After it was reclaimed, Chicano/a identity became a celebration of being non-white and non-European and worked against the state-sanctioned census categories of "Whites with Spanish Surnames," originally promulgated on the 1950 U.S. census, and "Mexican-American," which Chicanas/os felt encouraged assimilation into European American society. Chicanos/as asserted ethnic pride during a time when Mexican assimilation into whiteness was being actively promoted by the U.S. government in order to "serve Anglo self-interest," who tried to claim Chicano/as were white in order to deny racism against them, as noted by Ian Haney López.