One of the stranger phenomena related to the official government racial and ethnic classifications we have all gotten used to (Hispanic, White, Black, Native American, Asian, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander) is the way people treat them as true sociological or anthropological classifications. Ironically, when the government established these classifications (with minor modifications in the interim), they came with the warning that the "classifications should not be interpreted as being scientific or anthropological in nature."
Nevertheless, when Steven Spielberg wanted to show he was being "culturally sensitive" to Puerto Ricans in casting West Side Story, he hired a half-Columbian, half-European actress to play Maria because, after all, Puerto Ricans and Columbians are both "Hispanic." This is like showing respect for Quebecois culture by hiring someone of half-Walloon and half-Mexican descent to play a character of French Canadian origin.
Similarly, when Michelle Malkin, a Filipina American, published her book defending the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, many critics tut-tutted that they couldn't understand how an "Asian American" could write a book defending racism against other "Asian Americans." (E.g., "Her take on the racial politics of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II is quite outrageous, especially for an Asian American. Even though she has a white name, it doesn't make her so.")
