I recently saw a copy of my great-grandparent's marriage certificate from Iowa in the late 1880s. It listed their race as "Norwegian." My question is really two-fold. When and why did "white" race shift from ethnicity/nationality and towards the monolithic view of "White" we have today? Additionally, why is it that Hispanic got recognized as a separate ethnicity? One can be Black and Hispanic or White and Hispanic. Why doesn't the US government recognize being Arabic or Italian (or whatever) as a separate ethnicity worthy of recognition alongside Hispanic?