Hispanics Resist Racial Grouping by Census
The article below from NYTimes.com
October 24, 2004
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
SILVER SPRING, Md., Oct. 23 - The music was blaring, the
hair dryers humming and the hair stylists laughing in the
beauty salon as one of them, Kathia Mendez, loosened her
curlers and let her black hair tumble to her shoulders. To
many Americans, the vivacious young woman smiling into the
gilded mirror might seem easily recognizable as a black
woman.
But like many Hispanics here, Ms. Mendez views race through
a decidedly different lens. In her home country, the
Dominican Republic, she is known as "india," or Indian, a
term often used for people of mixed race who do not have
indigenous roots. If she were asked to describe herself in
the United States census, she says she would choose the
racial category selected by nearly 15 million Hispanics in
2000: "some other race."
"I'm not black and I'm not white; we don't define ourselves
that way," said Ms. Mendez, a 25-year-old hair stylist who
has lived in the United States for nine years. "So I would
choose 'some other race.' ''
Over the last three decades, the number of Hispanics
choosing "some other race" has surged rapidly, making it
the Census Bureau's fastest growing racial category. But
census officials are now hoping to eliminate the option
from the 2010 questionnaire in an effort to encourage
Hispanics to choose one or more of five standard racial
categories: white, black, Asian, American Indian or Alaska
native, or a category that includes natives of Hawaii and
the Pacific Islands.
Census officials say the proposed change, which is expected
to remain under consideration until 2006, would improve the
accuracy of the nation's racial data because federal
agencies typically rely on data from the standard racial
groups to make statistical calculations about race. But the
proposal to eliminate the category, which was used almost
exclusively by Hispanics in the 2000 census, has already
stirred a furious debate among Hispanic advocacy groups,
statisticians and officials over how the nation's largest
minority group should be defined racially.
If approved, the shift would be the first time since 1940
that officials have eliminated a racial category from the
census, Census Bureau officials say.
Critics say the change would ignore the evolving views of
race emerging in communities across the country as
immigration from Latin America has surged in recent
decades. Nearly 40 million Hispanics - almost half of them
immigrants - live in the United States and many embrace a
kaleidoscope of racial identities that transcends
traditional notions of black and white.
Many Hispanics refer to themselves as jabao, indio,
trigueño or moreno, depending on their skin color and
birthplace, while others think that all Hispanics,
regardless of color or national origin, should be viewed as
a single race.
In the 2000 census, 48 percent of Hispanics described
themselves as white and 2 percent as black. Six percent
identified themselves as belonging to two or more of the
standard racial categories. And 42 percent chose "some
other race," with the vast majority writing in responses
like Hispanic, Latino or geographic backgrounds like
Mexican, Puerto Rican or Dominican.
Carlos Chardon, chairman of the Census Bureau's Hispanic
advisory committee and an opponent of the proposed change,
said census officials were ignoring America's shifting
racial realities by trying to force Latinos to choose one
or more of the standard categories. Advocates at the Puerto
Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Education Fund have also
expressed concerns.
"We don't fit into the categories that the Anglos want us
to fit in," Mr. Chardon said. "The census is trying to
create a reality that doesn't exist."
Census officials say they will consult with the Office of
Management and Budget, which governs federal statistics,
Congress and advocacy groups before a final decision is
made. But they say change is necessary to improve the
accuracy of the data in the bureau's Modified Age/Race and
Sex, or MARS, file, which many federal agencies rely on.
In the MARS file, census officials assign a race to those
who select "some other race'' and include them in standard
racial groups to accommodate federal agencies that do not
use the ambiguous racial category. Federal agencies use
estimates from the MARS files to track population and birth
and mortality rates among other things.
Census demographers look for clues to make such
determinations, checking to see whether relatives are
listed in standard racial categories and checking
neighborhood demographics. Census officials say the process
is flawed and needs changing, even though they understand
that sociologists and advocacy groups want to continue
tracking and studying Hispanics who choose the "some other
race" category.
"The race question and race in the United States is a very
emotional issue and people who are interested in it feel
very strongly about it," said Preston Jay Waite, associate
director for the decennial census.
"But if somebody writes down that their race is Latino,
that doesn't give us any information about which of the
race categories they're in," Mr. Waite said. "We're making
up the race for 15 million people. We would prefer not to
do it. It doesn't seem wise to me that we would put at risk
the racial statistics of the nation in order to answer an
interesting sociological question."
Some statisticians question the need for change, however,
and warn that eliminating the category would create new
problems in census files used for political redistricting
and enforcement of equal opportunity laws.
Removing the option would increase the number of Hispanics
who would include themselves in traditional racial groups
and would probably increase the number of those who would
identify themselves as white, census officials say. But it
would also increase the number of Latinos who would simply
refuse to respond to the race question, according to recent
tests conducted by the Census Bureau.
Officials have to guess the race of individuals who do not
respond, and an increase in those numbers could lead to
inaccuracies in data files used to monitor voting rights
and civil rights enforcement, said Roderick J. Harrison, a
demographer at the Joint Center for Political and Economic
Studies, a research group in Washington that studies issues
of concern to blacks.
