Ethnic Categories

I just came across an article on the LA times website (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arab31-2009mar31,0,1054147.story) that immediately caused me to think of discussions we've had in class. The article is about students who are trying to get the UC system to include a Middle Eastern category on its application, with the possibility of subgroups within this category. Currently, Middle Easterners are considered white, according to college applications such as this one and the US census.

While reading the article, I was immediately reminded of the Chicano movement, where individuals fought to be recognized as a distinct group, not lumped in with whites where their issues could be unseen. As with Mexican-Americans, Arab-Americans once worked hard to be considered white. Now, students are leading the movement to be recognized as a distinct group.

One statement that stood out to me from the article is:
"Back then, to get rights you needed to be white," said Yasi Chehroudi, president of the Iranian Student Group, which is helping spearhead the University of California campaign. "Now it helps to be yourself."

This reminds me of the Chicano movement, as well, and the push for assimilation that activists turned against in order to reclaim themselves and their heritage. I find it interesting how Chehroudi seems to be saying that Middle Easterners were not being themselves before, because they were accepting a false label. Is it possible to be yourself if society calls you something different? Is one's sense of self so tied up in racial categories that without an accurate label one can't be oneself?

The article also said, "The report questioned whether they should be placed in a minority category, which could increase their chances for benefits aimed at the socially and economically disadvantaged. Some in the Middle Eastern community agree. But UCLA junior Shawn Gabrill said he has more in common with other children of immigrants than with those whose parents were born in this country."

This passage shows to me the way that race seems to be another way of talking about class. The label 'white' can imply many things-- educated, well-off etc.-- but it does not guarantee these things. Neither do these adjectives guarantee being white. Still, these labels seem to be used as some kind of code. 'White' doesn't simply mean that you are of European descent, but that you fit into a certain standard of living. Is the purpose of the ethnic identification boxes to guess someone's socio-economic background, or is it to gather information on distinct groups of individuals? Not including a box for Middle Easterners because they fit more closely economically to the white image affirms that the boxes have a different purpose than that of straight-forward data collection. To be a minority, do you need to be disadvantaged in some way? Or do you automatically become white after a certain point?

I don't understand why there are not adequate ethnic category boxes on these forms, nor why it is so difficult to add new ones, particularly when they are as clear as this case. At the same time I wonder, how did these boxes come to be so important in how we see ourselves?