Ask the Times

By Times Wires
Published February 22, 2008

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Just what determines whether a person is called white or black?

- Jeffrey Morgan

Self-identification of racial identity is the practice in business and by the U.S. Census Bureau. The official racial classification used by the Bureau reads: "Black or African American. A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as 'Black, African Am., or Negro,' or provide written entries such as African American, Afro American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian."

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