[turn_to]

I remember reading a thread here on FR that mentioned a birth certificate in the 60’s where someone’s race was listed as “Japanese”. Obviously that is not a race. I wonder why they didn’t use ‘Oriental’? Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be a convential naming system back then for people other than ‘white’.

[Windflier]

...there doesn’t seem to be a convential naming system back then for people other than ‘white’.

Oh yes there was. Ask anyone who was born prior to 1960. The conventions for designating race on birth certificates goes back a very long way in America.

I was born in 1953, at a time when American blacks called themselves 'colored'. The term 'negro' was only just coming into fashion, and didn't really take hold until later that decade.

That didn't stop the Army doctors from putting 'negro' on my birth certificate. It was already an established racial designation.

[philman_36]

Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be a convential naming system back then for people other than ‘white’.
Convential? What?!

Anyway, you might want to read page 5-7 under "Race and color" of the link provided in the post.

Here it is again in case you can't find it...@ http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsus/vsus_1961_1.pdf (just pick it, it'll open in a new tab)
And here is the info...

Births in the United States in 1961 are classified for vital statistics into white, Negro, American Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Aleut, Eskimo, Hawaiian and Part-Hawaiian (combined), and "other nonwhite." Looks like a conventional naming system to me.
And look, there's Japanese!