon' tell yall how the melanin deficient women at my job couldn't tell the difference between a Black American and a Somali(-American). I thought to myself, it's 2002 and we STILL all look alike.
Yes, I completed the census, only cuz the lady caught me at the door. I didn't want to complete it, cuz I just honestly don't see the point. I'm one of those conspiracy theorists, in case you didn't know, lol.