From my limited perspective, it mostly makes sense to me, in terms of how people in America tend to self-identify. Of course, if you do self-identify as specifically Scottish or Ghanaian, or generically Asian, or whatever, you can always write it in that way.
Actually, I take that back. It mostly makes sense to me, but it’s a little weird how they have no other categories as specific as those for Hispanics and Asians or even any general indication that one could give such a specific description in addition to an applicable more generic description. And, in particular, classifying all Middle Easterners as whites, if that is indeed intended, doesn’t seem in keeping with how I think many in America view themselves/are viewed. But, aside from that, I still find most of it quite understandable: the overwhelming majority of white/black people in America, I would think, don’t generally self-identify as anything in particular more specific than white/black Americans, while the overwhelming majority of Asians self-identify with reference to a particular home country of recent immigration.
I figured it came down to funding.
No one is going to give Minnesota extra funds because we have a large number of people that identify themselves as Norwegian or German.
Minnesota will probably be getting extra money because of the Somali, Hmong and Native American populations. So which groups is the Census going to take the time and money to ask about?