Ok, just to clarify what are the races?

Question

I have heard on the immigration forum that white is not a race, hispanic is not a race....what ARE the races? In a sociology class that I took they said that there was caucasoid, mongoloid, and *******. Does anyone disagree that Caucasoid= white people. Mongoloid= Asian and Native Americans including hispanics. and *******= black people ?

Also, before you ask, no, race is not very important. I just want to know what you consider the races to be.

I agree that nowadays we tend to claim there are more races for example; latino, black, white, asian, native indians and middle easterners. But according to socialogy they have only 3 races and we must fit all the others into it.

I put Hispanics under Mongoloid because the "Indians" were originally from Asia. I guess caucasoid would work too.

Answer 1

Wow! Thanks for your question! I learned a lot here reading what you said and the answers you got. I think what you say sounds right to me and several answers seemed to agree. Very interesting topic. We, on all continents and in all countries seem to be so inter-racially mixed nowadays that I think most people are a combination of two or more of these categories and also with some of the mentioned sub-categories thrown in. Makes for very interesting peoples, I think!

Answer 2

That's far too generalized. I don't know what to consider a race, but Hispanic is definitely not a race. It's a... I dont know. It's stupid. Hispanic by definition is anyone who speaks Spanish. Linguistic classification. Some Hispanic people are American Indian (South America, that is), others are mixed, others are black, descedant from slaves, and some are white--because, of course, the original Hispanics were white.

White's also pretty general.

I think races have to do with chromosomal and skeletal structures similar amongst a group of people; the more isolated a society is (such as the Sami of Scandanavia), the less diversity in the gene pool there is. But as you go further down, you'll see that some, say, Germans and some uh... Greeks may have similar genes, and may be more mixed up. But then again, they may not.

I really don't know. It's just a stupid classification. The idea of race came about to allow the Europeans a way to rationalize their oppression of the "Mongoloid" and "*******" races.

How about Indians? (From India) How would you classify them? They certainly don't look like, say, someone from China or Japan; but they're brown, unlike the Europeans. Caucasoid? Maybe. Would you say Europeans and Indians are the same? I know they wouldn't.

Who knows? Who really cares?

But I do love this study, of different people and how their cultures have grown and interacted with other cultures. It's difficult to classify.

Answer 3

Anthropologists recognize Caucasoid, Mongoloid and ******* to be the only 3 races. All subcategories, including Hispanic, are ethnicities, Ethnicity is based on language and culture rather physical characteristics.

Actually, Native Americans (except those in Alaska), South Asians, Middle Easterners and most Hispanics are also Caucasian. It does not only refer to fair-skinned Europeans. Hispanics can be of any race, and quite a few are black or of European ancestry.

Answer 4

Sounds about right to me on a simplistic level.
I actually read something some time ago and there are many more subclasses or so called races beyond what you quote. I don't believe ******* includes Native American and Hispanic classifications.
Race and it's designations, are in the "eye of the beholder".
Some would argue that to differentiate is to discriminate.

Answer 5

Mongoloid are the Asians, I don't know why you would put Hispanics under there.
Unless they have Native American ancestry, most Hispanics have Spanish descent, making them white or caucasoid.

Answer 6

Your sociology professor is correct there are 3 races caucasiod, mongoloid and negriod.

Now hispanics can range from all different races, black, white, and asian. If you look at countries like Argentina, Chile, Spain and some other countries like Mexico in certain areas you will find people who are "white" with English, German, Russian, Polish surnames. Not to mention religion is not a factor in being hispanic there are Jews, Muslims, Christians, Catholics in Latin America as well as Spain.

After World War 2 there was a big immigration wave of Eastern Europeans, and other European countries to Latin America. Also around the sametime there was a immigration wave from Japan to Peru, Brazil and other Latin American countries. The former President of Peru Alberto Fujimori family came from Japan. President of Argentina Nestor Kirchner is of Swiss and Croation background. Are some examples of hispanics, both were born in Latin America.

The word "hispanic" has to do with the lanuage a term denoting a derivation from Spain, its people and culture. "Hispanic" comes from Hispania, the name given by the Romans to the entire Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal ) during the Roman Empire.

The word "Latino" means moslty coming from Latino America. This would include Brazil since they are in Latin America but were a former Portuguese colony so they speak Portuguse. However they are not hispanic since they are not spanish speaking. But you can all anyone from Latin America a Latino (i.e Mexican, Cuban, Brazilan, Columbian), but you can not call a Spainard a latino but you can call them hispanic.

Now I can use myself as a example I'm hispanic but I'm what you call a "guerita" meaning I'm fair skinned and of European Ancestory my parents immigrated from Europe to Latin America in the 1940's from Spain and Germany.

Answer 7

Officially, according to the US Census, there are: White, Native American, Asian, and African. (Although they use Latino as a marker to see where people say they come from) Latino is not a race because Latin America was widely colonized and many people migrated there and there was marriage between races. So a Latino can be German, indigenous, African, etc. Traditionally though, there are associated phenotypes with each group.

Answer 8

Your sociology professor is correct. Most Hispanics are what are called mestizos, that is, of mixed heritage: Spanish (Caucasoid) and Native American (Mongoloid).

Answer 9

A race is something you are born with. It is a classification by physical appearance. On the other hand, classification of hispanic or latino is an ethnic group, it's culture. It is something you are born into. You know what I mean?

Answer 10

White, black and asian. Everything else is just a shade of the above.

"hispanics" are a combination of white and asian.

Answer 11

Your consideration on race is correct. There are some additional races you neglect (like Pacific Islanders, etc - they are considered a seperate race....) but you seem to have the correct jist.