J Cullen wrote: >So what do you call people of Latin American descent? Latino, Hispanic, >Latin American? Or do you try to break it down to where they came from? And >what do you call "Anglos," which I've always found a little offensive, >being of Irish descent? European Americans? A survey reported in the Sept 1996 Monthly Labor Review, part of the effort to redesign the racial/ethnic categories for the 2000 Census, shows that the terms fashionable on the left are way at odds with what the population uses. 58% of "Hispanics" preferred that term, and just 12% "Latino"; 62% of "whites" liked that word, just 2% "European-American," and 1% "Anglo"; 44% of "blacks" called themselves that, 28% "African-American," 12% "Afro-American," and 3% "Negro; half of "American Indians" called themselves that, 37% "Native American"; and just 2% of the U.S. population self-identified as "multi-racial." When people were asked to volunteer a "race" rather than selecting from a list, words like "Christian," "Mason," "Black Muslim," and even "rebellious teenager" showed up. Respondents found the question "Do you think there's any difference between race, ethnicity, and ancestry" too abstract to answer; few repondents could define the word "ethnicity," and some confused it with a question about their ethical standing. I'm not sure what this all means, except maybe that we're all very confused. Doug
