Talk:Racial and ethnic demographics of the United States

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[edit] California

This article claims that California is one of four states where whites do not make up the majority. This contradicts the demographic information given in the California wikipedia article; in which the white population is cited as 60%. What's the deal? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.137.134.156 (talk) 07:43, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

This data is not about majority, but most common ancestry. The California article statles clearly the Mexican ancestry is first with 25%. Notice a couple of things: 1) Hispanics are 35% minority in the State; 2) The classification "White Americans" also includes "White Hispanics", which make 17.6% based on the article data.
So everyone should take those maps as what they are: a measure of most common **ancestry**, not of majority.76.244.65.207 17:07, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] South Carolina

How come the racial statistics say that the largest ancestry group in S.C. is African, when over 60 percent of the population is white? How can that be right? In order to be accurate, don't you have to divide the kenyan, etheopian, and other people of different origins from within africa- or at least the people from the different regions of africa- if you're going to be accurate?

Agreed. We should all ask the US Census bureau to stop capturing those meaningless data points. If we can't tell the difference for African-americans (since they were taken by force and mostly don't know their roots), don't capture it for European-americans either.76.244.65.207 17:11, 19 October 2007 (UTC)


This editor is confusing race and ethnicity. There are three races, and the Hispanic ethnicity is mixed with all three races. If you were to consider the white population being partially of Hispanic ethnic background, you should also mention that the black and asian population are also diluted with Hispanic ethnic persons. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.140.198.6 (talk) 14:38, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Asian Americans?

Is there some further meaningful breakdown of the Asian American population? --AxSingh 10:44, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Doubt it. There's basically nothing here but census data, plundered from the U.S. Census' website.

[edit] why do we need it? are we Americans?

Ok heres my take. the article wants to discuss the unique diversity of people in the US. but be in mind we should call ourselves americans first, and dont let race be a big deal to fight over jobs, education or welfare. thats what happened in my dear country i love. i find the census' need to classify and categorize people by race as sumething sneeky and smelly. i oppose racism and discrimination, but never bought into the P-c hysteria or the rule bring fear of talkin about race is BAD, WRONG, EVIL, a sin, a crime & taboo. who made it this way? the people you know and trusted to help racial minorities in the past. liberals. fair and simple. im 45 yrs. old and saw real acts of racism that would disturb you. i knew in a young age it's not right to treat others badly for the fact they cant help who they are. do we really care on "Black" people or "African Americans"? i see them as people NOT of color, and may I ask only a person FROM africa can hold the designation, not a 12th generation American who has a skin color? if you got african heritage, then the label is accurate. i always beleeved if one is born in america, he/she's an american! no need to explain it other than that. liberal p-c activism likes to stir our emotion over 'racial' or 'social' inequality, when in fact to start using race to grant quick promotion over a white male is just as appalling to me. im a white male, a christian and republican, so i should be racist or bigoted? no im not! i love people on the inside! i dont mind a woman works out the home. i dont mind gay men with no regard to their sexual preference. and any one who dont share my religious beliefs is ok and god still loves him/her. now on things on the real status of blacks, women and low income families are better than in the 1960s or 70s, much better than in 1985 or 1995. does the us census kept track of this number crunchin data? they know right away not a liberal elite poser on the examination of race issues in america. dont play the race card or the gender excuse on me if you cant get a 'fair share', i knew i never got a fair share myself for not being qualified or not worked hard enough. its ILLEGAL to discriminate based on race or sex or handicap (oops I mean disabled, but i knew it wont hold one back in life). i just dont like the double standards the P-C cause did to me, maybe you and every one in the last 15-20 yrs. you need to read history and you will find the real hate, jim crow laws and violence took place long before i was born. dont tell me i dont like other races, i just hold a fairly made opinion and to be honest, i dont always made a big deal on ones' race, but how an american is first an american and no real need to tell me im white, not hispanic or american by some census taker. we got to stop race baitin and favoritism, but focus on the work ethic and be responsible for your actions. this is the best nation in the world and nothin prevents you from success, not your race or color please! - signed: open-minded conservative

