從人種上而言,黑皮膚的太平洋島民也屬於尼格羅人種 (negroid),即是黑人,只是跟非洲的不同種而已,就好像黃種人也有多種,曾經甚至有人把美洲印第安人歸類為紅種人一樣耶。
澳大利亞土著曾經被歸類為高加索人種,不過後來被糾正跟部份太平洋島民同屬尼格羅人種,即黑人耶。
非洲真正很黑的人種,或者就是撒哈拉沙漠以南的班圖人耶,其他的跟黑種的太平洋島民分別不大耶,而部份閃含語系的好像圖西人跟班圖人外觀沒有分別耶。
美國政府對種族的分類也存在爭議耶。
http://isu.indstate.edu/gilberti/ite656folder/censusclassifications.html
A student in the class has asked a wonderful question that many of you likely considered, but have not yet resolved. the question is as follows: "On balance, I know this is a simple...question, but the more I think about it--the more I don't 'really' understand it. I have an idea, but I just don't understand why we use these classifications. so here is my question. . .
When people collect demographic data on people, why do they/we use white, black, hispanic, or Asian etc. when they all are looking at different things. What do I mean by that? Well, when we say 'black' we are talking about skin color, when we say Hispanic we are talking about an ethnicity, however, when we say Asian we are talking about a location. These are all very different. It is also possible to be a white-Asian or a black-hispanic or white-hispanic. It seems as if these classification schemes are inconsistent."
Below is my attempt to provide some idea of how these classifications have changed over time. The presentation of this material starts with a brief overview of the classification of Black.
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Again, this is a great question that many of you have likely wondered why these classifications exist. To begin with let us first examine the change from Negro to Black and African-American. The term Negro referred to a member of the Negroid ethniBlack. The word has its roots in Latin from the term Niger. A Negro was a member of the African branch of the Black race formerly called Ethiopian. Thus, this term represented a specific group of people of both ethnic and regional origin. Another term of interest here would be Negroid: pertaining to, or designating a major ethnic division of the human species where members are characterized by brown to black pigmentation and often by tightly curled hair, broad nose and thick lips. From these definitions we could conclude that all Blacks are not African. Australian Aborigines do not consider themselves Africans and as a matter of fact, they claim to be the original man on this earth. Regardless, the term Negro was applied to all people who had the physical characteristics of a Negroid. This took place during the Atlantic Slave Trade (1450-1750).
During the Atlantic Slave Trade, Europeans changed the term Negro (an adjective) to the noun Negro. This resulted in the term no longer being used to describe people, but rather to the naming of a group of people in the interest of slave traders. One could also suggest that the term was used as a form of control--to identify a group of people as subhuman. Historically, this term in the United States was viewed negatively by the population it represented. Clearly, this was a result of the enslavement, oppression, and discrimination that these people endured up to the late 1950s and early 1960s.
One individual who promoted the idea of the term Black to represent this group of people (and to remove the negative connotation of the former term Negro was Marcus Garvey (born in 1887). Garvey was an extremely popular individual who was the leader of the Black Pride Movement and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1914. He envisioned a plan where Black people would have a power base and government in Africa. In his vision of a United African People, there would be one President under one government to represent all Black People. Garvey's efforts helped to change our culture and word usage. However, one would also have to look at the efforts of W.E.B. DuBois, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King for also popularizing the term Black.
One should note however, that the term Black does have problems as a descriptor of ethnic or regional origin. As a term it does not reflect people of all African descent. Further, one can find Black people in their own native homelands of Australia, New Guinea, Andaman Islands, Philippine Islands, Pacific Islands, Melanesia, and New Zealand. Therefore the term was rejected by many in this country in favor of Afro-American in the 1960s and early 1970s to African-American in the 1980s and 1990s. Regardless of these changes, the United States federal government made changes to the categories of how data would be collected about these people in 1977.
In 1977 and in response to legislative, programmatic, and federal government needs to collect data, four racial categories were established. These were American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian or Pacific Islander, Black, and White. Shortly after this classification the federal government created two additional categories. These categories were Hispanic origin and Not of Hispanic origin. In addition, the category of Some Other Race has always been used.
In October 1997, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced the revised standards for federal data on race and ethnicity. The minimum categories for race were: American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Black or African American; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; and White. Instead of allowing a multiracial category as was originally suggested in public and congressional hearings, the OMB adopted the Interagency Committee's recommendation to allow respondents to select one or more races when they self-identify. With the OMB's approval, the Census 2000 questionnaires also include a sixth racial category (i.e., Some Other Race). There were also two minimum categories for ethnicity: Hispanic or Latino and Not Hispanic or Latino. Hispanics and Latinos may be of any race.
The most important change to the question on race for Census 2000 is that respondents are allowed to identify one or more races to indicate their racial identity. The three separate identifiers for the American Indian and Alaska Native populations (American Indian, Eskimo, or Aleut) used earlier have been combined into one category--American Indian or Alaska Native--with instructions for respondents who check the box to print the name of their enrolled or principal tribe. The Asian and Pacific Islander category has been split into two categories Asian, and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander. There are six specified Asian and three detailed Pacific Islander categories shown on the Census 2000 questionnaires, as well as Other Asian and Other Pacific Islander which have write-in areas for respondents to provide other race responses. Finally, the category Some Other Race, which is intended to capture responses such as Mulatto, Creole, and Mestizo, also has a write-in area. All of the responses collected in Census 2000 can be collapsed into the minimum race categories identified in the 1997 revisions to the standards on race and ethnicity issued by the Office of Management and Budget, plus the category Some Other Race.
Conclusion:
Finally, if one considers the original question of identifying people based on their skin color, ethnicity, or location, one simply has to consider the magnitude of the problem of data collection. As researchers we are often forced to collapse categories to obtain relevant and usable data. What would be gained by identifying individuals as ethnic groups from the South China Sea area, East Asia, central Asia, the Pacific Ocean, South Asia, the Asian Continent, or South East Asia. Clearly one could identify all of these different ethnic groups, but would it provide any useful information to the data we need to collect? The answer is likely no. Thus, once could use the broad category of Asian. At the moment, most countries seem to approach the problem in a similar fashion as the United States does (i.e., large classifications of people based on similar characteristics). When necessary, data may be collected on select groups of people as their populations increase, and as one needs to further understand specific problems or issues related to these groups of people. As I have tried to illustrate from the above, characteristics and descriptors of people (based on ethnic origin, region, etc.) change over time. While the categories are never perfect, they provide useful information about people in order for us to better understand the changing demographics of our society or the needs of these people. While the categorizations are never perfect, it is likely the best we can do at this given time.