On Mar 19, 2012, at 8:05 PM, Joseph Catron wrote:
> Any early thoughts on this? Is it indicative of journalists writing their
> stories to fit within predetermined narratives? Are they just relying on
> the determinations of police, who would, as I recall the federal
> categories, classify any non-African-descended Hispanic person as "white"?
No idea how cops do it, but in government statistical data, racial/ethnic classifications are based on self-identification. Hispanic/Latino is not considered a racial category, but a separate "ethnic" identity, further proof that these categories are kind of loopy. In the 2010 Census, 53% of self-identified Hispanics/Latinos i.d.'d as white, and 38% as "other." Less than 3% i.d. as "black," and 6% as two or more races.
It's all broken down in table 2, here:
http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-02.pdf
Doug