For the first time in 27 years, the U.S. government is changing how people are categorized by race and ethnicity, an effort that federal officials say will allow them to more accurately count residents who identify as Hispanic and of Middle Eastern and North African descent. thinking.
Revised minimum racial and ethnic categories announced Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget are the latest effort to label and define Americans. This evolving process often reflects not only changes in social attitudes and immigration, but also the desire of people in an increasingly diverse society to see themselves reflected in the numbers produced by the federal government. I am.
“You cannot underestimate the emotional impact this will have on people,” said Meeta Anand, senior director of census and data equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “That’s how we perceive ourselves as a society. … We’re seeing a desire to reflect that in data so that people can identify themselves and tell their own stories.”
Under the latest revision, questions about race and ethnicity, which were previously asked separately on the form, will be combined into one question. This allows respondents to select multiple categories at the same time, such as “Black,” “American Indian,” and “Hispanic.” Research shows that many Hispanic people understand that race and ethnicity are similar, and often choose “other race” or do not answer questions, making them more likely to It turns out that if the species question is asked separately, it is difficult to know how to answer it.
The Middle East and North Africa category will be added to the selection of race and ethnicity questions. People from countries such as Lebanon, Iran, Egypt and Syria, which have been encouraged to identify as white, will now have the option to identify as part of a new group. According to the results of the 2020 Census, which asked respondents to detail their background, 3.5 million residents identify as Middle Eastern and North African.
“It’s nice to be noticed,” said Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando whose parents are from Iran. She said, “As a child, my family would check the ‘white’ box because we didn’t know which other boxes reflected our family.” I feel that there is meaning in expressing things like this. ”
This change replaces the terms “black” and “far eastern” in the federal form, which are now widely considered pejorative, and “majority” because they do not reflect the country’s complex racial and ethnic diversity. The word “minority” also has an influence. some officials say. The revisions also encourage people who check “Black” to collect detailed racial and ethnic data beyond the minimum threshold, such as “Haitian” or “Jamaican.”
Grouping people of different backgrounds into a single racial or ethnic category, such as Japanese and Filipinos in the Asian classification, often hides disparities in income and health, and advocates argue that He argued that information about subgroups can be separated if there is sufficient data. In a process called decomposition.
“The ability to disaggregate is very useful in distinguishing between different types of discrimination, helping to enforce discrimination laws, public health and economic “It will be very useful for conducting research on clinical outcomes.”
The standard change was two years in the making by a group of federal statisticians and bureaucrats who prefer to stay out of the political fray. But the changes could have long-term implications for congressional redistricting, civil rights laws, health statistics and even politics, as fewer people are classified as white.
This change will be reflected in data collections, forms, and surveys issued by the federal government, as well as in the decennial census questionnaire, as well as state governments and the private sector, as businesses, universities, and other organizations typically follow Washington’s lead. It will also be reflected in Federal agencies have 18 months to submit plans for how they will implement the changes.
The first federal standards on race and ethnicity were created in 1977 to provide consistent data across government agencies and derive numbers to help enforce civil rights laws. They were last updated in 1997, when five minimum racial categories were defined – American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other. Pacific Islanders, and Caucasians. Respondents can select multiple races. Minimal ethnic categories were grouped separately as Hispanic, non-Hispanic, or non-Latino.
Not everyone is on the latest revision.
Some Afro-Latinos feel that combining race and ethnicity questions reduces their numbers and reduces their representation in the data, but the U.S. Census Bureau’s The study found no significant differences in Afro-Latino responses whether the questions were asked separately or together.
For example, Mozelle Ortiz is of mixed Afro-Puerto Rican descent. She feels that even though the combination of racial and ethnic questions allows people to choose multiple answers, the changes could lead to a loss of identity.
“My entire family lineage, my black Puerto Rican grandmother’s lineage, and all other non-white Spanish-speaking peoples will be erased,” Ortiz wrote to the interagency group.
Some also complained that some groups, such as Armenians and Arabs from Sudan and Somalia, were not included in the examples used to define people with Middle Eastern and North African backgrounds. There is.
Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Association, said she was “incredibly happy” with the new category, but her enthusiasm was dampened by the omissions.
“It’s not reflective of the racial diversity of our community,” Berry said. “And that’s wrong.”
