Race of Races
One of our favorite weekend activities is to invite our good friend, Sara, over for dinner and just talk. We can talk about pretty much everything. This Saturday, our conversation drifted onto the topic of race.
Sara says that her colleague who is of Indian descent and has rather dark complexion gets upset when called "Asian". I have never had a problem being called "Asian" because I thought it only means you are a person from Asia. Nope. This guy insists that he is Caucasian, NOT Asian. Sure enough, he explodes if anybody dares to call him "Black Asian".
For the longest time, I thought "Caucasian" and "White" are interchangeable because that is how many "white people" I know of European descent identify themselves. So, are Whites the same as Caucasians? Hmmm.
I find it kinda curious because I read that Caucasus is the region that encompasses Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. Even less common definition for Caucasus only extends to include portions of northwestern Iran and northeastern Turkey. Interestingly, Wikipedia has a page titled "Caucasians" on white Europeans and another page titled "The people of the Caucasus" about the people from the region. So, how does the word "Caucasians" come to mean white Europeans nowadays?
Our discussion continues with the subject and we start examining the race categories on the US Census forms. On the US Census Bureau website, I found a page on race. There, they list five possible race categories: 1/ White, 2/ Black or African American, 3/ American Indian or Alaska Native, 4/ Asian and 5/ Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
I am confused: Which race should a Puerto Rican check? To which race does a Brazilian belong?
I decide to look further.
According the Census Bureau page, one may have multiple races, but you may have only one ethnicity. So, what is the difference between race and ethnicity?
On the top of a page on the Census Bureau website, titled "Race and Ethnicity", it says in large prints: "The U.S. Census Bureau considers race and ethnicity to be two separate and distinct concepts." The page contains a paragraph on "What is Ethnicity?" This is what it says:
"Ethnicity determines whether a person is of Hispanic origin or not. For this reason, ethnicity is broken out in two categories, Hispanic or Latino and Not Hispanic or Latino. Hispanics may report as any race."
This is hardly an answer to the question. It DOES NOT explain what ethnicity means at all!!! Now I want to know the definition of "Hispanic". Does it have to do with the Spanish language? How is it different from "Latino"?
The more I ask, the more confusing the whole thing becomes. So, I decided to do some research to clarify it for myself. Along the way, it only generates more questions than answers.
I wondered what Brazilians would fit in the picture. Apparently, the US government definition of Hispanic includes all South Americans, regardless of what language they speak, despite the fact that the word "Hispanic" means Spanish-speaking, according to Webster.
It happened that we met at a gathering someone who lived in Brazil and somebody whose parents came to the US from Mexico. I asked him which box on census form he checked. "I DON'T KNOW! I am so confused!" He laughed hysterically and said that he usually ended up checking multiple boxes.
With Ancestry.com, many people are finding out family background that they did not know about before. Some really freaked out because they thought they were just simple white Caucasians, but now they realize they have other blood in their body. Some reportedly are experiencing "identity crisis" because they are not sure who they really are anymore.
Race has always been a strange concept. It is so artificial, contradictory and inconsistent. I used to think, maybe, it was invented to help classifying people so as to offer us some information. However, in this day and age, as we think more carefully about it, it just causes more confusion than help.
To start, the terms Black and White seem to have something to do with people's skin color. Within each group, however, there is a wide spectrum of different tones of skin color. As you might have seen, some "Whites" have skin tones much darker than the "Blacks" and vice versa.
What constitutes "White" is an ever-evolving concept. For a long time, Irish Catholics, Greeks and Italians were not considered White. Yet, the White population now includes even people from the Middle East. It is not just "white Europeans" as some say.
Black and African are often used interchangeably to describe people of African descent. Yet, one word has to do with skin tone, while the other has to do with geographical origin. Light-skinned Africans are considered Black. Dark-skinned people of Asian descent are not Black. Afro-Brazilians are often not recognized as Black or Latino because of their cultural heritage. Then, what are they?
