Top Census

September 16, 2009 10:37 pm | Comics

Top Census
What does American heritage or nationality essentially mean????????

i was wondering because when i was looking at the ethnicities of the usa they have most of all ethnicities then one categorized as “american” which appears to pop up particularly in the south. does this mean that thoughs peoples ancestors were the first to come when the colonies started?

please i need help thank you

here is a link which shows this “american” ethnicity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Census-2000-Data-Top-US-Ancestries-by-County.jpg

Nationality is the country of which you are a citizen.

Ethnicity is formally defined as having or originating from racial, linguistic and/or cultural ties with a specific group.

Note “specific group”. What is defined as ethnic group is wide open….really depends on what the purpose of the “definers” are. And they change all the time.

Just look at the Federal Census. The “official” ethnic categories for the census are:

1930 – Asian, Black, Chamorro, Chinese, Filipeno, Hawaiian, Japanese, Latino, Native American, Polynesian, Portuguese and White.

1920 – Asian, Black, Chamorro, Chinese, Filipeno, Hawaiian, Japanese, Latino, Mulatto, Native American, Octoroon, Polynesian and White.

1910 – Arab, Black, Chinese, Colored, Cuban, Filipeno, Greek, Hawaiian, Hindu, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Mexican, Mulatto, Negro, Polynesian, Puerto Rican, Samoan, Spanish, White

This shows the point. An ethnic group is any group that can meet the definition given above. You could claim your ethnic group was European, British Isles, Scottish, or some clan. As long as that “group” has or originated from racial, linguistic and/or cultural ties.

So your nationality is the country of which you are a citizen and ethnicity is really anything you want it to be as long as you have some racial, linguistic or cultural ties to the group.

Top Line: Census Critical for Legislative Lines