Latino vs. White

On the front page of THE PRESS DEMOCRAT this morning the newspaper printed a category mistake made by Associated Press. "A category mistake arises when things of one kind are presented as if they belong to another kind."  The newspaper, in its own words, set out to show "the racial and ethnic composition" of California. So the error was built in.  The figures turned out to be White 36.6%, Latino 40.8%, Black 5.6% and Asian 13.4%. Yet on my block seven Latinos have lived, all of them White. And it's not hard to find Black or Asian Latinos.

You can sort Californians by skin color or by culture, but if you mix these categories, you get misleading results. For example, I have known Latinos for whom English is their first language; and their Spanish is no better than mine (not good).