Asians means people from Asia, I suppose. Yet, if you would just look at people's faces, the appearances of people from Asia vary significantly. As our friend, Sara, pointed out, "In Indonesia alone, the difference among different tribes is huge! They don't look alike at all, but they are all Indonesians!" I cannot agree more. Just look at Chinese people: people from different regions can look very, very different. There is really a huge spectrum for every single physical trait among Asians. But, of course to some, "You Asians all look the same."
And then the word "Hispanic" is about the language people speak. It has little to do with their blood line and country of origin. Maybe one can argue that it has something to do with their culture as well, but I have a hard time being convinced that the different people share the same culture just because they speak Spanish. For one thing, my Hispanic friends from Spain, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Venezuela are all rather different people. To throw them all in one basket is as crazy as grouping Francophones as one people. What value does it serve?
Of course, in this vast kitchen sink of America, there is also a group called Jews. One may think Jewish people's common thread is their religious faith in Judaism. Although they are considered an ethnic and religious group, the Jewish identity is passed through the maternal lineage. An atheist may have a Jewish identity. According to a Pew Research Center study in 2013 on American Jews, 94% of the respondents describe themselves as non-Hispanic Whites. It would be interesting to ask white nationalists if they regard Jews as Whites, just like themselves.
Once upon a time, someone who wish to exert control over other groups came up with this artificial idea of race. They use different criteria to set up boxes for sorting people. The goal is to find some ways of claiming that people are inherently different and that some groups are naturally superior to the others. The German Nazis' theory about the Aryan race was a very good example. They used different traits to classify people: skin color, eye color, body build, shape of skull, . . . so as to make it sound scientific and legitimate. The Holocaust Museum in Washington DC has great artifacts on the subject. I highly recommend this museum to everybody for many reasons. After your visit, you will realize these theories do not hold water.
Nowadays, there are more and more mixed race couples. Their offsprings will be checking multiple boxes on the census form. Just look at Tiger Woods. For simplicity, he coined the term Cablinasian to encompass his Caucasian, Black, American Indian and Asian makeup. More and more people will be like him, checking four or perhaps all five of those boxes for race, rendering these classifications obsolete. I cannot wait for that day to come.
Sara says that her colleague who is of Indian descent and has rather dark complexion gets upset when called "Asian". I have never had a problem being called "Asian" because I thought it only means you are a person from Asia. Nope. This guy insists that he is Caucasian, NOT Asian. Sure enough, he explodes if anybody dares to call him "Black Asian".
For the longest time, I thought "Caucasian" and "White" are interchangeable because that is how many "white people" I know of European descent identify themselves. So, are Whites the same as Caucasians? Hmmm.
I find it kinda curious because I read that Caucasus is the region that encompasses Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. Even less common definition for Caucasus only extends to include portions of northwestern Iran and northeastern Turkey. Interestingly, Wikipedia has a page titled "Caucasians" on white Europeans and another page titled "The people of the Caucasus" about the people from the region. So, how does the word "Caucasians" come to mean white Europeans nowadays?
Our discussion continues with the subject and we start examining the race categories on the US Census forms. On the US Census Bureau website, I found a page on race. There, they list five possible race categories: 1/ White, 2/ Black or African American, 3/ American Indian or Alaska Native, 4/ Asian and 5/ Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
I am confused: Which race should a Puerto Rican check? To which race does a Brazilian belong?
I decide to look further.
On the top of a page on the Census Bureau website, titled "Race and Ethnicity", it says in large prints: "The U.S. Census Bureau considers race and ethnicity to be two separate and distinct concepts." The page contains a paragraph on "What is Ethnicity?" This is what it says:
"Ethnicity determines whether a person is of Hispanic origin or not. For this reason, ethnicity is broken out in two categories, Hispanic or Latino and Not Hispanic or Latino. Hispanics may report as any race."
This is hardly an answer to the question. It DOES NOT explain what ethnicity means at all!!! Now I want to know the definition of "Hispanic". Does it have to do with the Spanish language? How is it different from "Latino"?
