For the first time in 27 years, the U.S. government is changing how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity.

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.

  • scoobford
    31·
    8 months ago

    Hispanic is an ethnicity, which is based on culture, while white/black/native american are based on genetics (theoretically).

    Many (most?) Hispanic people in Central America are considered white because so much of their ancestry is Spanish or Portuguese. It sounds like you may have a higher proportion than most, is all.

    But if there is a large portion of Asian Hispanic people in your ancestry, you may be mixed race Hispanic.

    • TicaVerde@lemmy.world
      1·
      8 months ago

      Yeah definitely that’s how I understood it, but now it sounds like they are categorizing Hispanic as a race not an ethnicity.