By Ruben Rumbaut Race is a pigment of our imagination. It is a social status, not a biological one; a product of history, not of nature; a contextual variable, not a given. The concept of race is a historically contingent, relational, subjective phenomenon, yet it is typically misbegotten as a natural, fixed trait of phenotypic difference inherent -- Racial categories (and the supposed differences that they connote) are infused with stereotypical moral meaning. What is called "race" today is chiefly an outcome of intergroup struggles, marking the boundaries, and thus the identities, of "us" and "them" along with attendant ideas of social worth or stigma. As such, "race" is an ideological construct that links supposedly innate traits of individuals to their place in the social order. -- Hispanics fit into the country's racial frame today? Are Hispanics a "race" or, more precisely, a racialized category? In fact, are they even a "they"? Is there a Latino or Hispanic ethnic group, cohesive and self-conscious, sharing a sense of peoplehood in -- In 1977, as required by Congress, the Office of Management and Budget issued Directive 15: Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting to standardize the collection and reporting of racial and ethnic statistics and to include data on -- U.S. Census Bureau Definitions Ethnicity is a distinct and separate classification from race in the census. All respondents are asked to categorize themselves as a member of one of two ethnicities: "Hispanic, Latino or Spanish Origin" or "Not -- People of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin are defined as "those who trace their origin or descent to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Spanish-speaking countries of Central or South America, and other Spanish cultures." -- Once a respondent claims "Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin," they are asked to further designate which country or countries to which they trace their origin. Origin can be the "heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of -- arrival in the United States." "Hispanics or Latinos" may be of any race. Race is not defined biologically, anthropologically, or genetically by the U.S. Census Bureau. Racial categories in the 2010 Census were: * "White" -- * "Samoan" * "Other Pacific Islander" * "Some Other Race" More than one race can be chosen, and space is provided to write in an unlisted race. Directive 15 specified a minimal classification of four races ("American Indian or Alaskan Native," "Asian or Pacific Islander," "Black," and "White") and two "ethnic" backgrounds ("of Hispanic -- Since that time, in keeping with the logic of this classification, census data on Hispanics have been officially reported with a footnote indicating that "Hispanics may be of any race." Later criticism of the ethnic and racial categories led to a formal review of Directive 15, beginning in 1993 with congressional hearings and culminating in revised standards which were adopted in 1997. The changes stipulated five minimum categories for data on "race" ("American Indian or Alaska Native," "Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander," "Asian," "Black or African American," and "White"); offered -- scientific or anthropological in nature... The standards have been developed to provide a common language for uniformity and comparability in the collection and use of data on race and ethnicity by Federal agencies." -- self-image. Nation, Race, and Place in the 2000 Census Much has been made in the media and even in academic discourse about -- But does the Hispanic population differ significantly from non-Hispanics by race, as it does by place, socioeconomic status, and national origins? -- Yet Hispanics were incorporated in official statistics as an ethnic category, and considered as being of any race. Moreover, prior to 1970 Mexicans were almost always coded as white for census purposes, and were deemed white by law (if not by custom) since the 19th century. -- intergroup and intragroup differences in their patterns of racial self-identification? Since 1980, the census has asked separate questions for Hispanic or Latino origin and for race, permitting an examination of how Hispanics or Latinos self-report by race and country of origin. -- Hence, nine nationality groups accounted for nine out of ten (88 percent) Hispanics in the United States in 2000. Persons who trace their identities to the ten other Spanish-speaking countries of Central and South America, plus Spain, comprised only 4 percent of the Hispanic -- Overall, only half of the 35.2 million Hispanics counted by the 2000 census reported their race as white (48 percent), black (1.8 percent), or Asian (0.3 percent). In contrast, 97 percent of the 246.2 million non-Hispanics counted reported their race either as white (79 percent), black (14 percent), or Asian (4 percent). Most notably, there was a huge difference in the proportion of these two populations that chose "other race." While scarcely any non-Hispanics (0.2 percent) reported being of some other race, among Hispanics that figure was 43 percent — a reflection of more than four centuries of mixed European and Native American heritage in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as differing histories and conceptions of what race means. In addition, Hispanics in the 2000 census were more than three times as likely to report a mixture of "two or more races" — 6.4 percent of Hispanics compared with only 2 percent of non-Hispanics — although among Hispanics who listed this option, the overwhelming majority (85 percent) specified "white" plus another race. Still, the main divide among Hispanics was between the 48 percent who self-identified racially as "white" in 2000 and the 43 percent who rejected all the official categories and reported "other race" instead. (The corresponding aggregated figures have widened to 53 percent and 38 percent in the 2010 census, but the main patterns analyzed below continue to apply a decade later.) Table 1. Hispanic/Latino Ethnic Identity by Self-reported "Race," 2000 Census Ranked by Proportion Identifying as "Other Race" Race (Self-reported) Ethnic Identity Total Percent "Other" race Percent White Percent Two or more races Percent Black Percent Asian Percent Indigenous* Total U.S. Population 281,421,906 5.5 75.1 2.6 12.2 3.6 1.0 Not Hispanic/Latino 246,217,426 0.2 79.0 2.0 13.7 4.1 1.0 -- More than half of Dominicans (59 percent) and Salvadorans and