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27 January 2012 For many Latinos, Race is More Culture than Color

This New York Times article discusses some issues that the U.S. is having with its census. Every ten years, the United States Census Bureau collects data about U.S. citizens in order to determine voting districts, monitor discriminatory acts and more. One of the questions it asks is about race. All the usual options are there, white, black, Asian, Native American, etc., but they’re having trouble counting one group of people. The Latinos. Many Latinos are very confused on what to put as their race. Some Latinos are lighter skinned, so they identify themselves as white, some that have darker skin identify themselves as black. However, many people just leave the question blank or they put other due to a mix of backgrounds that make it difficult for them to determine their race. For example if a person is Mexican and Irish. It’s hard for these citizens to identify with a certain race because of these conflictions. The U.S. Census Bureau continues to try and come up with a solution to this dilemma. This conflict can be compared to the many ethnicities that immigrated to America in the mid to late 1800’s. Many of those citizens at first would identify themselves as Irish or Italian, etc. However, overtime the term “white” was used more often as cultures collided and these different ethnicities were mixed. The problem with identifying someone as a Latino is that the term is more of an ethnicity than a skin color. The skin color of Latinos can be anywhere from black to white to in-between. Unlike the very simple switch of Italians, Irish and more labeling themselves as white, Latinos have a lot more trouble checking that box on their Census form. This article presents a very unheard of problem in the United States. There are a variety of options that I think the Census Bureau could choose, but there is no perfect solution. They could get rid of the Latino option for good and have citizens label themselves as black or white if they are of Latino decent. This way, the data would be based more on race instead of ethnicity. Ethnicity is included in a different section of the census. However, there are a variety of problems with this. First of all, this may hurt many of the people that proudly label themselves as Latino. It would not be good for the census to exclude the option all together. Another problem with just using black or white is that it won’t help the census as far as looking out for racial discrimination in business, education, health, and so on. Another possible option would be to explain in the race question that race is more skin color and appearance and ethnicity is like your heritage, culture, and background. This would clear up any confusion that a citizen may be having with the census. This option would also help other confused citizens other than Latinos. I think a more in-depth description of the question would be a great option for the Census Bureau.
 * Summary**
 * Relevance**
 * Evaluation**
 * Questions**
 * 1) What should the U.S. Census Bureau in order to make the census less confusing to Latinos?
 * 2) How does someone determine their race if they have a Latino origin?
 * 3) How should someone determine their ethnicity if they are, for example, Irish and Latino?

**Bibliography** NAVARRO, MIREYA. "For Many Latinos, Race Is More Culture Than Color - NYTimes.com." //The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2012. .