Ethnic and Racial Definitions as Manifestations of American Public Policy

Authors

Ashton Wesley Welch

Orginal Publication Date

2003

Journal Title

Ethnic Studies Review

Volume

26

Issue

esr/vol26/iss2

First Page

1

Last Page

26

Comments

Fair Access

Abstract

Official definitions of race and ethnicity in American law reveal a great deal about public policy in an environment of ethnic pluralism. Despite some ambiguity over who is black or Hispanic or an Aleut, relatively few people fall between the wide cracks in the American patchwork of identity classifications. Those cracks, however, tell us a great deal about the ambivalence of the American polity toward ethnicity.1

Rights

​Copyright ©ESR, The National Association for Ethnic Studies, 2003