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Originally posted by ZChi4Life
I agree, the concept of race is really messed up. It's because society has made the term "race" into something based on someone's skin tone or physical characteristics. Race, based on anthropological factors, is really biological. We all make up the human race. We, humans, share a similiar biological make-up (obviously DNA comes into play and makes us different, but when it comes to distinguishing us from a whale....well you get the picture...). In our society, people are so quick to use race to mean someone's ethnicity.
But from this article, the census is really messed up in so many ways. The thing is, all the boxes should be based on ethnicities such as Hispanic/Latin, African, Asian, etc, etc. EVERYONE has an ethnicity, whether it's Irish or African. The word race shouldn't even be on there. To check a box based on what you look like is pretty messed up b/c like Librasoul said, you can be of hispanic descent and look "black". Sooo you're Cuban but you're of the black race?? What? I mean does that make sense? How can someone really determine anything from that? Basically, they need to figure out if they want to know how many people LOOK black, white, etc OR if they want to know what everyone's cultural background is.
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There is a concept of race, especially how it was used on the census prior to 2000. In your example of what race would a Cuban be if the "appeared black". They would be and are still racially "black" despite their nationality. We must not confuse nationality or ethnicity for "race". Hispanics can be of any race (black, white, or indian/native american). What makes them Hispanic is their shared linguistic or cultural characteristics that define Hispanic culture.
Also African is not an ethnicity. An Ibo, a Yoruban, a Kikuyu, a Dinka, A Tigre, a Zulu, and a Hotentot are all Africans but they are very different ethnically and culturally. What they do share is that they are of the same race.
For the most part, until the loosening of immigration laws in the mid-70's, east of the Mississippi, most Americans were easily identifiable as White or Black, with some Puerto Ricans in major Northern cities. Most Hispanics were confined to South Florida, Texas and Califirnia. Now we have an influx of Central Americans, Asians, East Indians, etc who don't fit neatly into Black, White categories.
One last thing, because Hispanics can be of any race, its usually not their "race" that defines them in society, but how well they assimilate into the larger culture. The big "handicap" that they face is generally mastery of the English language. Cameron Diaz, Frankie Munoz, Christina Aguilera all have Spanish surnames, but they have the benefit of being "racially" white so that one or two generations removed from immigrant parents doesn't really make them "Hispanic" anymore whereas, if your skin is black, its gonna stay that way whether you change your culture or not (unless you are Michael Jackson of course).