How Well Do You Know America’s Racial Classification System? (First of a Series)
As discussed in my forthcoming book Classified, contrary to popular belief, racial and ethnic classification in the US is not solely a matter of personal choice. The federal Office of Management and Budget created a classification scheme in 1978 to be used by all federal agencies, and barely amended since. The classifications you see on employment forms, applications for mortgages, applications for university admission, and so on, are taken from the official federal classifications. Importantly, while these forms rarely include instructions, the OMB classifications have official, legally binding definitions.
With that background, let’s try a series of quizzes to see how well you know how these classifications are defined. Let’s start with the Hispanic/Latino category. All quiz answers are based on the official OMB definitions. Note that a few federal agencies use slightly different classifications, and states have their own classification schemes, particularly for affirmative action in government contracting, that can differ, though not dramatically.
(1) A couple immigrates from Spain. Their son Bram is born in the US. Is he a member of the Hispanic/Latino category?
(2) Same scenario as the first example except the couple is from Brazil. Is Bram Hispanic/Latino?
(3) Binyamin Goldberg immigrates to the US from Israel.
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