Black Hispanic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Black Hispanic Afrohispano |
|---|
   |
Zoe Saldana • Alfonso Soriano • Fantasia  |
| Total population |
|
African Hispanic or Latino |
| Regions with significant populations |
| West Coast of the United States • Southwestern United States • Northeastern United States • Florida |
| Languages |
| American English • Spanish • Spanglish |
| Religions |
| Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholicism with Protestantism and Santeria), Islam, Judaism, Atheism and Agnosticism |
| Related ethnic groups |
| Afro-Latin Americans • Black people • Yoruba · Igbo · other African groups · Mulattos • Zambos · Latin Americans · other Hispanic groups |
In the United States, a Black Hispanic[3] or African American Hispanic[4] (Spanish: Afrohispano, literally, "African Hispanic") is an American citizen or resident of Hispanic ethnicity who is officially classified by the United States Census Bureau, Office of Management and Budget and other U.S. government agencies as an African American/Black American. African American/Black American, itself an official U.S. racial category legally refers to people having "origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa residing in the United States".[5] For further discussion on the term African American, please see that article.
Hispanicity, which is independent of race, is the only ethnic category, as opposed to racial category, which is officially collated by the U.S. Census Bureau. The distinction made by government agencies for those within the population of any official race category, including "African American", is between those who report Hispanic ethnic backgrounds and all others who do not. In the case of African Americans/Black Americans, these two groups are respectively termed "Black Hispanics/African American Hispanics" and "non-Hispanic Black Americans/non-Hispanic African Americans", the former being those who report Black African ancestry as well as a Hispanic ethnic background (Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin America), and the latter consisting of an ethnically diverse collection of all others who are classified as Black or African Americans that do not report Hispanic ethnic backgrounds.
For the remainder of this article, the term Black Hispanic will be employed solely and to the neglect of African American Hispanic.
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[edit] Demographic information
Black Hispanics number between 2-3% of the entire U.S. Hispanic population. Most Black Hispanics in the United States come from within the Dominican American and Puerto Rican population. The next two largest concentrations of Black Hispanics are found among, Cuban Americans and Panamanian Americans.
However, all nations of Hispanic America, and thus their respective emigrant groups in the United States, have minorities of people of black African descent, mixed or otherwise. Even Spain, to an infinitesimal degree, harbors people of Black African descent as a result of the introduction of slaves into its territory (as opposed to people of recent African origin in Spain, such as immigrants and refugees) although in all Spain's cases of extremely diluted Black African ancestry. The historic U.S. one-drop rule did not apply under the colonial Spanish casta system, so that people of mixed race were not categorized as black. Instead they were and are deemed whatever the mix (eg. mulato, zambo, etc) or, if diluted enough, deemed to belong to the strain of their predominant ancestry, including White.
In that context, those Hispanics of Black African ancestry deemed and recognized as Black (ie. Black Hispanics) are not distinguishable from non-Hispanic African Americans based on physical features. The main aspects which distinguish Black Hispanics from non-Hispanic African Americans is their Spanish-speaking heritage (their mother tongue or most recent ancestors native language), their Hispanic cultural habits, and in most cases, their Spanish surnames.
Increasing intermarriages and offspring between non-Hispanic African Americans and Hispanics of all other races (White Hispanics, mestizos, etc.) is resulting in larger numbers of people who identify as Black and Hispanic, that is, as Black Hispanic.
[edit] Representation
Like White people of Hispanic heritage, Black Hispanics are often overlooked in the U.S. mass media and in general American social perceptions, where being "Hispanic" is often incorrectly given a racial value, usually mixed-race, such as mestizo or mulatto.
Since the early days of the movie industry in the U.S., when Black Hispanic actors were given roles, they would usually be cast as non-Hispanic African Americans. For those with Spanish-speaking accents that betrayed an otherwise presumed non-Hispanic African American origin, they may seldom have been given roles as Hispanics.
Those who claim that Black Hispanics are not sought to play Hispanic roles in the U.S. allege this unfairly leads the masses of viewers to an ignorance to the existence of Black Hispanics. Further, some Black Hispanics once affirming their Hispanicity may be deprived of their status as Black people, and categorized by society as non-Black in the U.S. historical context. This may in turn lead some to assume in them an innate knowledge of indigenous culture, e.g., in terms of customs, food and music, which is an individual inclination and not necessarily confined to Hispanics in general.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ S0201. Selected Population Profile in the United States
- ^ U.S. Census Bureau: B03002. HISPANIC OR LATINO ORIGIN BY RACE - Universe: TOTAL POPULATION; Data Set: 2006 American Community Survey; Survey: 2006 American Community Survey. Retrieved 2008-02-27
- ^ U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, Social & Demographic Statistics. [http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/compraceho.html U.S. Census Bureau Guidance on the Presentation and Comparison of Race and Hispanic Origin Data]. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on 2008-03-29.
- ^ U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, Social & Demographic Statistics. [http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/compraceho.html U.S. Census Bureau Guidance on the Presentation and Comparison of Race and Hispanic Origin Data]. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on 2008-03-29.
- ^ 2000 Census of Population, Public Law 94-171 Redistricting Data File: Race. U.S. Census Bureau.
[edit] External links
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