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Notes -
Some posters on 4chan had a bit of fun clicking through public arrest records and comparing the claimed race with the photo. Lots of obviously not white people get falsely recorded as white. But I don't know the proportion of these errors.
There are like 30 million 'white hispanic' Americans, many of whom have some indigenous and/or black ancestry. Whiteness is high status in Latin America so it's not surprising that many Hispanics who obviously have significant pre-Columbian ancestry check the 'white' box and don't check the separate 'ethnic identification' box where you have to pick Hispanic.
Why not also claim blue eyes and blond hair?
The purpose of these descriptors is to assist others in identifying them. Not to enable them to feel high status.
Hopefully our coming ai overlord will classify people more reliably. Or failing that maybe color swatches, paint chips, or crayons.
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