When the civil rights legislation determined classes of people who would have legal protection and certain advantages (education and affirmative action), Hispanics were quick to assert their rights under the new legislation. However, they were totally unwilling to lose their perceived White status -- least of all get put into a racial category on the level of Blacks. Thus they were able to get the federal government to accept an ethnic category defined by language -- the only one in the census. One result of this agreement is that White Hispanics whose ancestry can be directly linked back to oppressive Spanish colonial rulers in Central and S. American countries (equally dominant as any Anglo Saxon in the U.S.) are considered by the U.S. government to be part of an oppressed minority.
Thus the Hispanic/Latino group has adroitly negotiated within the fog of American racial and ethnic history and politics to a position of a protected group (with all its advantages) but not as a minority racial group (with all of its disadvantages).
Arab Americans were able to negotiate this precarious position by proving that they are, in fact, white. In 1917 a judge declared that, while Arabs are of mixed race, they are "of mixed Caucasian races" (Samhan, 1997, p.7). Thus Arab Americans pulled the veritable rabbit out of the hat -- establishing a legal mixed White identity in a country with a deep fixation on a pure White identity.
However, with the increasing attraction of a minority status after the 1965 Civil rights legislation, the Arab American Institute petitioned the U.S. Census Bureau to create an ethnic subcategory within the broader White racial category, for the 2000 census. While the Census Bureau rejected this request, it's clear that politically Arabs want to be both White and have the advantages of a protected class. In the meantime, many universities have established Arab American studies departments and Arab American student advocacy groups. Some local government agencies also give Arab Americans quotas for government positions.
If both of these organizations had responded to the multiracial proposal based on their own history, they would have supported it enthusiastically! Using a multiracial category would provide more accurate racial data than the current system and more continuity; and clearly it would be more accurate, fair, and have much more integrity! (The census requires people to self-identify: how can one do so when no accurate choice is provided?)
Sullivan, P. (1998) What are you? Multiracial Families in America. Our Children, 23 (5), 34-35.
While doing research for a book I am writing with a colleague on multiethnic and multiracial children, I have learned a great deal about racial and ethnic groups. What I discovered is that these groups have done everything they can to jockey for the best possible position within the social and political life of this country, while doing all they can to deny the new multiracial movement any kind of political power.Hispanics/Latinos
Hispanics became part of this country when Mexico ceded much of Arizona, N. Mexico, California and Texas to the U.S. Part of the treaty required Mexicans to be treated equal to White Americans. The history of Hispanics in this country since that time up until the 1965 civil rights legislation was a struggle to establish a White racial identity in a country that viewed everyone who was not from N. Europe as categorically not White. This struggle was especially interesting because most Mexicans are of mixed racial backgrounds - often white, Indian and Black.Arab Americans
The dilemma for Arab immigrants since their first move to this country in the late 1800 has been to jockey between not being considered Black (an obvious disadvantage until the Civil rights legislation) and not being Asian, even though geographically the middle East is part of Asia. Staying away from the Asian category was critical because of the powerful anti-Asia immigration laws we have had for most of our history -- initially targeted at the Chinese, then Japanese and other Asians.The American Way
Clearly both Hispanic/Latino Americans and Arab Americans have skillfully maneuvered their way through ethnic diversity politics of America -- immigration laws, census categories, racist movements, and civil rights legislation. You have to admire their persistence, ability to continually redefine race and ethnicity - including direct legal challenges using the (hated) establishment legal system -- and always advocating for their own: truly the American way!Multiracial Movement
What is absolutely appalling is that Hispanic Americans and Arab Americans are at the forefront of denying Multiracial Americans their rights. For example, in discussing the proposal for a multiracial census category, Helen Hatab Samhan of the Arab American Institute says "the proposal was one that generated the most organized public pressure and one that virtually every stakeholder requiring data on race -- including the minority communities -- oppose on the grounds that it skews continuity of race data and, in effect, serves to undermine polices that implement affirmative action" (p. 7) (Note that multiracial people are not considered stakeholders). La Raza spokeswoman Lisa Navarette declared, "Our concern is what it (the multiracial category) does to the integrity of the census. We want it to be as accurate and fair as possible" (Sullivan, 1998, p.35). How can we talk about continuity of race when the Census Bureau classified Asian Indians as Hindu from 1920-1940; from 1950-70 they were classified as White; then in 1978 as Asian? How can we talk being fair when White Hispanic descendents of S. American ruling aristocracies (descendents of the oppressive Spanish colonialists) can get preferential treatment? And how can someone with 1/64th black heritage be "accurately" counted as black?Where do we go from here?
As we continue our struggle, we must be clear on our mission. That mission is to make sure that multiracial and multiethnic people forge a place for themselves within the politics of this country. To this end we must:
We have a long way to go, and we cannot allow people from outside the movement -- especially so-called academics who have access to book editors and publishers -- to steal the movement from us.
Samhan, H. H. (1998). Not quite white: Race classification and the Arab American experience. Arab American Institute, Washington, DC.
Francis Wardle, Ph.D. is executive director of the Center for the Study of Biracial Children in Denver, and author of the book, "Tomorrow's Children: Meeting the Needs of Multiracial and Multiethnic Children at Home, in Early Childhood Programs, and at School" -- available from the center.
Also by Francis Wardle
A growing multiracial movement struggles to redefine race
An IV interview from the pre-Internet days
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