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White American

John F. Kennedy
Regions with significant populations
Northwest, Southeast United States, Midwest and New England
Languages
English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Polish, and other
Religion
Atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam Judaism, others
Related ethnic groups
English, Germans, Irish, White Canadian, White British, White African, White Australian and other Whites, mostly Europeans

The term White American refers to Americans of European descent residing in the United States,Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). It may also however, refer to Middle Eastern Americans or Hispanics. The exact term White American is however, rarely used. Instead the vast majority of publications by the US government such as this publication on household income, simply refer to this group of survey respondents as white.

Perhaps this is because white Americans often identify simply as white and tend not to identify themselves as a sub-group of Americans. Thus In the United States, the term white appears to be synonymous with white American, while the cultural boundaries separating white from other racial or ethnic categories are contested and always changing.

The Office of Management and Budget's standards... establish a minimum of five categories for race: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and White. Respondents will be able to select one or more of these racial categories... For most surveys, however, tables will show data at most for the White, Black, and Asian populations. -US Census Bureau, 2000

US Census Statistics and Definitions

White American is the largest racial group counted in the 2000 Census, comprising 77.1 percent of the population. About 2% of this total were people who identified as "white" in combination with one or more other races; about 8% also identified ethnically as Hispanic. The largest ethnic groups among White Americans were Germans followed by the Irish and the English.

Note that many Americans who are treated as part of minority groups are included in the census category White. This is true for most Hispanic Americans, 48.6% of whom identified racially as white, and is America's "white Hispanic" population. The 2000 Census separated the question on Hispanicity from the question on race, the latter being divided into the 5 categories of White, Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Asian, plus "Other", with the respondent having the ability to mark more than one category. It is also true for many Arab and other Middle Eastern American and North African Americans, as well as non-European Jewish Americans, since the 2000 Census conflates race and geographic/national origin: white is defined to include people with ancestral origins in Europe and the Middle East.

Because of these inconsistencies, statistics for White Americans are rarely used for demographic, civil-rights, or other social statistical purposes.

Geographic Distribution of White Americans

According to the Census definition, White Americans are the majority racial group in almost all of the United States. They are not the majority in many American Indian reservations, parts of the South known as the Black Belt, the majority-Hispanic Central Valley of California (note that many Hispanics designate their race as Other, primarily because the Census Bureau does not provide a mestizo or mulatto racial designation), and in many urban areas throughout the country.

Overall the highest concentration of non-Hispanic Whites, those referred to as white alone by the Census Bureau was found in the northern Midwest, New England, the Rocky Mountain States, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The lowest concentration of non-Hispanic Whites was found in southern and mid-Atlantic states.

Historical meanings

The 2000 United States Census defined the white race as follows: "The term White refers to people having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa." It includes people who indicated their race or races as white or wrote in entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Israeli, Syrian, Lebanese, Portuguese, Polish and Scottish. Other ethnicities reported are Dutch, French, Canadians, Australians and Scandinavians.

The official US government definition race used in the Census and other data collection is that it gives national origin a racial value, which can be somewhat problematic for Middle Eastern Americans and North African Americans who for one reason or another are not commonly seen in social circles as white but are encompassed in the official definition. (see below for more detail)

Many different peoples that are now considered "white" in the United States were not initially perceived as such. Irish Americans were not considered white until the idea of white shifted to an identity that contrasted themselves with black slaves. People we often now automatically assume to be white, such as peoples of Eastern European Americans and Southern European Americans, were considered in between or not quite white at the start of their immigration into the United States in the 1840s. The process of officially being defined as white by law often came about in court disputes over pursuit of citizenship, which in the early 1900s was allowed to only those immigrants deemed white. Beginning in the 1920s, Americans came to see these Southern European Americans and Eastern European Americans as white due to their acculturation. To express their newfound shared identity with Eastern and Southern European Americans, the racial label of Caucasian came into use. Whiteness studies looks at the process whereby an ethnic group becomes defined as 'white'.

Another predicament is that by simply responding Israeli in the US census can lead to a person being categorized as white. This disregards whether the Israeli (if Jewish) is of European descent (Ashkenazi), oris actually of Ethiopian (Falasha), Yemenite (Teimani) or Indian descent.

