As I recall, the Census Bureau has the damnedest time trying to deal with race/ethnicity. It's important to quantify, because it can change congressional districting and federal funding, and like that, but incredibly hard. The census in 2000 was the first one with "mixed race" as a category, right? And I don't believe it asked you to break it down beyond that. (The Other box was still available.)

Over the years, they've tried all manner of ways to quantify Hispanics/Latinos/people of South and Central American heritage, as a category overlapping with race. If they said only "Hispanic", then people from Spain did check the box, but people from Brazil didn't. At one point in the late 70s, they used the term "South American", until they realized Anglo white people in Alabama were checking that box in all innocent error.

It's an ongoing conundrum.

Problem with the term black is that it's do damned catching, what with the one drop rule. So for many, if you can tell there's black blood -- the person's black. "Mixed" is held by some to be having airs. Except -- why? It's just true, right? But does it apply after four generations of mixing? I may be tri-racial by now. But black, still. Because my parents are black (enough), and theirs are also black (enough).

And then there are black people who won't admit to having any white blood, because the only way it could have gotten into their ancestry is by acts of possession and brutality. And therefore I shouldn't either.

The 2000 census actually left a blank you could fill in, at least in the form that I got. I remember, b/c I went ahead and listed all the countries anyone in my family tree was from, and DH wrote "Jewish Lithuanian".

That's gotta be hell to try to tabulate, though.

The "South American" thing reminds me of a friend who was collecting data over the telephone that included race. one of the options was "Native American". Almost everyone she talked to picked that one. She was surveying Pittsburgh. She very much doubted the accuracy of her results.

How would you describe someone half Asian, half white?

Often? Totally. Freakin. Hot.

I wonder how much of the (grossly offensive, mind you) erroticization of the tragic ~oons came out of the often hottitude of those who are mixed race.

Often? Totally. Freakin. Hot.

That would be my Japanese/Irish friend. If I had a nickle for every girl I've heard gush about how hot he is and every woman I've seen do a double-take when he walked by them I'd be set for life.

"mixed"

I have a friend who finds that very offensive. she says that you refer to dogs as "mixed". people are "bi-racial". *shrug* once again it comes down to what offends some people doesn't affect others.

Is it a mixed-breed thing to her, then?

It was suggested to me once that the word "race" should be replaced with "breed."

Accuracy aside, the idea of telling a bunch of people who'd been bred like livestock that they should start identifying with the word breed.

Good luck not getting beat up.

i'm not really sure. i would assume so though.

Good luck not getting beat up.

Amen to that. At least "race," for all its negative connotations, is generally only applied to human beings as opposed to pets and livestock.

You are NOT being oversensitive, dammit.

Thanks, TB. I probably should have mentioned they stopped, but they had no comprehension of why it was a big deal to me.

They aren't your friends. Real friends would know your boundaries. You are not being oversensitive when you ask them to stop. I have this problem with the n-word. Some people have attempted to take it back, and use it often. I don't like it, even when said by other black people, and I don't like being referred to by it, even when I _know_ that the person doing it is doing so in a "positive" manner.

They no longer are. Time, distance and a certain lack of understanding split us apart. My closest friends understood immediately.

Vortex is me, except replace the n-word with any of the Italo-centric ones mentioned above. I don't care that it's your right to use them because you're Italian-American, it's still degrading. No matter how much anyone's trying to "take it back."

When it comes down to checking a box, I almost always choose other and write in "Mediterranean/Italian." Though I am part English/Irish, the Italian half doesn't fit "Caucasian." There are a number of illnesses and genetic disorders that people of Mediterranean descent are prone to get/have that other ethnicities aren't.

This kind of stuff makes me see red: [link] I found this after a bit of googling. It's not humorous in the least. It's one thing to poke fun and comment on the human condition; it's another to do something like this. Good-natured, my ample ass.