December 2003 December 1, 2003 Largest minority in the U.S.; racial categories; communicating with gestures; fatalism and safety News Hispanics are the largest minority in the U.S. at about 13% of the population. The U.S. has the fifth-largest Spanish speaking population after Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Colombia. Tips Be careful when asking Latinos about their racial category. Latinos identify themselves by nationality and not by race. It is good to remember that the racial ancestry of Spanish-speakers includes African, Asian, Caucasian, Middle-Eastern, and Native American. Notes How did you do on last issue’s True-False quiz? The first statement, “Communicating with gestures on the job is effective,” was false because gestures are not universal. For example, our common “OK” gesture has a very crude meaning in some Latin American countries. Help Consider the cultural attitude of “fatalism” that is prominent in Spanish-speaking countries when you do safety training. If your employee believes that he or she has no control over what happens to him/her, it can be difficult to have safety procedures followed.

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