N-400 confusing question.

[Lejim 0]

Hi

I have a question. On the form N-400 Part 6, it asks for information for Criminal records. On item 3.- Ethnicity: Hispanic or latino - Not Hispanic or Latino... I obviously selected Hispanic or Latino, but then on item 4.- Race: the options are: White- Asian- Black or African American - American indian- Native Hawaiian

I'm obviously non of those and I dont consider myself white since light skin, but Im not black either.. Im latinooo lol what should I put? I'm so confused I had never been asked this before.

[engineer21 51]

I believe Hispanic/Latino for this question refers to the area you're from: Latin America. The race then depends on your ancestry. It could be a mix of white and Native American, and/or any other.

You can choose all that apply to the best of your knowledge. I wouldn't worry too much about it...

[Darth Vader Ku 16]

Hi

I have a question. On the form N-400 Part 6, it asks for information for Criminal records. On item 3.- Ethnicity: Hispanic or latino - Not Hispanic or Latino... I obviously selected Hispanic or Latino, but then on item 4.- Race: the options are: White- Asian- Black or African American - American indian- Native Hawaiian

I'm obviously non of those and I dont consider myself white since light skin, but Im not black either.. Im latinooo lol what should I put? I'm so confused I had never been asked this before.

It's not confusing at all. Latino is not a race...not at all. It's amusing how many people think it actually is.

If I had to guess, I would say you're Mestizo (which is a racial identity) and Latino (which appears to be your ethnicity). However, the USCIS does not list Mestizo as an option, so your best bet would be to choose either the designation you feel most comfortable with or "Other," tick the Latino option under Ethnicity and move on.

I repeat: Lation is NOT a race. Anyone of any race can be Latino.

[Lejim 0]

Okay, thank you guys. So is it ok if I just put white?; I thought Native American would be closer to what i am cuz it says someone born in South America or Central America but then it mentions something about being still affiliated to a community or something and I'm not sure what that means. I read that on the instructions

[Messybrownhair 251]

I think its really whatever defines you best.

For example, I was born in the Philippines, but my dad is Swedish and my mom is Spanish. I don't normally put Asian because I don't look Asian even if I grew up there.. I put hispanic/latino and white. I don't know if thats right but its what best defines me.

[Darth Vader Ku 16]

Okay, thank you guys. So is it ok if I just put white?; I thought Native American would be closer to what i am cuz it says someone born in South America or Central America but then it mentions something about being still affiliated to a community or something and I'm not sure what that means. I read that on the instructions

Out of curiosity, why would you ask faceless strangers you have never met and who have never seen you, what your racial identity is? I'm sorry, but I just find that rather...interesting.

Here is an unsolicited lesson on racial identity in Latin America:

There are six major race classes in Latin America to which the vast majority of the population falls under.

Of these, three of them are the pure races as follows:

1) Negro/African/Black: this group consists of the those with direct ancestry to the original peoples of the Negro tribes of Africa

2) Anglo-Saxon/Caucasian/White: this group consists of the those with direct ancestry to the original peoples of the Caucasians of Europe

3) Native American/Indigenous American/Indian: this group consists of the those with direct ancestry to the original peoples of the tribes of North and South America (from the Aztecs of Mesoamerica to the Incas of the Peruvian highlands)

The other three are the mixed races, and are as follows:

4) Mulatto: 1) + 2) (as long as this mix contributes to the majority of the genetic make-up in the presence of other traits from other races not included in 1) and 2) (this group occurs with some predominance throughout Latin America today but with higher concentrations in Venezuela, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Panama, and Brasil)

5) Mestizo: 2) + 3) (as long as this mix contributes to the majority of the genetic make-up in the presence of other traits from other races not included in 2) and 3) (this group represents the majority of racial constitution in most parts of Latin America, including Venezuela, today)

6) Zambo: 1) + 3) (as long as this mix contributes to the majority of the genetic make-up in the presence of other traits from other races not included in 1) and 3) (this group is a fractional minority of the mixed race predominance in Latin America; sizeable populations can be found in Panama, Colombia, Peru and other countries whose Native Indian populations survived the European invasion massacres and who had sizeable slave labour populations sourced from Africa and The Caribbean

Therefore, you would likely be one of the six listed above. If your identity is not contained in the form (as I doubt it is), the correct thing to do is to select "Other" and move on. If you are not comfortable with "Other" (and some people are not), then I suppose you could identify yourself racially as "White" and ethnically as "Latino."

Finally, Latino and Hispanic are not races. There are simply terms to identify people (regardless of race) whose linguistic identity (the language they speak) and/or cultural affinity is sourced either from the Hispanophone communities (Spanish-speaking) or Latin communities (Romance-language speaking) depending on whether you like the US association or the more global association. Asking strangers to tell you your own racial identity is... well, interesting.

To be fair to you though, the US Census and all other documentation asking for racial identity is woefully limited and often forces individuals to select incorrect markers of their true racial identity. For instance, as the poster above alluded, there is no accurate classification to racially describe someone from The Phillipines. One would think that for a country as large and as diverse as this, more complete attempts would be made to properly identify people racially as opposed to forcing them into one of five or six traditional boxes.

Edited April 2, 2014 by Darth Vader Ku

[Zach<3Katiuska 58]

Okay, thank you guys. So is it ok if I just put white?; I thought Native American would be closer to what i am cuz it says someone born in South America or Central America but then it mentions something about being still affiliated to a community or something and I'm not sure what that means. I read that on the instructions

Hey Im also Venezuelan and you definetly have to put HISPANIC/LATIN...btw, im also light skin!