I was also...well, not surprised per se, but certainly annoyed to see that “Native American” in any form wasn’t even an option. One could construe that as revealing, I suppose.
I don’t know how relevant the question actually is, but if we want to track ancestry and racial, ethnic or cultural group affiliation, the folowing scheme is pretty hard to mess up:
Country of origin: Country of residence: Primary Language: Native Language (if different): Heritage language (if different):
Note: A heritage language is one spoken by your family or identity group.
Heritage group:
Diaspora: Means your primary heritage and identity group moved to the country you live in within historical or living memory, as colonists, slaves, workers or settlers.
European diaspora (“white” North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc) African diaspora (“black” in the US, West Indian, more recent African emigrant groups; also North African diaspora) Asian diaspora (includes, Turkic, Arab, Persian, Central and South Asian, Siberian native)
Indigenous: Means your primary heritage and identity group was resident to the following location prior to 1400, OR prior to the arrival of the majority culture in antiquity (for example: Ainu, Basque, Taiwanese native, etc):
-Africa -Asia -Europe -North America (between Panama and Canada, also includes Greenland and the Carribean) -Oceania (including Australia) -South America
Mixed: Select two or more:
European Diaspora African Diaspora Asian Diaspora African Indigenous American Indigenous Asian Indigenous European Indigenous Oceania Indigenous
What the US census calls “Non-white Hispanic” would be marked as “Mixed” > “European Diaspora” + “American Indigenous” with Spanish as either a Native or Heritage language. Someone who identifies as (say) Mexican-derived but doesn’t speak Spanish at all would be impossible to tell from someone who was Euro-American and Cherokee who doesn’t speak Cherokee, but no system is perfect...
I was also...well, not surprised per se, but certainly annoyed to see that “Native American” in any form wasn’t even an option. One could construe that as revealing, I suppose.
I don’t know how relevant the question actually is, but if we want to track ancestry and racial, ethnic or cultural group affiliation, the folowing scheme is pretty hard to mess up:
Country of origin:
Country of residence:
Primary Language:
Native Language (if different):
Heritage language (if different):
Note: A heritage language is one spoken by your family or identity group.
Heritage group:
Diaspora: Means your primary heritage and identity group moved to the country you live in within historical or living memory, as colonists, slaves, workers or settlers.
European diaspora (“white” North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc)
African diaspora (“black” in the US, West Indian, more recent African emigrant groups; also North African diaspora)
Asian diaspora (includes, Turkic, Arab, Persian, Central and South Asian, Siberian native)
Indigenous: Means your primary heritage and identity group was resident to the following location prior to 1400, OR prior to the arrival of the majority culture in antiquity (for example: Ainu, Basque, Taiwanese native, etc):
-Africa
-Asia
-Europe
-North America (between Panama and Canada, also includes Greenland and the Carribean)
-Oceania (including Australia)
-South America
Mixed: Select two or more:
European Diaspora
African Diaspora
Asian Diaspora
African Indigenous
American Indigenous
Asian Indigenous
European Indigenous
Oceania Indigenous
What the US census calls “Non-white Hispanic” would be marked as “Mixed” > “European Diaspora” + “American Indigenous” with Spanish as either a Native or Heritage language. Someone who identifies as (say) Mexican-derived but doesn’t speak Spanish at all would be impossible to tell from someone who was Euro-American and Cherokee who doesn’t speak Cherokee, but no system is perfect...
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