Forthcoming is another quantitative paper where we explore the recategorization of Black Latinos from Black categorical membership.

Our paper suggests that White Cubans (and other Latino ethnics for that matter) may be vulnerable to being recoded by the Bureau from White to multiracial. This transplants the ideological myth of mestizaje into the U.S. census and violates respondents’ autonomy of self-id.

We find that White Cubans in particular were more prone to racial reclassification. This is intriguing because U.S. Cubans have historically had a higher propensity to identify as White in the census compared to other Latino ethnics.

This logic creates boundaries around who can and who cannot claim whiteness (based on geography). It also doesn’t consider the prevalence of White identity claims beyond the non-European context despite centuries of White resettlement and colonization in "non-White" countries.

Per the Bureau's coding logic, White identity claims appear to be reverting to a level of exclusivity that is completely contingent on the provision of European and non-Hispanic or Latino write-in responses.

You too!

Thank you for this!