What is considered a racial category on the US Census Bureau?

Answer 1

First, it is important to note that the US Census Bureau is constantly refining their questions to fit an ever-changing population. For example, the first US Census 1790 only included "White" and "Black" (no matter the degree of "whiteness" or "blackness". By 1850, the designations White or Black was refined to also include "Mullato", which was a subjective assessment the Census-taker made of a person's degree of "blackness".

Wikipedia includes a long list of Race designations used in the 2010 Census. Here is one part of this list from their website: "The 23rd federal census, 2010[18]asks one ethnic and one race question (questions 1-4 not reproduced here, questions 5 and 6 paraphrased):

1. Is the person of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?
   • No, not of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin
   • Yes, Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano
   • Yes, Puerto Rican
   • Yes, Cuban
   • Yes, another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin — Print origin, for example, Argentinian, Colombian, Dominican, Nicaraguan, Salvadoran, Spaniard, and so on.
2. What is the person's race?
   • White
   • Black or African American
   • American Indian or Alaska Native — Print name of enrolled or principal tribe.
   • Asian Indian
   • Chinese
   • Filipino
   • Other Asian — Print race, for example, Hmong, Laotian, Thai, Pakistani, Cambodian, and so on.
   • Japanese
   • Korean
   • Vietnamese
   • Native Hawaiian
   • Guamanian or Chamorro
   • Samoan
   • Other Pacific Islander — Print race, for example, Fijian, Tongan, and so on.
   • Some other race — Print race.