German Americans

The first Germans arrived in the North American colonies in 1608 with the first German settlement, Germantown, Pennsylvania being founded on October 6, 1683. Due to their early arrival and Teutonic ancestry, they faced less dicrimination than many other European arrivals. Today, Germans are the largest ancestry group in the United States and some sub-groups such as the Amish and Hutterites continue to preserve the lifestyle of German pilgrims. Most were seeking available land as well as religious freedom at the time.

Many settled in the English colony of Pennsylvania. In the 1700's many persons of English descent harbored resentment towards the ever-increasing number of German settlers. Benjamin Franklin in Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc. complained about the increasing influx of German Americans, stating that they had a negative influence on the early United States. The only exception were Germans of Saxon descent"who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased". Benjamin Franklin most likely thought favorably of the Saxons as Anglo-Saxons like him are the decadents of Saxon invaders to Britain. By the late 1800s, despite some lingering nativists resentment towards new arrivals, Germans, along with Scandinavians and the Dutch, were included with the British as America's old stock, and thought of as racially superior to later immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe.

The first English settlers arrived at Jamestown in 1607; the first German, in 1608. Therefore, Germans were present at the creation of this nation. The Germans who came to Jamestown in 1608 and subsequently in 1620 were the forerunners of the largest nationality to immigrate to the United States since its founding in 1776.-Gary C. Grassl, President The German Heritage Society of Greater Washington, D.C.

As stated above, unlike most European immigrant groups whose acceptance as white came gradually over the course of the late 1800s (that is, in U.S. colloquial definitions, since all Europeans had been white by legal U.S. definition), German immigrants quickly came to be accepted as White.

German-Americans were the largest group of immigrants during the 19th century, outnumbering both English and Irish immigrants, making German-Americans the largest ethnic group in the United States to this very day.

Interesting sub-groups of German Americans are those adhering to the Amish faith. The Amish, who were originally from Zurich in Switzerland, arrived in Pennsylvania during the early 18 century. Amish immigration to the United States reached its peak between the years 1727 and 1770. Religious freedom was the perhaps most pressing cause for Amish immigration to Pennsylvania, which became known as a haven for persecuted religious groups at the time. The Hutterites are another example of a group of German Americans who continue a lifestyle similar to that of their ancestors. Hutterites, much like the Amish, fled persecution for their religious beliefs and came to the United States in 1870. Today Hutterites mostly reside in Montana, the Dakotas, and Minnesota as well as in the western provinces of Canada. Hutterite continue to speak German, with most being able to speak Standard German in addition to their dialect. Both religious groups offer a look into the life of Germanic pilgrims in the 18 and 19 centuries.

Irish Americans

In the 19th Century, Irish immigrants were often discriminated against due in part to their heritage majority Catholic religion. Irish fear of Protestant indoctrination in public schools is what led to the drive to open U.S. Catholic parochial schools, and eventually to the founding of the University of Notre Dame.

Eastern European and Slavic Americans

Eastern Europeans and Slavic Americans were classified as White upon their arrival at Ellis Island in the United States. The new arrivals from eastern Europe, however, were considered "'ethnics'...seen as 'not quite white'" by the colloquial understanding of the time. Legislation was also passed, such as the Immigration Act of 1924 to restrict and reduce their further entry.

A wide variety of immigrant nationalities from Eastern Europe: Albanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, South Slavic and Bulgarian, established communities in U.S. major cities in the early 20th century, especially in New York City and Chicago. Like the Irish and Germans before them, Eastern European Americans have assimilated with a growing ethno-cultural consciousness one may find in Polish neighborhoods of Chicago and Russian sections in Los Angeles.

European Jewish Americans

According to one source — although not supported by census records of the period which recorded all Jews as White — European Jews in America did not become accepted as 'White' until the 1940s.

Jewish people desired assimilation. As early as 1911, German/American-Jewish anthropologist Franz Boas (1858-1952) purported in The Mind of Primitive Man, that "no real biological chasm separated recent immigrants from Mayflower descendants." These claims based on prejudice, whether religious or ethno-cultural has no actual basis, as most Jewish Americans are loyal to the U.S. as a haven for the persecuted fleeing Europe in the early 1900s.