>>i always beleeved if one is born in america, he/she's an american! no need to explain it other than that
Totally agree. African-americans, European-americans and other ethnic groups that make up America have more in common between themselves than with their original ethnic groups: the American mind, which we as a nation define and share. Ask the majority of those who were born and raised here if they would like to revert back to their parents' original country way of thinking, even those with a European ancestry. If you are born and raised here, you get the American way of thinking in your bones, you're American! No further classification needed. That's what counts. All of these groups in the Census should be comfortable to call themselves Americans, and not be forced in a racial slot. Signed: "open-minded" liberal. 76.244.65.207 17:25, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
Yes, race shouldn't matter, but unfortunately it has had a profound impact on the lifes of so many Americans; thus we need to mention it. SignaturebrendelHAPPY HOLIDAYS 06:58, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
When we have people out in Serbia claiming that Kosovo is Serbia when Kosovo has declared independence from Serbia due to its being populated with ethnic Albanians, rather than Serbs, for the most part, and when we have Israel refusing to accept Palestinians because of its desire to be a Jewish state, and when you note ethnic/ riots in places like Kenya and Nigeria and India and Indonesia, then of course ethnic and religious and racial demographics are going to be important. We need to find out WHO is out there so we can understand what's going on, and understand the people's needs and wants. In other words, we don't want an Aztlan or even the Conch Republic (just kidding) suddenly springing up behind our backs and surprising us when we know we should have been looking there all along. Furthermore, who knows what might divide our country tomorrow? 204.52.215.107 (talk) 05:09, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Improved article, citations needed

I did some edits, but citations needed and research is abit messy. I want to make it clear they are well publicized facts of the US' racial demographics. Wikipedia has thousands of admins who knew better than me, maybe we can help each other to obtain better resources. I did abit too much reverts to other articles either, so forgive me as we're trying to assure the quality of the article to appear more academic or encyclopediac. I don't know the last talk page post is talking about, but mr. OMC...you thought of the implications of racism had in this country (USA)? There are plenty of hate, prejudice and discrimination towards other people because of who they are or their social group, but I agree our country has moved on away from official segregation or unfair practices that marginalized minority groups for centuries. Since you told me your age, you feel discriminated for "being old"? This is illegal and unacceptable to most people today. Housing discrimination laws cover marital status (single mothers or divorced persons), and may I mention you claim all liberals are bad? Sure you disagree with their political views, but I may disagree on conservatism, but really I don't hate you either. -Mike D. + 207.200.116.68 19:46, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] ditch that stupid map

Will someone else please agree with me that the first map is utterly useless. Listing each state by highest ancestery is plain misleading and incorrect. for instance, the map lists a group of people as having "American" ancestery: which if you look at the map key is any portion of Great Britian. If anything, that is a linguistic not biological/cultural ancestery. how could someone in America trace their ancestery as "American" unless their native, which surely wouldn't be on the east coast?

I listed myself in the 2000 census as "American" - its not because I speak English, or am confused. I can trace my ancestry to England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Germany, The Netherlands, and Cherokee. My wife's is just as mixed together. The only term that applies to me is American. I've been the the above mentioned European countries and I certianly cannot classify myself as any of them. Yes, I share genetic ancestry with people on that continent, but my values and culture are very different. Therefore, there is no other place on earth that contains people like me, except in the United States - that is why I am American. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.229.46.94 (talk) 22:44, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

If your aim is to show diasporic populations and how they have spread across the country then show regional or continental points of origin. To trace populations to specific countries (Alienating others) is rude and leaves too many gaps. This map completly ignores issues of Jewish populations from multiple countries, eastern/western european immigration, etc. Lastly, it doesn't even tell us percentages which really gets to the core of the demographics at the state level.

I agree that this map should be explained as the agregate of data from the other map in the page. Notice that it is shown as the detail there. 76.244.65.207 16:29, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

If you want to be really helpful, try generating maps showing a very specific group over time (i.e. African-American migration northward after the civil war, or Cape Verdeans into the New England area.

Generating a map such as this is near-sighted and stuck in racial views of the 19th century. jt —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Extremenachos (talk • contribs) 01:48, 25 January 2007 (UTC).

Agree. But that's the US census view. The whole census methodology is rotten with such contradictions, and that's why it should go away. 76.244.65.207 16:29, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, that map is unnecessary, misleading, and incorrect. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.10.151.13 (talk) 08:11, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

In case you didn't pay attention, this map is the same as in the detail of the other one below, showing by counties. It's now showing the agregate numbers by state. This comes from the US government. Deleting it here won't make it go away in the detail below. 76.244.65.207 16:29, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Jewish descent?

