Of course that's considered balanced by the fact that it's generally non beneficial to be of europeon decent in general.

If your non-europeon your more likely to be born poor and unlikely to be able to get as good of an education leading up to college.

Something I personally disagree with since it treats ethnicites and races as "teams" when in reality a rich white guy isn't going to care anymore for a poor white kid that's unrelated to them then they are a poor black kid and seems to penalize poorer white people for completly unrelated peoples success, which may have something to do with the prevelance of racism. 

However if you agree that ethnicites should be treated as teams... it makes sense.

Additionally, cultural diversity is thought to improve peoples reasoning skills since early exposure to different people of different cultures shows you how different people and cultures solve problems differently giving you greater problem solving abilites for non linear projects... so there is some merit on that basis as well.

I thought the whole every race is equal thing that i have learned ever since i was born was to stop this "team thing" as you put it.

Just because someone is an African American doesn't mean they are poorer than a European American. Thats just racist for them to assume that...

I understand that cultural diversity is important but this whoel thing is wrong.

Most places in the United States do this to extreme degrees. We've had many laws requiring certain levels of minorities in certain areas of the workplace and eduction not based on any merit, but entirely based on racial preference.

It's a horrible injustice that's been done to people. Barak Obama nominated a justice for the supreme court that recently upheld a case involving a fire department.

You can read about the case here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Sotomayor

Essentially, there weren't enough minorities that had a passing grade for the test, so they threw it out - despite there being plenty of whites and hispanics to pass the test.

What's ironic is that Ricci v. DeStefano was initiated by a hispanic arguing the validity of Title VII. Yes, the hispanic's test that was thrown out due to not enough minorities was the person instigating the lawsuit.

The big problem I have is that the further we entrench the ideal of racial preferences from a hiring standpoint, the further we argue that blacks, hispanics, or whatever are of an inferior stock. The problem is that values, character, and intelligence are entirely dependant on the measure of the man or woman, and not the color of their skin.

As for the OP: Put whatever you want. I'd go with 'white' because that's what you mostly are, but hispanic would be worth more points, sorry to say.

FootballFan - in the US, we're taught the exact opposite. We're taught that African Americans and hispanics are worse off than whites, so we must do everything possible to make their lives better via hiring and housing preferences. It's a sick thing that we've went the opposite way by reinforcing steriotypes in the name of equality, when we're just keeping them down as we aren't reinforcing positive values in their cultures.

The United States is screwed up in regards of Ethnicity. First they miss-match races with Ethnic or Linguistic groups as if they were one and the same. Hispanic isn't a race, while "White" and "Black" describe a specific race(even if they aren't accurate. In order to be Hispanic, you have to have an attachment to Hispanic culture or the Language. Hispanic is a term that pretty much is in the same context as Germanic, or Francophone. You don't have to be of the original racial group(In this case White European Spaniards) to be part of the Ethnic group. I know this because I myself have Spanish ancestry, and I know that my parents are definitely not of different races(maybe sub-race, but that goes deep toward anthropological points). Because I do not have any connection to Hispanic culture nor Spanish as a language I don't consider myself "Hispanic" or "Latino". I am a full European decent racially, and an American ethnically. So that is why I either don't choose anything, or choose White(which specifies European a descendant.) Like Kasz said though, pass the obvious mix maxing of Racial and Ethnic classifications, there is that of Social and Economic ones.

There seems to be a divide that if you aren't WASP(White Anglo Saxon Protestant), you are at a disadvantage. Which is definitely not the case. Most people in the United States start out(or have had ancestors that started out) with just as much as these recent immigrants. There is no reason to band a whole group together as economically the same due to ancestry. You should have funds for those in poor situations, and those of whom are not. I debated the same thing as you. I thought, technically it is legal for me to register as Hispanic, and it would be an advantage, but I knew I had very little correlation with that group. What I like though, is the surveys that ask you about your racial situation, and then your ethnic situation. That means you can be as correct as possible without feeling bad about anything. So basically, the United States is overall confused about the situation, and really don't take it to heart. If you feel that you need the funding put down hispanic, other wise put down what every race or mix of races you are(Hispanics are mainly composed of either European, African, or Native Amerindian ancestry, but mostly a mix.) or just don't put anything at all. Remember, you are not required to put anything.