Anti-Semitism was prevalent in the world, including the U.S. in the 1920s and 1930s, but after World war II, public attitudes on Jewish Americans changed to more positive depictions and American Jews enjoy a relative acceptance. But a small fringe of anti-Semitism in the late 20th century by Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, though European Jewish Americans are generally "white", continued to harass and harm a religious group whom withstood a history of discrimination.

Italian Americans

Mass immigration to the United States from Italy occurred during the late 19 and early 20 century. Italians had been colloqually considered "ethnic" or "not quite white" along with other Southern European immigrants. whereas Northern Italian immigrants were seen, however, as a more "desirable nationality" after Northern Europeans. Overall Italians often fell victim to stereotypes of criminal involvement, anti-Catholicism, and ethnic and cultural prejudices and violence. One example of anti-Italian violence is the lynching of eleven Italian immigrants in New Orleans, one of largest mass lynchings in United States history. The legislation of the Immigration Act of 1924, was also aimed at restricting and reducing the entry of additional Eastern and Southern Europeans into the United States. Southern Italians were classified as a different nationality primarily at the request of their Northern Italian counterparts..

Today, over 20 million Americans claim Italian descent, the largest communities are found in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Illinois, but more Italian Americans now live in other states like Florida, Louisiana, Indiana, and California.

Hispanic Americans

Despite differences in ancestry from one Latin American to another — encompassing people from the Southwestern United States and Mexico to Central America, South America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, they all tend to be labeled as Hispanic, often erroneously giving it a racial value. The term non-Hispanic white is used for clarity to designate members of the dominant cultures of the US. A question, however, is whether some, all, or no Hispanics are seen as White by non-Hispanic Whites.

Of the over 40 million Hispanics or Latinos in the United States Census, 2000, a plurality of 48.6% identified as White-Hispanic, 48.2% identified as Hispanic-Hispanic (most of whom are presumed to be mestizos), and the remaining 3.2% identified as black-Hispanic. Of those who identified as "white-Hispanic", many would also possess at least some Amerindian and/or black ancestry.

Judging by census intermarriage statistics, even non-White 'Hispanics' — that is, mestizos and mulattos — may be in the process of integrating into the majority community and often labeled as White. Mestizos and mulattos, however, are most often considered non-White.

The media and Hispanic community leaders themselves in the U.S. nearly always refer to Hispanics as if a separate group from 'Whites' and the white majority, especially those who are discernibly of mixed racial descent. This may be because white is often used as shorthand for non-Hispanic white. Federal agencies' standards have become more precise in this regard. The EEOC explicitly defines Hispanics as a separate and distinct "ethnicity." Newer versions of this form follow the Census Bureau in separating Hispanic self-identity from "racial" self-identity.

On the decennial census form, a respondent who checks the Hispanic or Latino ethnicity box can, in a following question, also check one or more of the 5 official race categories. Supporters of this policy claim that statistics on Hispanics as a group must be collected in order to track discrimination, for purposes such as affirmative action — in the same way that they are for non-white racial groups, and for women. The bureau, in contrast, simply says that they are mandated to ask such questions by the U.S. Congress.

Mexican Americans

Throughout the history of the United States, Mexicans and Mexican Americans have held different racial statuses, including White. Past misconceptions that Mexicans and/or Mexican Americans somehow constitute a single racial type have been responsible for these across-the-board labeling. Today, however, according to U.S. Census criteria and other governmental legal constructions, Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and any other persons of a Hispanic national origin are considered independent of any single race. Instead, a person may identify their Hispanic nationality, or identify generically as Hispanic or Latino and then separately indicate any one or more of the five officially recognized racial groups (or alternatively check other race). In the last U.S census, however, around half of all persons of Mexican or Mexican American origin in the U.S. checked white to register their race (in addition to stating their Mexican national origin).

