Race and ethnicity in the United States Census

Race

"Black or African American. A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "Black, African Am., or Negro," or provide written entries such as African American, Afro American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian."
"American Indian and Alaska Native. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment."
"Asian. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam. It includes "Asian Indian," "Chinese," "Filipino," "Korean," "Japanese," "Vietnamese," and "Other Asian.""
"Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands. It includes people who indicate their race as "Native Hawaiian," "Guamanian or Chamorro," "Samoan," and "Other Pacific Islander."

"Some other race. Includes all other responses not included in the "White", "Black or African American", "American Indian and Alaska Native", "Asian" and "Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander" race categories described above. Respondents providing write-in entries such as multiracial, mixed, interracial, Wesort, or a Hispanic/Latino group (for example, Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban) in the "Some other race" category are included here."

"Two or more races. People may have chosen to provide two or more races either by checking two or more race response check boxes, by providing multiple write-in responses, or by some combination of check boxes and write-in responses."

Ethnicity

The Federal government of the United States has mandated that "in data collection and presentation, federal agencies are required to use a minimum of two ethnicities: "Hispanic or Latino" and "Not Hispanic or Latino."" The Office of Management and Budget defines "Hispanic or Latino" as "a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race." For discussion of the meaning and scope of the Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, see the Hispanic, Latino (demonym) or Hispanics in the United States articles.

Use of the word ethnicity for Hispanicity only is considerably more restricted than its conventional meaning, which covers other distinctions, some of which are covered by the "race" and "ancestry" questions. The distinct questions accommodate the possibility of Hispanics in the United States also declaring various racial identities (see also La Raza Cósmica, White Hispanic, Afro-Latin American, Asian Latin American, Zapotec language).

In the 2000 Census, 12.5% of the US population reported Hispanic or Latino ethnicity and 87.5% reported non-Hispanic or Latino ethnicity.

Comparability

The Census Bureau warns us that data on race in Census 2000 are not directly comparable to those collected in previous censuses. Regulations requiring the new language were published by the Office of Management and Budget in the Federal Register in 1997. In 2001, the National Institutes of Health adopted the new language to comply with Directive 15.

Many US residents see race and ethnicity as the same concept.American Anthropological Association. "A Brief History of the OMB Directive 15." 1997. May 18 2007. In the absence of any racial choice that fits their understanding of themselves, 42.2 percent of Hispanics checked "some other race" in Census 2000.

2010 Census

In the 2010 US Census will have changes designed to more clearly distinguish the Hispanic ethnicity as not being a race. In response to the trend of Hispanics marking "some other race", the 2010 US Census is considering removing the "some other race" category. Another implementation in the 2010 US Census designed to distinguish the term "Hispanic" as not being a race will be to include the phrase "For this census, Hispanic origins are not races." Additionally, the Hispanic terms will be reordered from "Hispanic or Latino" to "Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin".Waite, Preston. US Census Bureau. "2010 Decennial Census Program." 2006. accessed July 7, 2008. www.census.gov/sdc/www/0306waite.ppt

Other agencies

In 2007 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of the US Department of Labor updated its racial and ethnic categories to adhere to the current OMB definitions.Final Revisions of the Employer Information Report (EEO-1) by the EEOC. The page contains links to FAQs, forms and instructions See Race and ethnicity (EEO).

See also

Definitions of whiteness in the United States
Language (United States Census)
Racial and ethnic demographics of the United States
Racial classification of Indian Americans
Social construction
United States Census, 2000

References