), and demographically **they’re expected to eventually overtake English speakers of European origin as the largest ethnic group in the US.**
Bolding added. I believe the bolded statement is incorrect. Do you have a cite?
Projections I’ve seen show non-Hispanic whites to lose majority status (and already have in California, I think), but they will still be the largest ethnic group in the US. See [this Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States#Projections_of_future_developments) which cites this [US Census release](http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/012496.html).
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### Author:  [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513/6 "2010-05-06T17:34:14Z")
> [@Keeve](#):
>
> I’ve seen a few threads about this year’s U.S. Census, but I haven’t seen this question addressed:
>
> Regarding Question #9 - “What is this person’s race?” Why is it that they care whether someone is Cambodian or Vietnamese, and they care whether someone is Tongan or Fijian, and they care whether someone is Cherokee or Iriquois, but they **don’t** seem to care whether someone is Swedish or Italian, or whether someone is Nigerian or Sudanese?
>
> I just don’t get it. For what it is worth, I did send the form in already, and I filled in “Jewish”, because that’s the ethnic group that I associate myself most strongly with. (I think I wrote “Ashkenazi” in 2000, but now I reserve that for where it is medically relevant, like when I donate blood.) But I wish I knew what sort of answer the Census people are expecting.
As I’ve heard it, it’s because most white people in America don’t actually know whether they are Swedish or Italian, nor do black people know whether they are Nigerian or Sudanese, since there’s been so much mixing in those populations since the original colonization hundreds of years ago.
But you’re free to enter “Swedish” in the blank space for “Other” if you know that’s what you are.
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### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513/7 "2010-05-06T18:17:43Z")
> [@Pleonast](#):
>
> Bolding added. I believe the bolded statement is incorrect. Do you have a cite?
>
> Projections I’ve seen show non-Hispanic whites to lose majority status (and already have in California, I think), but they will still be the largest ethnic group in the US. See [this Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States#Projections_of_future_developments) which cites this [US Census release](http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/012496.html).
No cite, sorry perhaps I misunderstood losing majority status.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513/8 "2010-05-06T19:16:21Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#):
>
> Because, as the government likes to tell us, “Hispanics may be of any race”. So somebody can be Hispanic and white, Hispanic and black, and so on.
It’s not just the government, but society in general. By all outward appearances (I am light skined) and surname (Anglo surname) I am considered “white” by everyone I have ever meet; my cousins on the other hand are dark complected and have a spanish surname. When we were in grade school in rural Ohio my cousins would get harrassed constantly becasue they were the only outward appearing people of a different ethic group in the whole county of white german/anglo descent farmers.
Once people realized that my mother was 100% mexican and that I was related to these dark skined people the racist comments would come out. Oh, you have dark hair and brown eyes; I can see you as a spic now! :mad: Or, you don’t have to hang with the mexicans, you look white enough for us! :mad::mad:
Even today in 2010 I get the same type treatment from idiots who want to key on race instead of humanity. Once people find out that I am half mexican the bean eater jokes and constant stupid questions start rolling in; so I tend not to tell people so that they can feel free to rail on ethic groups around me without having to be cautious of the outsider. Hell, I’ve even been told that I could be Klan member if I would just embrace my “white” heritage.:smack: So it’s not the government that is telling us that hispanics can be of any race, it’s the racist people in our society and the government is just adknowledging that this is going on.
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### Author:  [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513/9 "2010-05-06T20:57:24Z")
Okay, maybe the answers will become more meaningful if I change the focus of the question:
I understand that the Census information is used for lots of things. It is used not only to find out how many people live near me and how many congressmen my state should get, but also for all sorts of statistical research. SO: ATTENTION ALL YOU SOCIOLOGISTS AND STATISTICIANS OUT THERE — What sort of research might you do, where you want to see the number about Cambodians and Vietnamese and Tongans and Fijians and Cherokee and Iriquois, but you don’t need the numbers on Swedes or Italians or Nigerians or Sudanese?
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2010, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513/10 "2010-05-06T21:00:18Z")
> [@Keeve](#):
>
> SO: ATTENTION ALL YOU SOCIOLOGISTS AND STATISTICIANS OUT THERE — What sort of research might you do, where you want to see the number about Cambodians and Vietnamese and Tongans and Fijians and Cherokee and Iriquois, but you don’t need the numbers on Swedes or Italians or Nigerians or Sudanese?
Does the question specifically ask for the respondent to separately check “Cambodian” or “Vietnamese” or “Tongan” or “Fijian”…or is it using those nationalities as examples of “Asian” or “Pacific Islander”?
In other words, would a Tongan’s answer on the form be different from a Fijian?
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2010, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513/11 "2010-05-06T21:06:53Z")
> [@Keeve](#):
>
> What sort of research might you do, where you want to see the number about Cambodians and Vietnamese and Tongans and Fijians and Cherokee and Iriquois, but you don’t need the numbers on Swedes or Italians or Nigerians or Sudanese?