The 1930 U.S. census form asked for "color or race." The 1930 census enumerators were given these instructions: "write W for White; Mex for Mexican, but from 1940 to the latter part of the century the instructions were: "Report white (W) for Mexicans unless they are definitely of Indian or other nonwhite race.",

During the Great Depression, Mexicans were mostly considered non-white. Anywhere from one to two million people were deported in a decade-long effort by the government to free up jobs for those who were considered real Americans, and to rid the county governments of what they considered a problem. The campaign, called the Mexican Repatriation, was authorized by President Herbert Hoover and it targeted areas with large Hispanic populations, mostly in California, Texas and Michigan. Although President Franklin Roosevelt ended federal support when he took office, many state and local governments continued with their efforts. It left festering emotional wounds that for many have not healed. Estimates now indicate that approximately 60 percent of the people deported were children who were born in America and others who, while of Mexican descent, were legal citizens. Many of these people returned to the United States during the labor shortages of World War II.

In later times when Mexicans where treated as a monolithic group, and allotted white status, they were permitted to inter-marry with what today are termed non-Hispanic whites (unlike blacks and Asians); were allowed to acquire U.S. citizenship upon arrival (unlike Asian immigrants); served in all-white units during the World War II (unlike blacks and Japanese); could vote and hold elected office in places such as Texas, especially San Antonio (unlike blacks); ran the state politics and constituted most of the elite of New Mexico since colonial times; and went to integrated schools in Central Texas and Los Angeles (unlike Blacks in the south and Asians in Southern California). Additionally, Asians were barred from marrying Mexican Americans because of their legal White status.

Despite their legal status as white, and even their claim to European heritage (see Casta, criollo, mestizo) most Mexican Americans are seen as socially and racially non-White. Given that many Mexican-Americans with complete or predominant European features are not seen or even realized to Mexicans since they do not fit the Mexican type (i.e. mestizo; which most, but not all, Mexicans indeed are), and can be looked over as being simply non-Mexican White Americans. This tends to lower the perception of the true number of white Mexican Americans there may actually be. This is also the case with other White Hispanics. Nevertheless, some Mexicans view themselves (sometimes even in cases when it is clearly not the case) as distinctly non-white. These proudly claim direct descent from Amerindians, most commonly the Aztecs and Mayans.

In Mexico herself, Mestizos are said to account for some 60% of the population and the Mexican flag pays homage to the country's amerindian and Aztec roots. Together with the White population of Mexico (estimated at 9%) they constitute close to 70% of the country. Most of the rest of the population (estimated at 30%) is classified as Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian, and 1% Black, Asian, or other.

North African and Middle Eastern Americans

According to the U.S. Census definition, North African Americans and Middle Eastern Americans are classified as white, and U.S. federal agencies group all Middle Easterners and North Africans as White. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulations also explicitly define White as "peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East," and the Census Bureau's decennial form offers no check-box for such a self-identity under the race question.

North African and Middle Easterners, however, are usually not included within the general structural concepts of White American society. The U.S. Census classification of North African and Middle Eastern Americans as White is largely in an American legal context. Various other countries account for them in non-White categories. In the USA, common non-governmental, colloquial and social understandings of "White" differ from that country's official government definition by excluding Muslims even if they otherwise look white.

Self-identification should also be taken into account, as for example, most Egyptian Americans would not consider themselves white. A person who would have written Egyptian in entries relating to ethnic origin is automatically considered White. People who check Other race and wrote Egyptian or another North African or Middle Eastern country are still counted as White. Many forms specifically ask people of North African or Middle Eastern descent to check White for race. An Egyptian man once sued the US government to have white removed from his immigration documents. Similarly, the US Census considers Egyptian and Berber Americans as Arabs, even though most Berbers and many Egyptians would object to this classification quite as much.

In the American context, the common contention of excluding these largely Caucasoid groups of North Africa and the Middle East from the popular definition of "White" (as opposed to the official government definition) has been based on the argument of their disparate cultural, religious, linguistic heritage and ancestral origins. It has also been based on the argument that there is a significant sub-Saharan component in their populations — a long-spanning presence throughout the history of that largely contiguous region.

While it is undeniable that many people in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, etc) and the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, etc.) have enough black African ancestry or are dark enough — at times being as dark-complexioned as some African Americans — to be considered black by popular U.S. standards, some may also be lighter-complexioned by comparison, comparable to Southern Europeans. And although some people of the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, etc.) may also be as dark as those found in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, some are lighter-complexioned. Finally, a tiny percentage throughout the Middle Eastern and North African region as a whole may even resemble Northern Europeans.

