Racial Identity Counts for Hispanic
Americans
Contact: Karl Luntta (518) 437-4980
ALBANY, N.Y.
(July 17, 2003) -- The fastest growing segment of Hispanic
Americans, soon to be a majority, identifies as neither white
nor black. These people are less affluent than "white"
Hispanics but considerably more advantaged than "black"
Hispanics, according to a new report by University at Albany's
Lewis Mumford Center. They also live in very different kinds
of neighborhoods.
"Census
data do not allow us to see how people are actually perceived
in the neighborhoods where they live, work and go to school,"
said Mumford Center Director John Logan. "But our analysis
shows that treating all Hispanics as a single group seriously
misrepresents their economic, cultural and racial diversity."
The new report
also finds:
·
Black Hispanics have lower incomes and higher rates of poverty
and unemployment than other Hispanic groups and are very similar
to non-Hispanic blacks in these characteristics. Nearly half
of black Hispanic children have a non-Hispanic black mother
or father. And the neighborhoods where black Hispanics live
have nearly as many black as Hispanic residents.
·
White Hispanics have the highest socioeconomic standing, they
live in closest proximity to non-Hispanic whites, and their
neighborhoods have a more affluent class composition than
those of other Hispanic groups.
·
The number of "Hispanic Hispanics" - those who identify
as "some other race" - more than tripled since 1980,
from under 5 million to over 16 million.
·
Whether Hispanics identify a white, black, or "Hispanic"
racial category depends in part on the racial composition
of their metropolitan region. The "Hispanic Hispanic"
response is most common in areas with a greater share of Hispanic
residents. In California and Texas, they generally are the
majority of Hispanics.
·
A very small share of Mexicans identifies as black, but there
are nearly a quarter million black Mexicans in the United
States. Dominicans and Puerto Ricans are most likely to identify
as black. Cubans are most likely to identify as white.
The full report can
be found at http://mumford1.dyndns.org/cen2000/report.html.
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