To state the obvious, race continues to be fractious subject in this country and worldwide. It has all too often in history, including recent history, morphed into a reason for genocide. In my conversations with folks in Central and South America, I find interesting their perplexity with how racist a country the United States is. They tend not see skin color as a reason to exclude, minimize or even hate another person… then I think of the history of many of these countries and how they have mistreated their indigenous populations and continue to mistreat them. And racism becomes a story without end.
I forget what I was reading or listening to, but whatever it was, it claimed that Jews and Italians were not considered “white” until very recently. So to Google I went to research that statement a bit. I stumbled across this Pew Research article listing the race question on all census forms since 1790. I found it interesting.