He said mistakes in categorizing the race of Hispanics who
do not respond to the race question could result in
inaccurate tallies of blacks, whites or other racial groups
in a given community, a major worry for those concerned
about redistricting and civil rights issues.
"That's a major concern," said Mr. Harrison, who headed the
racial statistics unit at the Census Bureau from 1990 to
1997. "It's not clear what the positive tradeoff is from
dropping 'some other race.' I don't know that any federal
agency has complained about the category or the quality of
the MARS file.''
In a meeting of members of a steering committee that
disseminates census data to minority groups, a discussion
earlier this year between Mr. Waite and Mr. Harrison on
this subject grew so heated that Mr. Harrison was asked to
resign from the committee. Hispanic and Native American
advocacy groups expressed concern about the resignation,
and Representative William Lacy Clay, Democrat of Missouri,
said he believed Mr. Harrison was forced out for
challenging the Census Bureau's conclusions, a charge that
Mr. Waite denies.
The dispute highlights the difficulties the Census Bureau
has encountered over the decades as it has struggled to
find a racial home for Hispanics living in this country.
In 1930, the census introduced a racial category called
Mexican, which was intended to capture the growing number
of Hispanics in Southwestern states. But it was dropped in
1940, and by 1960 census officials were instructing its
interviewers to record "Puerto Ricans, Mexicans or other
person of Latin American descent as white unless they were
definitely of Negro, Indian or other nonwhite race."
The "other race" category, on the other hand, was made up
of mixed-race people who claimed some combination of white,
black and Native American descent and some people of Asian
heritage when it was first included in the census in 1950.
By 1980, the category was largely Hispanic, reflecting, in
part, the increased immigration from Latin America.
At Arelis Beauty Salon, Ms. Mendez and her colleagues
marveled at the differences between the Dominican and
American racial palettes as they styled hair and waxed
eyebrows and debated whether the census reflected their
racial identities.
Zunilda Diaz, 48, said she would describe herself as white
even though her mother is a dark-skinned woman who would be
considered black in the United States. Nelly de la Rosa,
who is 33 and has chocolate brown skin, said she would
choose "some other race."
Without that option, she said, she would be hard-pressed to
pick a racial category.
"We have so much mixture," said Ms. de la Rosa, who said
she is described as morena or india at home. "These other
census categories just don't reflect who we are."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/24/national/24census.html?ex=1099567449&ei=1&en=5f447fcd40932557
October 24, 2004
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
SILVER SPRING, Md., Oct. 23 - The music was blaring, the
hair dryers humming and the hair stylists laughing in the
beauty salon as one of them, Kathia Mendez, loosened her
curlers and let her black hair tumble to her shoulders. To
many Americans, the vivacious young woman smiling into the
gilded mirror might seem easily recognizable as a black
woman.
But like many Hispanics here, Ms. Mendez views race through
a decidedly different lens. In her home country, the
Dominican Republic, she is known as "india," or Indian, a
term often used for people of mixed race who do not have
indigenous roots. If she were asked to describe herself in
the United States census, she says she would choose the
racial category selected by nearly 15 million Hispanics in
2000: "some other race."
"I'm not black and I'm not white; we don't define ourselves
that way," said Ms. Mendez, a 25-year-old hair stylist who
has lived in the United States for nine years. "So I would
choose 'some other race.' ''
Over the last three decades, the number of Hispanics
choosing "some other race" has surged rapidly, making it
the Census Bureau's fastest growing racial category. But
census officials are now hoping to eliminate the option
from the 2010 questionnaire in an effort to encourage
Hispanics to choose one or more of five standard racial
categories: white, black, Asian, American Indian or Alaska
native, or a category that includes natives of Hawaii and
the Pacific Islands.
Census officials say the proposed change, which is expected
to remain under consideration until 2006, would improve the
accuracy of the nation's racial data because federal
agencies typically rely on data from the standard racial
groups to make statistical calculations about race. But the
proposal to eliminate the category, which was used almost
exclusively by Hispanics in the 2000 census, has already
stirred a furious debate among Hispanic advocacy groups,
statisticians and officials over how the nation's largest
minority group should be defined racially.
If approved, the shift would be the first time since 1940
that officials have eliminated a racial category from the
census, Census Bureau officials say.
Critics say the change would ignore the evolving views of
race emerging in communities across the country as
immigration from Latin America has surged in recent
decades. Nearly 40 million Hispanics - almost half of them
immigrants - live in the United States and many embrace a
kaleidoscope of racial identities that transcends
traditional notions of black and white.
Many Hispanics refer to themselves as jabao, indio,
trigueño or moreno, depending on their skin color and
birthplace, while others think that all Hispanics,
regardless of color or national origin, should be viewed as
a single race.
