For the first time in 27 years, the U.S. government is changing how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity, an effort that federal officials believe will more accurately count residents who identify as Hispanic and of Middle Eastern and North African heritage.
The revisions to the minimum categories on race and ethnicity, announced Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget, are the latest effort to label and define the people of the United States. This evolving process often reflects changes in social attitudes and immigration, as well as a wish for people in an increasingly diverse society to see themselves in the numbers produced by the federal government.
I know this isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things, but I will always be confused on what to put for myself. My family comes from Central America (I have dual citizenship), so I should pick Hispanic, right? But my family is also white Hispanic, my cousin’s have a range of blonde and red hair, light eyes. I also have some Asian Hispanics in my family.
Hispanic really isn’t a race and it feels like I’m not supposed to pick it on the census because I don’t have the right skin color.
Whereas someone who does look Hispanic the way people think of, but maybe their family hasn’t lived there for generations, they get to be considered more Hispanic than me. It’s just confusing.
There also isn’t an option for brown Hispanic, I always pick other