Thread: More Hispanics check 'white' on Census

More Hispanics check 'white' on Census
by Adriana Gómez Licón \ El Paso Times
Posted: 02/21/2011 12:00:00 AM MST

More people in El Paso see themselves as both Hispanic and white, new 2010 U.S. Census figures released last week show.

It could have been outreach efforts by civic groups, or a different mindset among white-collar and younger Hispanics, but at least 84 percent of Hispanics in El Paso County marked the "white" box on their 2010 Census forms. Less than 73 percent of Hispanics checked that box in 2000.

County officials and advocacy groups reached out to Hispanics in advance of the latest count to explain that most Hispanics in El Paso are white.

"We are becoming more and more educated," said Christina Bennett, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, in El Paso.

Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter on Thursday said El Paso's growth is attributable to a young population of Hispanics with high birth rates, an influx of military personnel and immigration from Mexico.

Most of the county's growth during the past decade came from Hispanics. An increase of 126,000 Hispanic residents and 5,000 other minorities offset the loss of 10,000 Anglos.

El Paso County expanded by 18 percent to 800,647 people, adding 121,000 new residents in the past 10 years.

More than eight out of 10 El Pasoans are Hispanic.

In one question, the U.S. Census Bureau asked whether people are of Hispanic origin. In another, it required them to claim a race -- mainly white, black, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native.

Jesse Acosta, chairman of the El Paso Complete
Count Committee, waited to see how people answered those two questions when census results came out Thursday.

"Some people just don't want to identify themselves as white or black so they put other," Acosta said. "Hispanic is an ethnicity."

Acosta explained to civic groups before the April 1 count that race and ethnicity are different concepts. Race has to do with biological descent. Ethnicity is about cultural heritage.

The Chicano movements in the 1960s influenced the Census Bureau to Census factoids about your city and region count Hispanics as a cultural group, Acosta said.

Censuses have been asking the Hispanic origin question since 1970. Unlike the 2000 form, Census 2010 explained that "Hispanic origins are not races."

Acosta estimated that about 98 percent of Hispanics in El Paso are white.

But there are still at least 80,000 Hispanics in the county who did not feel comfortable marking "white" on their census forms.

Felipe de Ortego y Gasca, a Chicano scholar in residence at Western New Mexico University, said the Census Bureau does not take culture into consideration.

"We always referred to them as Los Blancos or Los Americanos. And that differentiated us," Ortego said. "The questionnaire is a little too amorphous. It could be more direct."

Ortego checked "other race" on his form and wrote in the blank space: "Indo-Hispanic."

Arnold said the bureau received forms from people who wrote they were Hispanic in answer to the racial question.

"It's just how people identify themselves," said Jenna Arnold, spokeswoman for the census bureau's Dallas regional office.

It seemed odd for José Luis Mauricio, leader of a group of Mexican businessmen who are moving El Paso, to check "white" as his race.

"It felt kind of funny. You feel kind of uncertain," he said.

The data released Thursday were the first installment of local statistics. Later in the year, the bureau will release more specific data about racial categories, countries of origin, ages and sex.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_17438938

Its not unusual in Latin American culture for race to be associated with economic status. I've heard of cases of people's government records being changed from mixed or Indian to white after moving into a higher economic class.

Hmmm, yet so many more are so proud of their being the Race when it suits their purpose...

Originally Posted by forest

Hmmm, yet so many more are so proud of their being the Race when it suits their purpose...

Now their even lying about their race Illegals entire lives are ONE BIG LIE

Ya know in 50yrs it's never once came up in conversation,"Oh! hey, by the way I'm white!" Well good then they'll be called the racist!

Since my kids are half and half....half Hispanic half Anglo, I can understand why some people might answer white. We didn't know what to have our kids put because the census offered no choice whatsoever for that half/half. That entire census form in my opinion totally revolved around Hispanics.

RELATED

82 percent of the people in El Paso County are Hispanic

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-228547.html

Originally Posted by elpasoborn

Since my kids are half and half....half Hispanic half Anglo, I can understand why some people might answer white. We didn't know what to have our kids put because the census offered no choice whatsoever for that half/half. That entire census form in my opinion totally revolved around Hispanics.

I CAN UNDERSTAND FROM YOUR POINT OF VIEW..... Case in point.... OBAMA's mother was white,and his father was black. Is he black because he looks black

at least 84 percent of Hispanics in El Paso County marked the "white" box on their 2010 Census forms

It they are trying to hide their true background or they are dumber than a box of rocks. Maybe next time census needs to have a color chart included and you hold it up to your skin and it tell what you are. Gotta be more accurate than what they have there now.