In the 2000 census, 48 percent of Hispanics described
themselves as white and 2 percent as black. Six percent
identified themselves as belonging to two or more of the
standard racial categories. And 42 percent chose "some
other race," with the vast majority writing in responses
like Hispanic, Latino or geographic backgrounds like
Mexican, Puerto Rican or Dominican.
Carlos Chardon, chairman of the Census Bureau's Hispanic
advisory committee and an opponent of the proposed change,
said census officials were ignoring America's shifting
racial realities by trying to force Latinos to choose one
or more of the standard categories. Advocates at the Puerto
Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Education Fund have also
expressed concerns.
"We don't fit into the categories that the Anglos want us
to fit in," Mr. Chardon said. "The census is trying to
create a reality that doesn't exist."
Census officials say they will consult with the Office of
Management and Budget, which governs federal statistics,
Congress and advocacy groups before a final decision is
made. But they say change is necessary to improve the
accuracy of the data in the bureau's Modified Age/Race and
Sex, or MARS, file, which many federal agencies rely on.
In the MARS file, census officials assign a race to those
who select "some other race'' and include them in standard
racial groups to accommodate federal agencies that do not
use the ambiguous racial category. Federal agencies use
estimates from the MARS files to track population and birth
and mortality rates among other things.
Census demographers look for clues to make such
determinations, checking to see whether relatives are
listed in standard racial categories and checking
neighborhood demographics. Census officials say the process
is flawed and needs changing, even though they understand
that sociologists and advocacy groups want to continue
tracking and studying Hispanics who choose the "some other
race" category.
"The race question and race in the United States is a very
emotional issue and people who are interested in it feel
very strongly about it," said Preston Jay Waite, associate
director for the decennial census.
"But if somebody writes down that their race is Latino,
that doesn't give us any information about which of the
race categories they're in," Mr. Waite said. "We're making
up the race for 15 million people. We would prefer not to
do it. It doesn't seem wise to me that we would put at risk
the racial statistics of the nation in order to answer an
interesting sociological question."
Some statisticians question the need for change, however,
and warn that eliminating the category would create new
problems in census files used for political redistricting
and enforcement of equal opportunity laws.
Removing the option would increase the number of Hispanics
who would include themselves in traditional racial groups
and would probably increase the number of those who would
identify themselves as white, census officials say. But it
would also increase the number of Latinos who would simply
refuse to respond to the race question, according to recent
tests conducted by the Census Bureau.
Officials have to guess the race of individuals who do not
respond, and an increase in those numbers could lead to
inaccuracies in data files used to monitor voting rights
and civil rights enforcement, said Roderick J. Harrison, a
demographer at the Joint Center for Political and Economic
Studies, a research group in Washington that studies issues
of concern to blacks.
He said mistakes in categorizing the race of Hispanics who
do not respond to the race question could result in
inaccurate tallies of blacks, whites or other racial groups
in a given community, a major worry for those concerned
about redistricting and civil rights issues.
"That's a major concern," said Mr. Harrison, who headed the
racial statistics unit at the Census Bureau from 1990 to
1997. "It's not clear what the positive tradeoff is from
dropping 'some other race.' I don't know that any federal
agency has complained about the category or the quality of
the MARS file.''
In a meeting of members of a steering committee that
disseminates census data to minority groups, a discussion
earlier this year between Mr. Waite and Mr. Harrison on
this subject grew so heated that Mr. Harrison was asked to
resign from the committee. Hispanic and Native American
advocacy groups expressed concern about the resignation,
and Representative William Lacy Clay, Democrat of Missouri,
said he believed Mr. Harrison was forced out for
challenging the Census Bureau's conclusions, a charge that
Mr. Waite denies.
The dispute highlights the difficulties the Census Bureau
has encountered over the decades as it has struggled to
find a racial home for Hispanics living in this country.
In 1930, the census introduced a racial category called
Mexican, which was intended to capture the growing number
of Hispanics in Southwestern states. But it was dropped in
1940, and by 1960 census officials were instructing its
interviewers to record "Puerto Ricans, Mexicans or other
person of Latin American descent as white unless they were
definitely of Negro, Indian or other nonwhite race."
The "other race" category, on the other hand, was made up
of mixed-race people who claimed some combination of white,
black and Native American descent and some people of Asian
heritage when it was first included in the census in 1950.
By 1980, the category was largely Hispanic, reflecting, in
part, the increased immigration from Latin America.
At Arelis Beauty Salon, Ms. Mendez and her colleagues
marveled at the differences between the Dominican and
American racial palettes as they styled hair and waxed
eyebrows and debated whether the census reflected their
racial identities.
Zunilda Diaz, 48, said she would describe herself as white
even though her mother is a dark-skinned woman who would be
considered black in the United States. Nelly de la Rosa,
who is 33 and has chocolate brown skin, said she would
choose "some other race."
Without that option, she said, she would be hard-pressed to
pick a racial category.
"We have so much mixture," said Ms. de la Rosa, who said
she is described as morena or india at home. "These other
census categories just don't reflect who we are."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/24/national/24census.html?ex=1099567449&ei=1&en=5f447fcd40932557
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