Guatemalans (55 percent) reported "another race," as did 46 percent of Mexicans, 42 percent of Peruvians and Ecuadorians, 38 percent of Puerto Ricans, 28 percent of Colombians, and less than 8 percent of Cubans. -- identify as multiracial (10.7 percent). Intragroup Differences in Race and Place Self-reported race varies not only between origin groups, but also within them — and over time and place as well. An examination of 2000 census data on self-reported "race" for the largest Hispanic groups broken down by the largest states — California and Texas in the Southwest (where Mexicans, Salvadorans, and -- In California, 40 percent of the Mexican-origin population reported as "white" and 53 percent reported as "other race," compared with 60 percent who reported as "white" and 36 percent who reported as "other race" in Texas. Similar, if less pronounced, patterns were observed for Salvadorans and Guatemalans in those two states: they were significantly more likely to be "white" in Texas and "other" in California. Table 2. "Race" Self-reported by Largest Hispanic Groups in Selected States, 2000 Census Race (Self-Reported) Ethnic Identity Total Percent "Other" Percent White Percent Two or more races Hispanic/Latino (U.S. total): 35,204,480 In California 10,928,470 51.6 39.7 6.4 -- Series (IPUMS). Even more striking is the degree of difference in the geography of race among Caribbean groups: all were far more likely to be "white" in Florida than in New York-New Jersey. For example, 67 percent of the -- Colombians, 78 and 46 percent. If race were a biological and permanent trait of individuals, no such variability would exist. Instead, these data exemplify how race is constructed socially, historically, and spatially. Lingering historical prejudices in the former slave states of the American South and the -- and the 45 percent who did so in the New York region. The Malleable Meaning of "Race" While the Census Bureau has established "Hispanic" and "Latino" as ethnic categories and not racial ones, the meaning of "race" to individuals seems to vary depending not only on social and historical contexts, but also on the way in which questions are asked and the -- In response to the first open-ended question, 28 percent gave "Hispanic" as their race, another 4 percent said "Latino," and still others offered a variety of mixed "Hispanic" or "Latino" answers; 13 percent said "Indio," and another 13 percent gave their Dominican nationality as their race. Of all respondents, only 6.6 percent chose "black" and 3.8 percent "white." The rest of the responses showed the extraordinary range of racial categories and labels common in the -- American 0.6 0 0.5 Puerto Rican 0 0 0.2 Human race,other 6.9 1.5 0.7 Does not know 5.0 1.3 6.9 -- Source: Itzigsohn, José. 2004. "The Formation of Latino and Latina Panethnic Identities." Pp. 197-216 in Not Just Black and White: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States, edited by Nancy Foner and George Frederickson. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Note: *N=418 When asked to choose their race in the close-ended format of the second question, the largest response remained "Hispanic" (written in by 21 percent of the sample, in addition to 3 percent who chose "Latino"), -- others. The "Race" of Immigrant Parents and their Children Another study found that, in addition to significant change in their -- including all of the main Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America, and their immigrant parents. In one survey, the youths (aged 17 and 18) were asked to answer a semi-structured question about their race, and were given the option to check one of five categories: "white," "black," "Asian," "multiracial," or "other." If the latter was checked, they had to specify the other race. Among the Latin American-origin youths, less than a fourth of the total -- "other." When those "other" self-reports were coded, it turned out that 41 percent of the sample wrote down "Hispanic" or "Latino" as their race, and another 19.6 percent gave their nationality as their race. The explicit racialization of the Hispanic-Latino category, as well as -- The latter point is made particularly salient by directly comparing the youths' notions of their race with that reported by their own parents. The closest match in racial self-perceptions between parents and children were observed among Haitians, Jamaicans, and other West -- The widest mismatches by far (and hence the most ambiguity in self-definitions of race) occurred among all of the Latin American-origin groups without exception: about three-fifths of Latin parents defined themselves as white, compared with only one-fifth of their own children. Table 4. Self-reported "Race" of Children of Immigrants and their Parents, by National Origin Groups Self-reported Race* National Origin Respondent White Black Asian Multiracial Hispanic, Latino Nationality as race Other (Parent/Child) Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent -- Although a single label implies otherwise, "Hispanics" or "Latinos" are not a homogeneous entity. Many families classified as such can trace their roots in the United States back many generations, and even the newcomers differ notably in national and social-class origins, legal -- of Hispanic Identity in Texas." Pp. 341-357 in Nancy Foner and George Frederickson, eds., Not Just Black and White: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. -- Mankind, Peopling of Countries, &c." Available online. Gates, Jr., Henry Louis. 1986. "Race," Writing, and Difference. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Gómez, Laura E. 2007. Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race. New York: New York University Press. Haney López, Ian. 2006. White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race. Revised and updated edition. New York: New York University Press. -- Identities." Pp. 197-216 in Nancy Foner and George Frederickson, eds., Not Just Black and White: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. -- Telles, Edward E. and Vilma Ortiz. 2008. Generations of Exclusion: Mexican Americans, Assimilation, and Race. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. -- Percent of Total." Available online. — — — . 2003. "Guidance on the Presentation and Comparison of Race and Hispanic Origin Data." Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Available online. — — — . 1997. Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Available online.