Caribbeans Urged to Write in Ancestry on U.S. Census: Identify yourself as being of 'Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin' on the 2010 U.S. Census questionnaire and you will get to be more specific about your ancestry, such as Mexican-American, Cuban or Puerto Rican.
But check the box for 'Black, African-American or Negro' and there will be no place to show whether you trace your identity to the African continent, a Caribbean island or a pre-Civil War plantation.
Some Caribbean-American leaders are urging their communities to write their nationalities on the line under 'some other race' on the forms arriving in mailboxes next month, along with checking the racial categories they feel identify them best.
It's another step in the evolution of the Census, which has moved well beyond general categories like 'Black' and 'White' to allow people to identify themselves as multiracial, and in some cases, by national origin.
