THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Americans Come From Everywhere
In a country as large and dynamic as the United States, nationalities and races mix. People are individuals; they don't always act or think in predictable ways as members of groups. For convenience, however, we'll classify Americans according to several factors. The first is race: European (White), African (Black), Asian or Native American (American Indian). But even this is not a perfect classification system, since Hispanic Americans (those with a Spanish language background) can also be white, black or even part Native American.


Native Americans
Approximately 1% of the people living in the United States can be considered Native Americans, the term now preferred over the inaccurate Indians. Hundreds of Native American tribes, all speaking different languages, lived in North America before the coming of the "White Man," a term referring to settlers who came from Europe. Over the first few centuries of European exploration and settlement of North America, Native American people were either uprooted or else through war and disease wiped out by the whites. Despite this, hundreds of individual Native American nations survive on Indian reservations. Many of these tribes have a legal status separate from that of the United States. In some cases, Native Americans tribes have been able to use their special status to run businesses such as gambling casinos that, depending upon the American state involved, may be illegal for other Americans to run. Some tribes issue their own passports and driver's licenses. Members of some tribes hold American as well as tribal citizenship. In addition to the peoples formerly called "Indians," the term Native Americans also includes ethnic Hawaiians and Alaskan Eskimos and Inuit

"White" People
The bulk of the early settlers to the United States came from the British Isles: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. From early on, large numbers of German and Scandinavian immigrants came to America, and Irish immigration was heavy starting in the 1840's. In the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth, great numbers of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe, including many Jews from these countries, came to the United States, moving into communities all over the country. These people of European background came to form the white, English-speaking majority of the American population.


"Black" People
English-speaking settlers, especially in the southern states, brought in large number of slaves from Africa during the first two centuries of American history. The descendants of these slaves, as well as some immigrants from Africa, South America and the West Indies, form the black or African-American minority, traditionally considered to comprise one out of nine Americans. Former terms for African-Americans (which are not considered insulting but which are out of favor), are colored and Negro. After the Civil War (1861-1865), which resulted in freedom for the slaves, many African-Americans moved to major cities all over the United States. African-Americans have suffered racial discrimination throughout American history. While race relations have improved in many areas of the United States, racial conflicts -- like the 1992 Los Angeles riots -- make news regularly. Despite headlines about race problems, however, it is important to remember that all over America, white, black, Asian and Hispanic Americans live and work together in relative peace and stability.

"Hispanic" People
The term "Hispanic" refers loosely to Americans descended from immigrants from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba and other Latin American countries, all of which have very different heritages, but which share the Spanish language. At least 11.5% all Americans are of Hispanic heritage, and the proportion is growing. The term "Chicano" refers to Mexican-Americans, mainly in Texas, California and the Southwest, areas of the United States that were once part of Mexico. In some major cities, it is common to see signs or even government documents printed in both English and Spanish. Cities such as Miami, Florida and San Antonio, Texas operate on nearly a completely bilingual basis, while others such as New York and Los Angeles have large, vital Spanish-speaking communities.


"Asians"
Asians comprise a small portion of the American population, though the number is growing with steady present-day immigration. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from China, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, Vietnam and the Philippines (formerly an American possession). While many Asians live in their own communities (like New York's immense Chinatown), people from all these groups are also mixed into the general American population

"Minorities"
The term "minority group" has different meanings depending on context. When used by the American government on official forms or for official purposes, it means all non-white (meaning non-European) people: African, Hispanic, Asian and Native Americans. In popular usage, especially when it involves problems of poverty and the inner cities, the term refers only to blacks and Hispanics.