I just came by this article to seek an answer to a completely valid and benign question: how many persons of Jewish descent live in the United States, and for some reason there is no concrete information in the article. I understand completely why the US government does not probe such a sensitive aspect, but nevertheless this article should have some information regarding the topic. My understanding is that Jewish people are of a race (hence the Semitic in anti-semitic). I do sense a double standard or self-censorship here. And the article should not necessarily be constrained to definitions or conventions used by the US Government. ~ Rollo44 17:38, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Information: American Jews and United Jewish Communities. ~ Rollo44 17:44, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

It probably should be handled by renaming the article, something along the lines of "Race and ethnicity in the United States census" (as someone else suggested in the discussion of merging the U.S. Census articles on "race" and "ethnicity"). That would clarify that only topics addressed by the census are covered in the article. Lawikitejana 08:38, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
I like the idea of renaming the article. It would represent better what is included in it. 76.244.65.207 16:30, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pros and Cons

Here we have an interesting comment:

There has been interest by some, including the U.S. government, president George W. Bush and private individuals, in the elimination of racial and ethnic categories and new constitutional laws to prohibit the sampling of race in government practices[citation needed]. This radical concept was practiced in California by Proposition 209, passed in 1996 to prohibit the state's use of race in decisions on employment and college admissions. Proposition 54 in 2003 failed to pass; it would have made California the first state to officially abandon racial designation but allow the US census to collect racial data[citation needed].

I have underlined "Radical concept".

Well, only a person from the United States can say that. The US is one of the few countries in the world that classifies people by "race". In most other countries, it is not done, and it is considered pretty radical indeed to do so, and a remnant of the profound racist past of the Anglo-Saxon world. Some people think that it is good to help "minorities". Well, in most civilized countries, especially in Europe, there are measures to help those with the lowest income, it does not matter what race they are. The classification of people is supposed races by governments just helps erect since childhood psychological barriers. Some minority groups favor this classification because they think they are going to benefit from it, but they are making a huge mistake. Racial classification was only done in the racist past and in racist countries to keep people apart, it is a result of that past and only continues to be done in countries with big racialist-racist issues, and this will just help perpetuate those racial issues. I am not going to change it though, just some thoughts for the article. The problem with these articles is that they are mainly written by people for the US who have no idea of what is going on in the rest of the world and they are looking incredibly racist to the rest of the world, although in many cases they are not, because they think that it is good to classify people by "races" in official documents as if they were cattle. 72.144.166.196 17:28, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Removed the word "radical" from this phrase in the article. The rest of the argument is covered in the article in large part; if anyone has some published sources that can be cited to make more evident that the U.S. government's use of this approach has been criticized by those in other countries, that certainly would be helpful. Our own opinions are largely immaterial except as they inspire us to hunt for verifiable, reliable sources. Lawikitejana 08:47, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
I don't have any citations, but in countries such as Brazil this way of including race on everything is seen as rude and racist. It's seen as a sign of State-sponsored racism. 76.244.65.207 16:33, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

If you have no citations, and all you have is PoV opinions then everything you've just written is useless and of no value. Stop wasting your breath. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 156.56.229.11 (talk) 06:41, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Map

The map is ridiculous, it counts Europeans by specific nationality but Africans by the continent.

Most European-Americans trace their ancestry to the Irish, German, English, Scotch, Polish, etc. African Americans and the African Diaspora are a combination of various ethnic Africans, not one particular country, and are unable to trace to one specific place. Also unfortunately this knowledge is unavailable since it was wiped out via the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

I agree that the classification is ludicrous. But this is the same map generated by the US Census in 2000 (see detail on other map in the page). Deleting it won't make the distortions go away. What is needed is to basically eliminate the slicing of media topics in racial classifications (as others countries did), and therefore allow everyone to feel as being American with no further differentiation. An African-american is closer to a European-american than Africans themselves. Why? Because they share the same American mind. If we were to differentiate among anything, let's choose topics such as State investment in Education, and let the States compete.76.244.65.207 16:47, 19 October 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Incorrect statement in introduction

>>As of 2005, four states — California, Hawaii, New Mexico and Texas — have "minority-majorities," where non-Hispanic whites are not a majority of their state populations.

I checked each Wikipedia article on those states, and the data seems to validate that for Hawaii, California and New Mexico. For Texas however the article didn't say other than Texas has 80% of whites - definitely a majority. The following article (http://www.utsa.edu/today/news/archive/2002/april/hrc.cfm) says that in 2000, non-Hispanic whites were 53%, still a majority. I didn't find data in 2005 anywhere, so that's why I added the "Citation needed" tag. 76.244.65.207 18:14, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

The change occurred since 2000. You can see it in the 2006 ACS [Population Estimate],[1] though you have to compute it. At the bottom it shows that there were 11.35 million white Texans who were non-Hispanic or Latino. Divide that by Texas' total population of 23.5 million and you get 48.3%. And keep in mind that that 80% white figure is just about race, so it includes white Hispanics, whereas the non-Hispanic percentage figure does not, because it's about the non-Hispanic white ethnic group. SamEV (talk) 22:42, 5 December 2007 (UTC)