Ah, so he is mixed. That would make him better than a true blood. Unless he was white. Right?

Here's a handy guide to help.

"The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic. The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American. There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else."

TFA makes too much sense for FARK.

"A minority," the census release clarified, "is anyone who is not single-race white and not Hispanic."

So Hispanics are not a minority?

Arkanaut: Not a big fan of St. Patrick's Day?

I don't base my identity on it.

Arent questions usually followed by a question mark.

I pointed this fact out during last weeks thread. This whole "you're a minority if you have one drop of minority blood in you" is from the racist Jim Crow laws. Which is why everyone in American says Obama is black when he's biracial.

No one hides the fact they are a minority anymore, in fact, it's celebrated.

High yellows and Hispanics used to select "White" all the time. In fact, my friend's puerto rican dad was horrified when she started checking off "Hispanic" on her state tests and college applications.

He has been checking off "white" on all his census reports, etc for decades. His 3 children are now checking off "Hispanic", this looks like a 3 fold increase in Hispanics, but it actually isn't.

Also, my boss got his first degree in anthropology back in the 70's, a huge problem in the field was that many researchers (especially older ones) didn't handle various minorities well.

Sometimes they lumped them all under "black" or put some under "white", small sample size (100 whites vs. 10 blacks), dilibertly skewed data, etc. Basically you can't trust a lot of early demographic research because of the racial bias of the time.

shortymac: Sometimes they lumped them all under "black" or put some under "white", small sample size (100 whites vs. 10 blacks), dilibertly skewed data, etc. Basically you can't trust a lot of early demographic research because of the racial bias of the time.



What Dilbertly skewed data might look like.

BigBooper: My mom's side of the family is all farked up. Being dirt poor and from the Missouri/Arkansas/Oklahoma border area, I have relatives who are Cherokee and African American. But it's unclear if any of them are direct ancestors. All generations before my mom being born at home, records are sparse at best.

So what the Fark do I call my race besides American?

My best friend ran into your problem, she wanted to get proof of her Native American Heritage for scholarship purposes.

She was pulling her hair out because the documents are scattered among all her relatives, all she had was a copy of a reservation document with her great grandma's name on it.

Just start searching, don't be afraid to contact Native American groups. The Hopi organization really helped her out even though she's from another tribe.

/Sadly, still couldn't find enough

TravisBickle62: I don't understand why someone whose ancestors were from Spain isn't white.

/moor in the woodpile?



What if they're really Egyptian with a thick Scottish accent?

FTFA:I grew up speaking English at home,

Right he isn't like a real minority like all those "African Americans" who speak African at home. *facepalm"

TravisBickle62: I don't understand why someone whose ancestors were from Spain isn't white.

/moor in the woodpile?

You know you can be "Hispanic white"? That's why Hispanic is not a race. -- Oh I doubt you do understand.

Arkanaut: White people do have it easy though -- you can just say you're American. If you're a non-white American though, other people will assign you an identity whether you identify yourself with that group or not

And that's completely and totally farked up.

Dancin_In_Anson: "The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic. The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American. There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else."

That's how my mother the German Immigrant feels about it.

She says "I am from Germany, but i am an American!"
She has been in this country 50 years now and it took her ten of those years to become a citizen. She had to answer an essay test on american history that was some 50 pages long and be interviewed. All in English.
She learned english by watching Mr. Ed and Dark Shadows.

After all that she had to promise to never take a job from a natural born citizen.

So can I put African-American because *all* my ancestors were from Africa 200,000 years ago?