Census Says "Hispanic" Not A Race

With millions of US Census forms hitting mailboxes this month, Latin Americans are noticing a confusing quirk in the 10-part questionnaire.

The Census does not consider Hispanic to be a racial category.

Responders have the option to label themselves as White, Black, American Indian, or under one of several Asian / Pacific Islander classifications. The race question offers no check box for Latino or Hispanic.

"For me to see this I feel kind of offended," said Richard Robles, a Puerto Rican security guard who works in the South Bronx.

The Census form does have a question about Hispanic origins where responders can classify themselves as Puerto Rican, Mexican, Cuban, or one of several other Latino ancestries. Those categories, though, are not considered "races."

The Census form does consider "Chinese," "Filipino," and "Korean" to be racial categories.

Professor Juan Flores, a Latino Studies expert at New York University says designers of the 2010 questionnaire have confused race with nationality, leaving some Hispanic responders frustrated.

"Some people will say yeah forget about this. This is too confusing. Because people don't want to be forced to lie about their identity. "

On 3rd Avenue in the South Bronx, several Puerto Rican Americans echoed Flores' concern. Elizabeth Rosario disputes the racial assumptions belying the Census, declaring her race is Hispanic. "Some people will be reluctant to fill the form out because they might think it doesn't pertain to me," Rosario said.

A spokesman for the Census Bureau explained the decision to leave Hispanic categories out of the race question by noting people have the opportunity to self-identify their race by filling in the space labeled "other."

"If we were to try to provide a space for every different consideration of race ... the form would be 100 pages long," says Raul Vicente, Jr., who works in New York City's Census headquarters. "Focus groups were used to make decisions on which [races] were used. "

Karen Humes, a Census Bureau spokeswoman in Washington, explained the lack of a Hispanic racial category by pointing out federal agencies must comply with Office of Management and Budget rules on collecting ethnicity information.

"OMB defines race and ethnicity to be two separate and distinct concepts. Thus Hispanics may be of any race. Because of this OMB does not provide any guidance to racially classify Hispanic origin groups." Humes goes on to note, "The categories used in the race question are social-political constructs and do not reflect any genetic or biological differences. As such we recognize that the categories reflect a mixture of skin color, indigenous groups, and nationalities. "

This isn't the first time minorities have fired criticism aimed at the 2010 Census form. Earlier this year, some African Americans balked at the form's use of the term "Negro" to denote people of African American or Black races.