Do Americans have an identity crisis when it comes to race and ethnicity?
Americans and say hello to Vietnamese-Americans, Salvadoran-Americans and a bunch of other hyphenated Americans. The way people identify themselves in the United States is changing, and the way the federal census classifies them by race or ethnicity isn’t painting a clear portrait of America, according to new research. University of Washington demographers who analyzed 2000 census data contend that because of the way the census was structured many Hispanics or Latinos were eventually lumped into a category called “some other race.” So many were placed in that category that it was the third-largest group behind whites and blacks in the census. This led to mistaken reports last year that whites, as opposed to non-Hispanic whites, were projected to be a minority in the U.S. by 2050. Actually, whites – including Hispanic whites – are expected to comprise upwards of 70 percent of the population in 2050. “The truth is many people probably can’t accurately report the origins of their ancestor
