Mixed Latinos: “Mixed Yet Monoracial” Latinos
In this post HERE I described how the Census is considering making a Latino a race and the major impact of this change. Another potential impact will be on those Latinos that haven chosen to identify with one of the monoracial groups. The Census recognizes five racial groups (white, black, Asian, Pacific Islander, and Native American) with an additional catch-all group of Some Other Race. In 2010, 53% of Latinos marked white and 37% marked Some Other Race. But if Latino were to become a race then Latinos will have to choose if they will continue to identify with the six monoracial groups, or be Latino, or mark one or more.
For some groups this may be a minor point. For example, rates of Latino-only identity are highest among Mexican and Central Americans which combined make up about 70.9% of the Latino population. However, for other groups that are used to considering their Latino identity as more of an ethnicity and less as a race then this may be something of a shock. For example, Cuban Americans identify strongly as white at 85.4% and Dominicans identify strongly as black at 12.9% (highest of all Latinos).
If these latter Latinos mark two or more boxes then they will likely be considered multiracial or mixed race. Does this really capture their experience? Keeping the status quo would avoid this dilemma but it would also mean sacrificing the identity choice of most Latinos. Rather than negatively impact so many Latinos, perhaps it is up to the multiracial population to be sensitive to the identity choices of these "mixed yet monoracial" Latinos. The "Two Or More" population may diversify in ways not yet imagined.
Thomas Lopez, MASC President
