Racial and Ethnic Categories
In the 2000 Census and subsequent United States Census Bureau surveys, Americans self-described as belonging to these racial groups:
- White: those having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
- Black or African American: those having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.
- American Indian or Alaska Native, also called Native Americans: those having origins in any of the original peoples of North, Central and South America, and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment.
- Asian, also called Asian American: those having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent; frequently specified as Chinese American, Korean American, Indian American, Filipino American, Vietnamese American, Japanese American, etc.
- Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islander: those having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands; see also Pacific Islander American.
- Some other race: respondents write in the race they consider themselves to be, if different from the foregoing categories. This category captures responses such as Mestizo, Creole, and Mulatto, but among the write-in entries reported in the 1965 census were nationalities instead of races, such as South African, Moroccan, Belizean, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, as well as mixed-race terms like Wesort, mixed, interracial, and others. This is not a standard OMB race category.
- Two or more races, widely known as Multiracial: those who check off and/or write in more than one race. There is no actual option labelled "Two or more races" or "Multiracial" on census and other forms; only the foregoing six races appear, and people who report more than one of them are categorized as people of "Two or more races" in subsequent processing. Any number, up to all six, of the racial categories can be reported by any respondent.
Read more about this topic: Ethnic Groups In The United States
Famous quotes containing the words racial and, racial, ethnic and/or categories:
“I am convinced that our American society will become more and more vulgarized and that it will be fragmentized into contending economic, racial and religious pressure groups lacking in unity and common will, unless we can arrest the disintegration of the family and of community solidarity.”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)
“I don’t think Dr. King helped racial harmony, I think he helped racial justice. What I profess to do is help the oppressed and if I cause a load of discomfort in the white community and the black community, that in my opinion means I’m being effective, because I’m not trying to make them comfortable. The job of an activist is to make people tense and cause social change.”
—Al, Reverend Sharpton (b. 1954)
“Caprice, independence and rebellion, which are opposed to the social order, are essential to the good health of an ethnic group. We shall measure the good health of this group by the number of its delinquents. Nothing is more immobilizing than the spirit of deference.”
—Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985)
“Of course I’m a black writer.... I’m not just a black writer, but categories like black writer, woman writer and Latin American writer aren’t marginal anymore. We have to acknowledge that the thing we call “literature” is more pluralistic now, just as society ought to be. The melting pot never worked. We ought to be able to accept on equal terms everybody from the Hassidim to Walter Lippmann, from the Rastafarians to Ralph Bunche.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)