See Haney-Lopez (1996) for a comprehensive list of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that repeatedly reversed prior U.S. Supreme Court decisions (back and forth many times) regarding whether or not Afghanis, Syrians, Asian Indians, and Arabians are White.

Asian Americans

Throughout much of America's population history, there has always been a slow but constant immigration from the countries of the Asian continent. With this, there has also been mounting legislation which was passed trying to restrict these peoples from immigrating, most forcefully against the Chinese. The Naturalization Act of 1790 also restricted naturalized American citizenship to whites only. As a result, in the early 20 century many new arrivals with origins in the Asian continent petitioned the courts to be legally classified as white, and hence there exist many United States Supreme Court rulings on their "Whiteness".

In successful cases, such as the case for Armenians — who were then known as Asiatic Turks — their legal acquisition of whiteness was achieved with the help of anthropologist Franz Boas who had testified as an expert scientific witness . In other cases, the courts seemed to contradict themselves on the parameters for whiteness, with the cases of Takao Ozawa v. United States (1922) and United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923) being a prime example. In the first case, the court ruled that Takao Ozawa, of Japanese descent, was not White, despite the fact that he was of a pale white complexion. The court stated that in U.S. law, the anthropology at the time which classified the Japanese as belonging to the Mongoloid race, overruled his pale pigmentation. In the latter case, the court ruled that Bhagat Singh Thind, of Indian descent, was not white despite the fact that Indians were deemed Caucasian by physical anthropologists. The court in this instance stated that in U.S. law, "the common understanding of the white man" overruled physical anthropology.

East and Southeast Asian Americans

Nineteenth-century Asian American people of East and Southeast Asian origin were not considered White. These Asian Americans have therefore always been classified as Asian, or as belonging to the Mongoloid race.

In Jim Crow era Mississippi, however, Chinese American children were allowed to attend Whites-only schools and universities, rather than attend segregated Black-only schools, and some of their parents became members of the infamous Mississippi "White Citizens' Council" who enforced anti-Black racism and Black segregation.

Asian Indian and South Asian Americans

This regional group includes Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, and various others. In the early 20 century, people of Asian Indian or other Indian Sub-Continent origin were classified as racially Hindu and not white, although they had been classified as belonging to the Caucasian race by anthropologists. The anthropological findings had been accepted by the United States courts, but they were overruled by what the courts outlined to be "the common understanding of the white man".

Nevertheless, there are instances of courts granting white status to petitioners. Between 1950 and 1970, they were classified as white, until an Indian-American group protested to the Office of Management and Budget to remove Indians from the white category.

African Americans

Due to the one-drop theory in the United States, for the past century or so, English-speaking Americans with any known African ancestry, no matter how slight or invisible, have often been categorized as Black. As detailed above, however, those of Hispanic, Middle Eastern or North African heritage are an exception, in that those who look European, or occasionally even those appearing mixed, are not labeled "Black" though they may have some sub-Saharan African ancestry, perhaps even acknowledging it.

The one-drop rule is historically recent. As mentioned above, before the 18th century, the terms black and white did not designate groups. Before the Civil War, someone's racial identity depended on the combination of their appearance, African blood fraction, and social circle.

In the poor black community, the identity of staying black meant to avoid complete acculturation they see as destructive to the bonds of their community. African-Americans of the upper-middle class and had affluent lives are looked down upon by militants and the underclass as acting white. And the word white became synonymous to being successful, but are stereotyped to began cutting any ties to their African American heritage.

Nevertheless, that the endogamous isolation of the African-American community has lasted for centuries is confirmed by DNA admixture studies. Many recent studies in genetics and molecular anthropology have shown that there is a surprisingly small degree of genetic overlap between members of the U.S. Black endogamous group and the U.S. White endogamous group. About one-third of all White Americans are found to have traces of African ancestry; they average about 23% African admixture. Black Americans as a whole also have some European admixture, averaging about 17 percent.

Eventually, in the United States, black came to denote African ancestry and brown became attributed to mixed-race Hispanics, Southeast Asian Americans and South Asian Americans (people of the Indian subcontinent), though not much used. In Australia, black denotes Aborigines and brown came to denote South Asians and Middle Easterners/North Africans.

