Racial And Ethnic Categories

One point that I wanted to focus on was the discussion of American racial and ethnic categories. In class, Professor Sloan explained how United States government defines racial and ethnic categories. For example, the definition of American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian focuses on the location of origin, whether it is “North or South America or Asia”. However, for the Black or African American category, it distinctly states “a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. The term ‘Haitian’ or ‘Negro’ can be used in addition”. This can be considered problematic because it essentially groups two groups together without acknowledging the colonial history of the Western hemisphere. It negates the existence of

black racial groups in other countries, including Melanesia or Southeast Asia. I found that there are groups of peoples in both Southeast Asia or Melanesia that share the same physical traits as the “black racial groups” of Africa, which include darker skin. If they were to come to the United States, then they would not be classified as black. These groups of people would be classified as Asian, because they belong to “an original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia or the Indian subcontinent”. However, they might identify as black but would not necessarily fit the standards of “blackness” in America. This reflects a need to reexamine what blackness may mean to Americans, and how it can be changed to be more inclusive of other peoples that may identify as black.