The African American population, the largest racial minority, is well understood and needs no special comment. In the 2000 census, this group was 34.7 million people in the United States. Some, of course, were also Hispanic in origin (see below).
American Indians and Alaskan Natives, although numerically small, represent a great diversity of cultures. As of the 1990 census, American Indians and Alaskan Natives were classified into 379 distinct, named tribes, not counting smaller scattered groups. These peoples spoke more than 18 languages. The largest tribe, the Cherokees, had a population of nearly 370,000 in 1990. In 2000, this entire racial group had a population of just under 2.5 million.
Asians are the third largest defined racial group, with 10.2 million people in 2000. Although classified as a racial grouping, they are not racially homogeneous. Like Hispanics, they are peoples who originated in a defined geographical region — Asia. As the Census Bureau informs us, Asians are people who trace their origins to the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, e.g., Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Also included are Bangladeshis, Bhutanese, Burmese, Indochinese, Indonesians, Iwo Jiman, Madagascarians, Malaysians, Maldivians, Nepalese, Okinawans, Pakistanis, Singaporeans, Sri Lankans, or people originating from elsewhere in Asia. Arabs, Near Easterners, and Lebanese are classified as whites. The largest Asian component in 2000 was Chinese (2.3 million).
Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders, together the smallest racial group, are usually reported with Asians as "Asians and Pacific Islanders." This group had a population of under 400,000 in 2000. The group includes descendants of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
The next grouping in the Census — some 15.4 million — are those classified as Some other race. This population is, in effect, the creation of bureaucratic or data-collection formalism. All those people who designate themselves as "multiracial," "mixed," "inter-racial," or use some equivalent term are classified here. So, also, are people who write "Mexican" or "Cuban" or "Puerto Rican" on their form. Given the prevailing orthodoxy that "Hispanics may be of any race," people who write such words are classified as "some other race" if the race is not specifically indicated on the Census forms. To this group might be added the next category, Two or more races, 6.8 million people. The people counted in this category provided more than one racial designation. If those could not be grouped under one of the other major categories, if the person, for instance checked both white and Asian or both Asian and black, the Census Bureau reports them under this category (some 57 such combinations are possible). Combined, the two groups make rather a large block (22.2 million). But they are clearly heterogeneous and do not express themselves politically — else there would be a good deal more awareness of them.
The final category shown, Hispanics or Latinos, the largest ethnic minority (36.3 million, slightly larger than African Americans) is another "land of origin" classification, like Asians — but while in the case of Asians the multi-racial composition of that group is not constantly emphasized, the multi-racial character of Hispanics is always footnoted by the government.1 Hispanics are enumerated as a separate group in the Census but "overlay" the racial composition. To add them to other races is to double count. They are of white, American Indian, African, Polynesian, and Asian origins. People are classified as Hispanics if they report their place of origin as Spain or Latin American countries or if they classify themselves as Hispanics or Latinos. People are asked to classify themselves by race as well.
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census . 2000 Census of Population and Housing. Definitions. Summary File 1. March 2002.
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