The more I ask, the more confusing the whole thing becomes. So, I decided to do some research to clarify it for myself. Along the way, it only generates more questions than answers.
I wondered what Brazilians would fit in the picture. Apparently, the US government definition of Hispanic includes all South Americans, regardless of what language they speak, despite the fact that the word "Hispanic" means Spanish-speaking, according to Webster.
It happened that we met at a gathering someone who lived in Brazil and somebody whose parents came to the US from Mexico. I asked him which box on census form he checked. "I DON'T KNOW! I am so confused!" He laughed hysterically and said that he usually ended up checking multiple boxes.
With Ancestry.com, many people are finding out family background that they did not know about before. Some really freaked out because they thought they were just simple white Caucasians, but now they realize they have other blood in their body. Some reportedly are experiencing "identity crisis" because they are not sure who they really are anymore.
Race has always been a strange concept. It is so artificial, contradictory and inconsistent. I used to think, maybe, it was invented to help classifying people so as to offer us some information. However, in this day and age, as we think more carefully about it, it just causes more confusion than help.
To start, the terms Black and White seem to have something to do with people's skin color. Within each group, however, there is a wide spectrum of different tones of skin color. As you might have seen, some "Whites" have skin tones much darker than the "Blacks" and vice versa.
What constitutes "White" is an ever-evolving concept. For a long time, Irish Catholics, Greeks and Italians were not considered White. Yet, the White population now includes even people from the Middle East. It is not just "white Europeans" as some say.
Black and African are often used interchangeably to describe people of African descent. Yet, one word has to do with skin tone, while the other has to do with geographical origin. Light-skinned Africans are considered Black. Dark-skinned people of Asian descent are not Black. Afro-Brazilians are often not recognized as Black or Latino because of their cultural heritage. Then, what are they?
Asians means people from Asia, I suppose. Yet, if you would just look at people's faces, the appearances of people from Asia vary significantly. As our friend, Sara, pointed out, "In Indonesia alone, the difference among different tribes is huge! They don't look alike at all, but they are all Indonesians!" I cannot agree more. Just look at Chinese people: people from different regions can look very, very different. There is really a huge spectrum for every single physical trait among Asians. But, of course to some, "You Asians all look the same."
And then the word "Hispanic" is about the language people speak. It has little to do with their blood line and country of origin. Maybe one can argue that it has something to do with their culture as well, but I have a hard time being convinced that the different people share the same culture just because they speak Spanish. For one thing, my Hispanic friends from Spain, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Venezuela are all rather different people. To throw them all in one basket is as crazy as grouping Francophones as one people. What value does it serve?
Of course, in this vast kitchen sink of America, there is also a group called Jews. One may think Jewish people's common thread is their religious faith in Judaism. Although they are considered an ethnic and religious group, the Jewish identity is passed through the maternal lineage. An atheist may have a Jewish identity. According to a Pew Research Center study in 2013 on American Jews, 94% of the respondents describe themselves as non-Hispanic Whites. It would be interesting to ask white nationalists if they regard Jews as Whites, just like themselves.
Once upon a time, someone who wish to exert control over other groups came up with this artificial idea of race. They use different criteria to set up boxes for sorting people. The goal is to find some ways of claiming that people are inherently different and that some groups are naturally superior to the others. The German Nazis' theory about the Aryan race was a very good example. They used different traits to classify people: skin color, eye color, body build, shape of skull, . . . so as to make it sound scientific and legitimate. The Holocaust Museum in Washington DC has great artifacts on the subject. I highly recommend this museum to everybody for many reasons. After your visit, you will realize these theories do not hold water.
Nowadays, there are more and more mixed race couples. Their offsprings will be checking multiple boxes on the census form. Just look at Tiger Woods. For simplicity, he coined the term Cablinasian to encompass his Caucasian, Black, American Indian and Asian makeup. More and more people will be like him, checking four or perhaps all five of those boxes for race, rendering these classifications obsolete. I cannot wait for that day to come.
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