- The US government announced, on Thursday, that it is changing the categorization of people by race and ethnicity for the first time in 27 years
- This aims to more accurately count residents who identify as Hispanic and of Middle Eastern and North African heritage
- The revisions to the minimum categories on race and ethnicity, seeks to label and define the American people and reflect changes in social attitudes and immigration
WASHINGTON D.C.: To more accurately count residents who identify as Hispanic and of Middle Eastern and North African heritage, the US government announced, late last week, that it is changing the categorization of people by race and ethnicity for the first time in 27 years.
The revisions to the minimum categories on race and ethnicity, announced by the Office of Management and Budget, seeks to label and define the American people and reflect changes in social attitudes and immigration, as well as the keenness of an increasingly diverse society to be represented in federal government data.
Meeta Anand, senior director for Census and Data Equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said, “You cannot underestimate the emotional impact this has on people.”
The revisions stipulate that questions about race and ethnicity previously asked separately on forms will be combined into a single question, giving respondents the option to pick multiple categories, such as “Black,” “American Indian,” and “Hispanic,” at the same time.
Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando whose parents originate from Iran, said, “It feels good to be seenGrowing up, my family would check the ‘white’ box because we did not know what other box reflected our family. Having representation like that, it feels meaningful.”
Under the changes, the words “Negro” and “Far East,” now widely regarded as pejorative, as well as the terms “majority” and “minority,” will be removed from the federal forms, while providing detailed race and ethnicity data beyond the minimum standards, such as “Haitian” or “Jamaican” for someone who chooses “Black,” will be encouraged.
Advocates argue that grouping people from different backgrounds into a single race and ethnicity category, such as Japanese and Filipino in the Asian category, often masks disparities in income or health.
Allison Plyer, chief demographer at the Data Center in New Orleans, said, “To be able to disaggregate can really be helpful to distinguish different kinds of discrimination, the ability to enforce laws around discrimination and do research on public health and economic outcomes.”
However, the latest revisions have also been criticized by some.
Mozelle Ortiz, a person of mixed Afro-Puerto Rican descent, said, “My entire lineage, that of my Black Puerto Rican grandmother’s and all other non-white Spanish speaking peoples, will be erased.”
Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, said, “It is not reflective of the racial diversity of our community. And it is wrong.”