Well, I assume they’re curious about Asian immigration to the US and not so curious about African immigration.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2010, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513/12 "2010-05-06T21:07:53Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> Does the question specifically ask for the respondent to separately check “Cambodian” or “Vietnamese” or “Tongan” or “Fijian”…or is it using those nationalities as examples of “Asian” or “Pacific Islander”?
>
> In other words, would a Tongan’s answer on the form be different from a Fijian?
Yes. If you select “Asian” or “Pacific Islander”, the form then asks for your nationality.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513/13 "2010-05-06T21:39:35Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#):
>
> Yes. If you select “Asian” or “Pacific Islander”, the form then asks for your nationality.
Then, my guess would be, as you note, that there are certain nationalities / origins which are of particular interest, from the standpoint of government programs.
We likely don’t have a lot of first- or second-generation Swedish-Americans here anymore. We _do_ have a lot of first- and second-generation immigrants from Southeast Asia.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513/14 "2010-05-06T21:46:38Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#):
>
> It’s not just the government, but society in general. By all outward appearances (I am light skined) and surname (Anglo surname) I am considered “white” by everyone I have ever meet; my cousins on the other hand are dark complected and have a spanish surname. When we were in grade school in rural Ohio my cousins would get harrassed constantly becasue they were the only outward appearing people of a different ethic group in the whole county of white german/anglo descent farmers.
Same with my son. Imagine being the only white kid in a ghetto LA or Phoenix school. The other kids would steal from him and the teachers did nothing because “boys will be boys” or “bullying doesn’t happen on this campus!” You’re right that racism is a function of society, whether neighborhood, state or country.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2010, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513/15 "2010-05-06T21:52:29Z")
When asked the “race” question, I always write: the 100 yard dash.
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### Author:  [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513/16 "2010-05-06T21:55:23Z")
> [@Keeve](#):
>
> What sort of research might you do, where you want to see the number about Cambodians and Vietnamese and Tongans and Fijians and Cherokee and Iriquois, but you don’t need the numbers on Swedes or Italians or Nigerians or Sudanese?
I’m actually doing a paper right now focusing on the model minority myth as applied to Asians, and one of the points is that lumping them all together as “Asian” ignores the vast differences that exist between the subgroups - the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and Asian Indians are all far above society at large in terms of income and education, while the Cambodians and Vietnamese are far below. I would imagine that Whites have pretty much reached the point where there’s no real difference between the original nationalities, as White subgroups tend to be much more integrated with each other.
I have no idea where other minority groups fall on the scale of heterogenity - it might well be that Latinos and Africans are just as different. But blacks, at least, are also more similar to Whites in that the vast majority of Blacks in America are 5+ generation Americans, unlike the Asian and Latino groups. There probably isn’t as much interest in seeing the differences between Nigerians and Sudanese because there are so relatively few of them.
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### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513/17 "2010-05-06T22:26:06Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#):
>
> Even today in 2010 I get the same type treatment from idiots who want to key on race instead of humanity.
Odd. My experience in SE Michigan is that if you’re not black, then you’re white (even if you’re Amerindian, Asian Indian, Hispanic, whatnot). When people meet my wife, it’s obvious that she’s not a white gringa, and invariably the result is interest from whomever we’re meeting for the first time (even if feigned, it’s never impolite). Due to the nature of my industry, we know and then hang out with various “mixed” nationality couples who met in similar circumstances to our own, and have never heard a disparaging remark or bad attitude based on anyone’s Mexican-ness. _However_ we also once went to a redneck bar, there was an American everyone called “the Mexican” although he insisted he wasn’t Mexican, and he was sprouting racist bullshit, but I have to assume he’d have done that even if we weren’t there.
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### Author:  [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2010, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513/18 "2010-05-06T22:43:30Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#):
>
> When asked the “race” question, I always write: the 100 yard dash.
Which, ironically, is the equivalent of answering “as white as they come.”
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2010, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513/19 "2010-05-06T22:57:43Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> We likely don’t have a lot of first- or second-generation Swedish-Americans here anymore.
I blame it on Tiger Woods.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2010, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513/20 "2010-05-07T00:05:53Z")
Census worker here.
Look, it’s not that the government isn’t interested in whose Swedish or Italian or Swedish-Italian, it’s that there’s only so much room on the form. There are arcane reasons while this year’s panel of choices was selected which I don’t, myself understand.
HOWEVER - if you are _unhappy_ about the choices given you are WELCOME, VERY WELCOME to mark the box “Other” and write in whatever you please. I can not relate what I have seen written in that box, but I will say that every race, ethnicity, and variation thereof mentioned in this thread had most likely been put in that box by someone, and I myself have seen strange and bizarre answers there.
So if you feel your race is “Swedish” then by all means write it in. While the census would sort of like you to stick to the choices offered they know there are bunches of people not satisfied with them, and thus make provisions for “Other”.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-census-form-the-race-question/538513.md?page=2)