Race and the Census: Effect on the Social Context of Cultural and Social Identity

The book has as its principal thesis the consideration of race as “a folk classification, a product of popular beliefs about human differences that evolved from 16th to 19th centuries” (Smedley, 2007, pag.24). The book also specifies three characteristics that distinguish the racial ideology in America: the absence of a category for biracial people, the homogenization of the black or African American Americans, and the impossibility to change a person’s race. (Smedley, 2007, pag.7)

Racial Formation in the United States by Michael Omi and Howard Winant made me readjust my understanding of race by definition and consider it as a new phenomenon. Through, Omi and Winant fulfilled their purpose of providing an account of how concepts of race are created and transformed, how they become the focus of political conflict, and how they shape and permeate both identities and institutions. I always considered race to be physical characteristic by the complexion of ones’ skin tone and the physical attributes, such as bone structure, hair texture, and facial form. I knew race to be a segregating factor, however I never considered the meaning of race as concept or signification of identity that refers to different types of human bodies, to the perceived corporal and phenotypic makers of difference and the meanings and social practices that are ascribed to these differences, in which in turn create the oppressing dominations of racialization, racial profiling, and racism. (p.111). Again connecting themes from the previous readings, my westernized influences are in a direct correlation to how to the idea of how I see race and the template it has set for the rather automatic patterns of inequalities, marginalization, and difference. I never realized how ubiquitous and evolving race is within the United States.

Identity is defined as “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is” (Oxford University Press). Personal identity deals with questions that arise about ourselves by virtue of our being people. Some of these questions are familiar that happen to all of us every once in a while: What am I? When did I begin? What will happen to me when I die? There are many different categories that define us as people (Olson). Our Race, Class, and Culture define who we are so much that it affects how we should live our life.

Throughout the essay, Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections, I found Kwame Anthony Appiah’s claims about social scripts to support my idea that we present ourselves differently depending on the circumstance. There are times when we try to play into the majority, as well as times where we try and fall into the minority; we choose which group we want to highlight depending on which will get us where we want to go.

Matthew Frye Jacobson’s Whiteness of a Different Color offers innovative insight into the concept of “race” and the evolution of “whiteness” throughout American history. Jacobson focuses his analysis on the instability of racial identification over time and how race has been created and perceived throughout different stages of history. He states in his introduction that “one of the tasks before the historian is to discover which racial categories are useful to whom at a given moment, and why” (p.9) and while he is successful in some respects, his analysis is somewhat incomplete in providing a full scope of the power relations that created, altered and maintained racial identities in the United States. While Jacobson offers a detailed

The only racial group that the United States Census calculates and measured as in individual group is the Latino/Hispanic culture. According to the U.S. Census, a Latino/Hispanic individual can be of several nationalities. When we talk about cultural class, we must realize there are a lot of variables that may contribute to the racial group that can stump some individuals on what is deemed to be a Hispanic individual or something distinctive. Around the time period of the twentieth century the census gave the authorization to classify the Hispanic culture within the United States Census. The terminology of Latino/Hispanic has produced a lot of misunderstanding throughout society. In the Forties, our current President Theodore Roosevelt made a contract in which we had made agreements with Mexico. In spite of this, when three migrants were not permitted residency because they were not Caucasian, the president avoided the bylaw and calculated Hispanics and Mexicans as Caucasians, in so doing permitting access and residency to the United States. In the year 2000, Hispanic was thought to be several races. Some of the Hispanic cultures or Subcultures that fall into this category are the Cuban's, Puerto Rican's, central and South American's, Dominican,

While filling out a questionnaire like the Census it is solely up to the individual to decide the race they considered themselves to be in. Race can have many different meanings while trying to categorize a person. As we have learned in the past weeks, there are many aspects that can be considered while defining someone’s race. A few examples would be color, culture, family history and place of origin. Because of the flexibility in defining race, different ethnicities focus more on certain aspects. This causes a discontinuity while defining race. This leads to the question brought up by Julie Dowling in her writing.

New York City has always been diverse and multi-cultured. In 1980, the total population of students, with 713 schools reporting, was 519,965. Of those students, 128,690 were Non-Hispanic Whites, 194,901 were Non-Hispanic Blacks, 174,942 were Hispanic, and 21,432 were Asians. In 1990, more schools were added for a total number of 745, but the population declined to 488,377 students. While more schools were added, only the Asian population increased while the other groups decreased. The Non-Hispanic White population accounted for 94,119, the Non-Hispanic Black

Primarily, it is essential that the U. S. Census Bureau understands the nuances between “race” and “ethnicity”, terms that can often be confused as interchangeable. Race is nothing more than a social construction where society attributes certain common physical characteristics to each racial group. However, there are no biological foundations or differences between distinct races. In comparison to race, ethnicity is more nuanced. Professor at UC Berkeley Lisa Garcia Bedolla provides a clear definition of ethnicity in her book Latino Politics by stating that ethnicity “places more

Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s arguments from “Racial Formations” are about how race is socially constructed and is shown in Caucasia by Danzy Senna. Michael Omi and Howard Winant believe that race is socially constructed in society; therefore, the meaning of race varies within different cultures and societies. According to Omi and Winant, influences such as, media, school, politics, history, family and economy create society’s structure of race. In Caucasia, media, family and school are forces that create race by stating how one should conform to social norms for different racial groups.

THESIS: Race differences in identity and social position were, and are, more important than class differences in American society.

In 1997 the United States Census Bureaus’ Office of Management and Budget standards would permit an individual to report more than one race on the census basing their response on self-identification. In the census the individuals would not only be able to check as many boxes as they saw fit to identify themselves but also write in a response if necessary. (USCB 2013)

American society is becoming increasingly culturally diverse. The 2010 Census indicates that the racial and ethnic makeup

The law forbidding interracial marriage was terminated in 1967, and in the midst of rapid racial change, one fact is unmistakable: A growing number of Americans are showing that we all can get along by forming relationships and families that cross all color lines. In the past couple decades, the number of interracial marriages has increased dramatically. Interracial dating and marrying is described as the dating or marrying of two people of different races, and it is becoming much more common to do so. Thirty years ago, only one in every 100 children born in the United States was of mixed race. Today, the number is one in 19. In some states, such as California and Washington, the number is closer to one in 10 (Melting Pot).

“If we don’t fully understand our individual and collective roles in maintaining a system of white superiority, our relationships with people of color remains superficial, our ability to work in diverse workplaces is greatly diminished, and we fail to create a just world in which everyone has an equitable opportunity to contribute and thrive” (Kendall, 2013, p. 1). This paper discusses who I am as a cultural person and how I have come to be this way. The first section of this paper discusses my cultural background and my cultural identity. I address the factors that make up my cultural identity and the challenges that I have faced because of my cultural identity. The next section discusses my White racial identity development and the events in my life that have led me to become the person I am today in relation to my racial identity. The final section of this paper outlines the implications my own racial and cultural identity will have on my career as a clinical mental health counselor.