As part of a government record keeping and reporting requirements, the government requires us to report our employee race/ethnicity in one of 7 race categories.
I thought "race" and "ethnicity" were two different things. There was no question that my late wife was white (which is a color, not a race, but -- whatever). But she was from South America. Various .gov entities, both state and federal, kept wanting to classify her as "Hispanic." She objected. She spoke Spanish as her native language, but she had never been to Spain, and nobody in her family had ever been to Spain. So she didn't consider herself to be "Hispanic."
The dictionary defines "ethnicity" as:
ethnicity noun
eth·nic·i·ty | \ eth-ˈni-sə-tē
\
plural ethnicities
Definition of ethnicity
1 : ethnic quality or affiliation aspects of ethnicity
2 : a particular ethnic affiliation or group students of diverse ethnicities
Well, that's helpful -- not. Talk about using a word to define itself. Moving right along, then, we find:
ethnic adjective
eth·nic | \ ˈeth-nik
\
Definition of ethnic
(Entry 1 of 2)
1a : of or relating to large groups of people classed according to common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin or background ethnic minorities ethnic enclaves
b : being a member of a specified ethnic group an ethnic German
c : of, relating to, or characteristic of a minority ethnic group ethnic neighborhoods ethnic foods
2 : of or relating to the Gentiles or to nations not converted to Christianity : heathen, pagan … ancient ethnic revels of a faith long since forsaken …— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
ethnic noun
Definition of ethnic (Entry 2 of 2)
chiefly US
: a member of an ethnic group especially : a member of a minority group who retains the customs, language, or social views of the group
So ethnicity isn't race. Ethnicity is a function of the customs, language, and (maybe) the social views of a group of people. So, for example, someone who is black and who was born and raised in Germany would be "black" by race, but Germanic by ethnicity. Which says to me that there should be a LOT more than 7 choices if they want to classify by ethnicity.
When did our .gov stop using "Caucasian" as a race and start using "white"? If I'm white and my ancestors have come from the United States since before there was a United States, why am I not "Native American"? (Elizabeth Warren's issues with Native American-ness notwithstanding.) On the other hand, for ethnicity I sometimes choose "Other." I think if ethnicity reflects customs, language, and social customs that WASP should be an ethnic classification.