Quote Originally Posted by rockzmom View Post
Actually, the United States Census, (where the 72.4% number came from) requests that you list your race and break out Whites and Hispanics. Almost all demographic forms now have one question asking if you are white and a second question asking if you are of Latino or Hispanic descent. They also separate Asians, Native Americans, Native Alaskans, Native Hawaiians.
Hmm, interesting. It may very well be that these figures are needed for statistics and statistics only, but I'm quite a bit surprised to learn this aspect of USA. For a country which fights for equality of race, ethnic-background and faith these questions stress on differences... Russia is also populated by about 180 different nationalities. In the times of Soviet Union we even had a special entry in our passports indicating the nationality. Now it's taken from there and the last population census questionnaire allowed us to enter any nationality... well, we even have Hobbits, Jedies and Elves now (I'm serious). Russia has many issues with nationalism, chauvenism and racism, but it tries to fight it by ignoring (with random success) the nationality of its subjects. US authorities, apparently, take them into account. Here are the two different approaches to similar problems.