I put White and Hispanic on mine. I'm 50/50, so I filled in both...

I just didn't know what to put, I didn't know we could leave it blank. -_-

I don't want you to think I'm telling you what you are, but there is no such thing as being 50% hispanic.  You either are hispanic or you are not.

Being "white" doesn't conflict with being "Hispanic". The original definition of Hispanic, rooted from the Latin word for the Iberian Peninsula, 'Hispania'. It is basically a word for the Native Iberians and Celtic groups of the region. "Espana" also comes from this early root, Spanish itself being a Romance Language rooted from Latin.  Later when the Spanish(of whom are just as European or "White as Northwestern Europeans most notably the English that is rooted in American culture) colonized the Americas. They forced the language upon the Natives(after conquering them) in the hopes of spreading Roman Catholicism. They also made a caste system with Peninsulars(Whites born in Spain) on the top and various mixes of Native and African on the bottom. Eventually, many countries gained independence from Spain, but still kept that Hispanic culture even if they weren't the same race as the original Hispanics(Remember Celtiberians and Native Iberians, maybe arguably Roman descendants in Spain as well.) The caste system stuck though, and pretty much the Whiter you were the richer you were. Actually if you look at the presidents of most of Latin America, you see the majority of them as being White European descendents. Anyway, since the non-whites were in the bottom of the system they were the ones most motivated to move to the Non Hispanic country north, the United States. The United States at the time had very little mixed race people, and couldn't really denote a race for these mixed people because they were neither fully native nor fully european(very little african in the continental america, mostly found in the carribean.) So they just used an ethnic classification to denote 'everybody' from a Spanish speaking country as the artifical race "Hispanic" then later an even broader group which included other Romance Languages as "Latino." Neither of these are the same thing as "White" or "Black" though. You could be both "White" or "Black" or "Native" as well as being Hispanic. Also Hispanic doesn't carry on automatically to descendants. You must have a connection with the Culture or Languages, otherwise you are just anglicized.  So yeah, that is my explanation on it. You either are or you are not Hispanic. Nothing in between.

So basically  White, Black, Native, Mixed are poor describitions for a racial group(I prefer to use location as the  factor European, African, Asian, American. Even then it isn't perfect.)

Hispanic, Latin, Anglo, Germanic, Francophone, etc are all Linguistic or Ethnic classifications.

You are either one of the first group, or a mixture of such.

and

You are either one or more of the second group. You can't be a mixture though, because it isn't something that is passed on by ancestry, but more so by environment.

I hope that helps to clarify some things.

Haha, I see.

If you're smart, you will learn to put Hispanic on everything. Especially when considering college. You're a fool in America if you don't put it. As a white male, you really do have less of an edge when applying to certain places. Affirmative Action = Reverse Racism.

On a side note. I hate people who think people from Spain are Hispanic. Idiots. They're European, and they're Spaniards.

Actually the original context refers to Spain. Again, Hispanic isn't a race. It is an Ethnic/Linguistic group. Hispania= Iberia = Spain + Portugal + Andorra. You can be White and Hispanic at the same time. You can be black and Hispanic at the same time. You can be Native and Hispanic at the same time. You can be any race or mixture of races and Hispanic at the same time. That is because Hispanic isn't a race.

Edit: Also it is speculated that the Romans got "Hispanius/Hispania" the Greek "Hispania", of whom got it from the Pre-Roman Iberians and Celtiberians "Ezpanna" who may or may not have got the word from Phonecians. So yeah, the word is VERY old.