Based on some correspondence with Instapundit readers, a lot of people are confused by this, and by the Hispanic classification. The US has official government racial and ethnic classifications, promulgated by the Office of Management and Budget in 1977. One of those was Black/Negro, later changed in name but not in substance to Black/African American. The government’s definition is a person descended from of the “black racial groups of Africa.” So, no, Musk does not qualify, nor does an Egyptian or Moroccan-descended America[n], no matter how dark-complexioned.

[Bernstein wrote a book recently about the confused and contradictory evolution of official US ethnic categories, titled Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America (July 2022). The ethnic classification of ‘Black/African-American’ was somewhat convoluted but looks positively Vulcanish logical next to the development of the ‘Hispanic’ category. I interviewed Bernstein for my podcast last summer about all of the nonsensical parsing and the lack of any real benefit from the decades-long official division of Americans. — Ed]