Editing Race (human categorization) (section)

==== United States ====
{{Main|Race and ethnicity in the United States}}
{{See also|Miscegenation#Admixture in the United States|Historical racial and ethnic demographics of the United States}}

The immigrants to the [[United States]] came from every region of Europe, Africa, and Asia. They [[miscegenation|mixed]] among themselves and with the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous inhabitants of the continent]]. In the United States most people who self-identify as [[African American]] have some [[European ethnic groups|European ancestors]], while many people who identify as [[European American]] have some African or Amerindian ancestors.

Since the early history of the United States, Amerindians, African Americans, and European Americans have been classified as belonging to different races. Efforts to track mixing between groups led to a proliferation of categories, such as [[mulatto]] and [[octoroon]]. The criteria for membership in these races diverged in the late 19th century. During the [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] era, increasing numbers of Americans began to consider anyone with "[[one-drop theory|one drop]]" of known "Black blood" to be Black, regardless of appearance. By the early 20th century, this notion was made statutory in many states. [[Amerindians]] continue to be defined by a certain percentage of "Indian blood" (called ''[[Blood quantum laws|blood quantum]]''). To be White one had to have perceived "pure" White ancestry. The one-drop rule or [[hypodescent]] rule refers to the convention of defining a person as racially black if he or she has any known African ancestry. This rule meant that those that were mixed race but with some discernible African ancestry were defined as black. The one-drop rule is specific to not only those with African ancestry but to the United States, making it a particularly African-American experience.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sexton |first=Jared |title=Amalgamation Schemes |url=https://archive.org/details/amalgamationsche00jare |url-access=registration |date=2008 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]]}}</ref>

The [[United States Census|decennial censuses]] conducted since 1790 in the United States created an incentive to establish racial categories and fit people into these categories.<ref name="nobles" />

The term "[[Hispanic]]" as an [[ethnonym]] emerged in the 20th century with the rise of migration of laborers from the [[Hispanophone|Spanish-speaking countries]] of [[Latin America]] to the United States. Today, the word "Latino" is often used as a synonym for "Hispanic". The definitions of both terms are non-race specific, and include people who consider themselves to be of distinct races (Black, White, Amerindian, Asian, and mixed groups).<ref name="OMB 1997" /> However, there is a common misconception in the US that Hispanic/Latino is a race<ref>{{cite book |last=Horsman |first=Reginald |title=Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Radial Anglo-Saxonism |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |date=1981 |page=210}}, This reference is speaking in historic terms but there is not reason to think that this perception has altered much</ref> or sometimes even that national origins such as Mexican, Cuban, Colombian, Salvadoran, etc. are races. In contrast to "Latino" or "Hispanic", "[[Anglo]]" refers to non-Hispanic [[White American]]s or non-Hispanic [[European American]]s, most of whom speak the English language but are not necessarily of English descent.