What makes a person a particular race?

[Caliga]

so kat, did you know Meri was your cousin?

[garbon]

If the census says that you were black one year and white another then that's how it is.

[katmai]

so kat, did you know Meri was your cousin?

I only know of three chicanos on this board, including myself and none of them are female.

[katmai]

Did you get to learn Spanish? You seem to have slipped a bit with it (It's calzones, mi hija and nariz. Sopa doesn't mean rice, but soup. It's arroz the word you're looking for).

Well besides the sopa mis-translation, the others can be chalked up to never learning to write spanish and just trying phonetically mi compadre Larch

[MadImmortalMan]

so kat, did you know Meri was your cousin?

I only know of three chicanos on this board, including myself and none of them are female.

Define chicanos.

[Eddie Teach]

I only know of three chicanos on this board, including myself and none of them are female.

You, Jaron, Funk Monk?

[katmai]

so kat, did you know Meri was your cousin?

I only know of three chicanos on this board, including myself and none of them are female.

Define chicanos.

Someone born in US who can trace their family back to mexico.

Of this board I know of
FunkMonk (Flip-i-can)
Jaron (by way of byzanteen)
myself

[katmai]

I only know of three chicanos on this board, including myself and none of them are female.

You, Jaron, Funk Monk?

Si senor eduardo.

[garbon]

mi hija

Perhaps you should know what you are talking about when you correct someone. The shorthand round here for "mi hija" is mi'ja or mija.

[HVC]

Mija (phonetically anyway) means to piss in portuguese. what does it mean in spanish?

[Malthus]

"Race" is a subset of that, in that the common ancesty or origin is defined, not by yourself, but rather by a real or alleged physical similarity or genetic commonality.

It is a peculiarity of the US that the Black "race" (and to a lesser extent native american "race") is subject to the 'one drop rule' - in that even the smallest amount of Black features suffices to catagorize one, in the eyes of others, as "Black".

So while in general ethnicity is more or less self chosen, in the specific case of Black Americans one will be considered "Black" even if one has no Black cultural traits and only a visible minimum of Black shared ancestry. In contrast, by and large a person of hispanic origin could, if they so choose, self-identify as "White American" by adopting White American traits and identifying themselves as White; similarly with Jews and the like.

Actually, I think that's the simplistic version of it.  After all, if you do have some (let's say distant) black heritage but your features aren't seen to be black, people aren't going to consider you black. It isn't so much about the actual drops involved but how people identify your features.

I suppose I should add "the smallest amount of Black features visible to others". Certainly in the past many were concerned about "passing" for White, if they could.

[derspiess]

Lately, whenever I fill out paperwork, I've been putting down Hispanic White (as opposed to Non-Hispanic White). It seems more honest, and yet to some, I could see this as being complete bunk.

[The Larch]

Did you get to learn Spanish? You seem to have slipped a bit with it (It's calzones, mi hija and nariz. Sopa doesn't mean rice, but soup. It's arroz the word you're looking for).

Well besides the sopa mis-translation, the others can be chalked up to never learning to write spanish and just trying phonetically mi compadre Larch

That's why I said she was slipping.  She got the gist of the thing, but missed a letter here and there.

And learning to write a language is part of the whole learning languages thing, it's not just about speaking. 

[The Larch]

mi hija

Perhaps you should know what you are talking about when you correct someone. The shorthand round here for "mi hija" is mi'ja or mija.

There are no shorthands of that kind in Spanish.

[HVC]

And learning to write a language is part of the whole learning languages thing, it's not just about speaking. 

How dare you discrimate against illeterates