In 2000, for the first time, the Census Bureau gave Americans the option to identify themselves by marking more than one race. The 2.9% who chose more than one box in 2010 might not seem high, but the multiracial population younger than 18 has grown almost 50% since 2000, making it the fastest growing U.S. youth group.
Maybe use of "white Hispanic" has been met with skepticism by some — especially conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh— because the U.S. is used to thinking about race in black and white terms. Perhaps these conservatives are accustomed to thinking of "white" as meaning descended from Europeans, or not being a member of a minority group.
