It seems insane that I've never noticed it before, but I had to call emergency services this morning which resulted in me having to give a description of a lady that was disoriented and confused enough to run off into the darkness before I could get her calmed down enough to help her. She'd been assaulted, though that's the relevant point.

But the 911 operator asked me if the woman was "white, black, Latino or Asian". Laying here trying to sleep after a few hours of worrying about her, it struck me that Caucasians and African Americans both get lumped by color, but the others grouped by other criteria.

This may be more of a linguistics question, but there must be some precedent that would lead to official descriptions following that pattern. I'm hoping there may be some light to be shed on the subject from a historical perspective.