On Aug. 9, a Census Bureau story involving race and ethnicity set off a number of readers, but not for the reasons you might expect.

Reporter Christie Wilson reported that the Census Bureau population of those who claimed Asian descent alone or in combination with other races declined between 2000 and 2006, as did the percentage of those who claimed Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander descent alone or in combination. Meanwhile, the white population (alone or in combination) increased.

I would have expected complaints from those in the Native Hawaiian community questioning the numbers, but those did not materialize. I would have expected readers to object to perceptions that white people were taking over Hawai'i while Asians were leaving in droves.

One person did question when the Census was taken and who was polled because nobody in her gym or office seemed to have participated. Another blamed white people for everything from traffic to high housing prices.

The rest of the reaction, all of it heated, was directed at our use of the term "whites" instead of "Caucasians." Several readers were appalled by our headline: "More whites, fewer Asians in Hawai'i's makeup," which accurately reflected the story but was something akin to a red cape before a bull.

"Why use the word WHITE... Why not Caucasian?" one woman wrote. "Is it because there was not enough room on the page? The media are the ones who cause the problems with racial tension. I am appalled that the editor let that go to print."

A woman from Honaunau asked that "Caucasian" be used if Asian and Hawaiian populations were being described.

"Or if you use the word 'white' then use 'yellows' and 'browns,' " she wrote. "We all have respectable backgrounds and to be called a color when another part of the population is given its race name, just doesn't sit well."

Another woman said much the same, asking that we be consistent, using skin colors such as black, yellow, brown and red along with white, but she was really asking that we use the term Caucasian.

"I understand that I am just one little person, but in the future, I would appreciate the media being a little more careful of the language that is used in our public media so that the people of Hawai'i are not offended and our children are not taught incorrect terminology for referencing others," she wrote.

Reporter Wilson took most of the calls and e-mails and explained that "white" is the official term used by the Census Bureau, a classification that includes Arabs and other Middle Easterners and some Hispanics. The Office of Management and Budget issued the guidelines to the racial classifications in 1997 and the Census Bureau adopted them, using the following terms: white, black or African American, American Indian, Alaska native, Asian, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander.

There are also 57 combinations of those categories, and those who answered the 2000 Census were able, for the first time, to mark multiple races as a way to measure more interracial unions and more accurately show the nation's diversity.

"It didn't bother me as a white person using the term 'white' and I certainly didn't feel I was in a position to alter Census Bureau terminology and adopt my own terminology, due to complexity of issues and Census methods," Wilson said.

A Census official referred me to the 1997 OMB directive, which defines "white" as descending from the original people of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa. She suggested that the OMB likely chose to use white because it better defines race than Caucasian. As an example, she said that Asian Indians would be classified as Caucasian even though they already are classified as Asian. More details can be found at www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/backgrd_race.html.

In a state where we use white, Caucasian and haole interchangeably, I was a little surprised by the reaction, but felt the concerns were worth addressing and worth letting readers know that the federal government came up with the terminology. To tamper with it might well have made our story inaccurate.