References

1. "US Census Bureau, racial breakdown of the United States". Retrieved 2006-11-20.
2. Jay, Gregory. University of Wisconsin-Milwakee Who Invented White People? 1998. November 5, 2006.
3. Adair, Margo. Challenging White Supremacy Workshop. 1990 November 5, 2006.
4. ^ "Racial and Ethnic Classifications Used in Census 2000 and Beyond". Retrieved 2006-10-05.
5. ^ Adams, J.Q. (2001). Dealing with Diversity. Chicago, IL: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. 0-7872-8145-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help) Cite error: The named reference "Dealing with Diversity" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
6. Brewer, Cynthia (2001). Census 2000, The Geography of US Diversity. Redlands, CA: ESRI Press. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
7. "Distribution of those identifying as White alone, by state, US Census Bureau". Retrieved 2006-10-05.
8. "US Census Bureau, Whites in the 2000 Census" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-10-05.
9. Roediger, Wages of Whiteness, 134; Alexander Saxton, The Rise and Fall of the White Republic: Class Politics and Mass Culture in Nineteenth-Century America (New York, 1990); Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White.
10. Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color, 14.
11. ^ "German Americans in Jamestown". Retrieved 2006-10-10.
12. ^ "First German-Americans". Retrieved 2006-10-05.
13. ^ Allard, William Albert (2006). Hutterite Sojourn. Washington DC: National Geographic Society. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
14. See David R. Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class (London: Verso, 1991) p. 32 for their earlier status. See op. cit. p. 142 for Stephen O. Douglas's acceptance, in his debates against Lincoln, that Germans are a "branch of the Caucasian race." See op. cit. p. 155 for anti-abolitionist tracts of 1864 accusing abolitionist German-Americans of having "broken their ties with the white race" by opposing slavery. Finally, see Frank W. Sweet, Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule (Palm Coast FL: Backintyme, 2005) p. 332 and Leon F. Litwack, North of Slavery: the Negro in the Free States, 1790-1860 (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1961) p. 75 for the legislated disfranchisement of Pennsylvanians of African ancestry by the first state legislature controlled by German-Americans.
15. "The Amish". Retrieved 2006-10-06.
16. Karen Brodkin, How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America (New Brunswick NJ, 1998).
17. Franz Boas, The Mind of Primitive Man (New York, 1911).
18. Thomas A. Guglielmo, White on Arrival: Italians, Race, Color, and Power in Chicago, 1890-1945, 2003, ISBN 0195155432
19. Thomas A. Guglielmo, White on Arrival: Italians, Race, Color, and Power in Chicago, 1890-1945, 2003, ISBN 0195155432
20. Employer Information Report EEO-1 and Standard Form 100, Appendix § 4, Race/Ethnic Identification, 1 Empl. Prac. Guide (CCH) § 1881, (1981), 1625. In apparent self-contradiction, this version of the regulation states that the distinct Hispanic "race" comprises, "All persons of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race".
21. Painter, Nell Irvin. Yale University. Collective Degradation:Slavery and the Construction of Race. Why White People are Called Caucasian. 2003. October 9, 2006. <http://www.yale.edu/glc/events/race/Painter.pdf#search=%22%20%22light%20colored%20people%22%22>.
22. Ian F. Haney-Lopez, White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race (New York: New York University, 1996), Appendix "A".
23. James W. Loewen, The Mississippi Chinese: Between Black and White (Cambridge MA, 1971); Warren (1997), 200-18, 209-11.
24. See "Chapter 9. How the Law Decided if You Were Black or White: The Early 1800s" in Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule by Frank W. Sweet, ISBN 0939479230. A summary of this chapter, with endnotes, is available online at | How the Law Decided if You Were Black or White: The Early 1800s.
25. Although abstracts of most such peer-reviewed studies can be found in pub med, a current index to recent admixture studies, along with full-text links, is available at: Various admixture studies.
26. Heather E. Collins-Schramm and others, "Markers that Discriminate Between European and African Ancestry Show Limited Variation Within Africa," Human Genetics 111 (2002): 566-69.

External link

• White Population 2000 from the US Census

Template:2000USCensus

• Ethnic groups in the United States