Race and Ethnicity in the United States

When colonists came to the New World, they found a land that did not need “discovering” since it was already occupied. While the first wave of immigrants came from Western Europe, eventually the bulk of people entering North America were from Northern Europe, then Eastern Europe, then Latin America and Asia. And let us not forget the forced immigration of African slaves. Most of these groups underwent a period of disenfranchisement in which they were relegated to the bottom of the social hierarchy before they managed (for those who could) to achieve social mobility. Today, our society is multicultural, although the extent to which this multiculturality is embraced varies, and the many manifestations of multiculturalism carry significant political repercussions.

Racial classifications are culture and context-specific. Some countries have no formal racial classification system, while others have 6 racial/ethnic categories, and still, others have over 30. This should serve as a reminder that race is in fact a cultural construction.

Current Day Racial Classification According to the United States Government

The United States Census dictates racial classification in the United States. These classifications have evolved over time. The latest racial classification changes occurred in March of 2024. A major change with this ‘new’ classification system is that race and ethnicity are no longer two separate questions on the U.S. Census. Rather there is a single question with race and ethnicity included in the one question to encompass the Racial and Ethnic Classification System of the United States. This is the list:

• White
• Black or African American
• American Indian or Alaskan Native
• Asian
• Hispanic/Latino
• Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders
• Middle Eastern orNorth African (MENA)

The previous category (1997-2024)  ‘Some Other Race’ was included as an actual classification.  This is no longer present in the Racial and Ethnic Classification System, despite the fact that many people will not ‘see’ themselves on this list. Additionally, an increasing number of Americans are bi racial or tri racial. This new classification does not include any options for people who identify with more than a single race. This should give you a hint as to some of the problems with the system as a whole. Each of these classifications have changed over the course of time, are fraught with their own contradictions, and differ markedly from the lived reality (or how we understand, interpret, and assign race in our day to day lives).

The purpose of the classification system is to gage the actual demographic make up of the United States. Yet, as we see, there are omissions in the classification system, so it cannot accurately portray race as it actually exists in the present day United States.  This should leave you with the following questions:

• Why is there a disconnection between the lived experience of race and ethnicity in the United States, and the actual government classification of each?
• How does the changing construction of whiteness shape how we understand race in the twenty-first century?
• How do public attitudes of exclusion because disconnected from the real history of the United States as a country of immigrants?

Examine racial classifications in other nations around the world. You will see that they are quite different, serve different purposes, and are shape by the politics, economics, culture, history, and demographics of the nation.

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