Introduction
The United States is a diverse country, racially and ethnically. Six races are officially recognized: White, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and people of two or more races; a race called "Some other race" is also used in the census and other surveys, but is not official. The United States Census Bureau also classifies Americans as "Hispanic or Latino" and "Not Hispanic or Latino", which identifies Hispanic and Latino Americans as a racially diverse ethnicity that composes the largest minority group in the nation. A person of color is a term used primarily in the United States to describe any person who is not white. The term is meant to be inclusive among non-white groups, emphasizing common experiences of racism.
Racial and Ethnic Categories
In the 2000 Census and subsequent United States Census Bureau surveys, Americans self-described as belonging to following racial groups. White are considered those having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa ; Black or African American are considered those having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa ; Native American are considered those having origins in any of the original peoples of North, Central and South America, and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment; Asian are considered those having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent ; Pacific Islanders are those having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands; see also Pacific Islander American. Finally, multiracial are those who check off or write in more than one race. There is no actual option labeled "Two or more races" or "Multiracial" on the census and other forms; only the foregoing six races appear, and people who report more than one of them are categorized as people of "Two or more races" in subsequent processing.
Asian Americans
Connie Chung, First Asian American national news anchor.
African American boy
An African American boy outside of Cincinnati, Ohio in the 1940s.
The question on Hispanic or Latino origin is separate from the question on race. Hispanic and Latino Americans have origins in the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America and Spain . Most of the Latin American countries are, like the United States, quite racially diverse . Consequently, no separate racial category exists for Hispanic and Latino Americans, as they do not make up a race of their own; when responding to the race question on the census form, they choose from among the same racial categories as all Americans, and are included in the numbers reported for those races. Self-identifying as Hispanic or Latino and not Hispanic or Latino is neither explicitly allowed nor explicitly prohibited.
Racial Makeup of the U.S. Population
The majority of the more than 300 million people currently living in the United States consists of White Americans, who trace their ancestry to the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. White Americans are the majority in forty-nine of the fifty states, with Hawaii as the exception. The non-Hispanic White percentage (66% in 2008) tends to decrease every year, and this sub-group is expected to become a plurality of the overall U.S. population after the year 2050.
About 12.4% of the American people are Black or African American. Also known more simply as Black Americans, the Black or African American group is the largest racial minority, as opposed to Hispanics and Latinos, who are the largest ethnic minority. Historically, any person with any sub-Saharan African ancestry, even if they were mostly white, were designated and classified as "Black," according to the "one drop rule. " The one-drop rule is a historical colloquial term in the United States for the social classification as black of individuals with any African ancestry; this means any person with "one drop of black blood" was considered black.
A third significant minority is the Asian American population, comprising 13.4 million in 2008, or 4.4% of the U.S. population. California is home to 4.5 million Asian Americans, whereas 495,000 live in Hawaii, where they compose the plurality of the islands' people – this is their largest share of any state. Asians are by no means a monolithic group. The largest sub-groups are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Thailand.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas, such as Native Americans and Inuit, made up 0.8% of the population in 2008, numbering 2.4 million. Once thought to face extinction in race or culture, there has been a remarkable revival of Native American identity and tribal sovereignty in the 20th century.
Hispanic and Latino Americans
"Hispanic or Latino origin" is a self-designation made by 47 million Americans, as of 2008. They have origins in the Spanish-speaking nations of Latin America, chiefly, whereas a small percentage traces their origins to Spain. The Hispanic or Latino population is young and fast-growing, due to immigration and higher birth rates. For decades it has contributed significantly to U.S. population increases, and this is expected to continue for decades. The Census Bureau projects that by 2050 one-quarter of the population will be Hispanic or Latino.
Assimilation of Native Americans
Portraits of Native Americans from the Cherokee, Cheyenne, Choctaw, Comanche, Iroquois, and Muscogee tribes in American attire. Photos date from 1868 to 1924.