American Indian or Alaska Native: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment. Although listed as a race by the Census Bureau, tribal membership is a political designation, not a racial one. Tribal members are citizens of sovereign nations under the U.S. Constitution.

Using American Indian vs. Native American vs. Native People vs. Indigenous People (Pulled language from UCLA’s EDI page)

• Generally, Indigenous refers to people with pre-existing sovereignty who were living together as a community before contact with settler populations—most often Europeans. Always capitalize. Indigenous is the most inclusive term as there are Indigenous peoples on every continent throughout the world who are fighting to remain culturally intact on their land.
• Indigenous Peoples refers to a group of Indigenous people with a shared national identity, such as Navajo/Diné in North America, or Sami in Sweden.
• Native American or American Indian are terms used to refer to people living within what is now the U.S. prior to European contact, according to the U.S. Census. American Indian has a specific legal context on a federal level. Indigenous people living in the U.S. have differing opinions about whether using these terms is offensive. Always ask your subject how they self-identify.

There are eight sovereign nations associated with the state of Utah:

• Confederated Tribes of Goshute
• Navajo Nation
• Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation
• Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah
• San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe
• Skull Valley Band of Goshute
• Ute Indian Tribe – Uintah and Ouray Reservation
• Ute Mountain Ute Tribe

It’s best to identify your subject by their specific tribes, nations, or communities in the languages that they prefer, as “An enrolled member of ____.” Always ask their preference, and its spelling.

Headlines should also refer to tribes by their proper names, not a catch-all phrase like “Utah Native American Tribe."

Asian, Asian American: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of East Asia, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent. Never use a hyphen to form the noun Asian American.

Using only “Asian” to describe a person’s race is vague, as it includes about 60% of the world’s population. Traditionally, East Asia consists of China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and occasionally, the Philippines. South Asia traditionally consists of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Southeast Asia includes Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Using “Asian” to signal “Asian American” props up the perpetual foreigner stereotype, a harmful experience where Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are made to feel like outsiders no matter where they were born or how long they’ve lived here. This stereotype has contributed to the rise of anti-Asian sentiment and violence.

If relevant to the story, it may be better to include the individual’s specific background—always ask how they prefer to be identified. For example, Japanese American, Sri Lankan, Vietnamese, etc.

Black or African American: A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.

African American and Black are not synonymous. Black racial identity encompasses a multitude of cultures and ethnicities, for example from the Caribbean or Latin America. If you are including someone's race in the content you're creating, ask the person how they prefer to be identified, for example Afro-Latino, or Haitian American.

Federal policy defines Hispanic/Latino/a/Latinx as an ethnicity, as people who identify as such can be of any race.

While it is common to see Hispanic and Latinx/Latino/a used interchangeably, they are not synonymous. Hispanic generally refers to people with origins in Spanish-speaking countries. Latinx/Latino/a generally refer to people with origins in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, there is disagreement about these definitions and what is or is not offensive. Always ask the subject how they identify.

Latinx (pronounced la-teen-ex) is increasingly becoming a common term. Unlike Latino or Latina, which are the masculine and feminine forms of the word, Latinx is a gender-neutral term sometimes used in lieu of Latino or Latina for people of Latin American heritage.

Always ask the individual/group how they prefer to be identified. The individual may prefer, for example, a gender-inclusive and neutral term like Latinx or Latin@, or a more term like Afro-Latino (a person may identify as both African or African American and Latino/a).

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, Tonga, and other Polynesian, Micronesian and Melanesian Islands. Only describe someone as “Hawaiian” when they identify as a Native Hawaiian. A non-native person who lives in Hawaii is not Hawaiian.

White: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe.

The formal federal racial definition of “White” includes a person having origins in any of the original people of Middle East or North Africa. However, many people of Middle Eastern and North African ancestry identify as People of Color and feel cultural erasure by being classified as White.

For years, communities have lobbied the U.S. government to create a separate category to represent their heritage on the federal level. As a result of these efforts, the University of California system created a Southwestern Asian/North African group for their application in 2013. The Census Bureau is considering a similar change.