How You Fit in According to the U.S. Census

‘Other’ option keeps minorities from being represented.

by Felicia Garay-Stanton

Staff Writer

As the 2010 U.S. Census steadily approaches, the question that comes to mind is how the changing demographic will affect society. The idea of race is being challenged as instead of having a set line of who is Black, White, Asian, or something else, there are now grey areas in between, which make the distribution of needs harder to identify.

The ever growing population of Latinos and biracial/multiracial individuals are giving way to the idea that race is not such a simple thing to define when it comes to the United States’ system of racial categorization.

The Census Bureau faces the challenge of identifying and collecting this influx in the population in a way that will accurately define this new minority groups.

“Traditionally minorities have not been counted,” said Ronald Luna, a U–Md. Geography professor. “The census gives you [a] parameter [of] a trend of the population … asking you more questions than it gives you.”

A survey depicting the origin and race questions planned for the upcoming 2010 U.S. Census was completed anonymously by the students in Professor Ana Patricia Rodriguez’s U.S. Latino Studies 201 course, a historical overview of Latino history until the 1960s.

20 out of the 22 students who identified themselves as Latinos, marked ‘other’ for their race in the hypothetical U.S. Census.

The selection of ‘other’ makes a citizen not be identified in any category, and not being numerically represented, Luna said. He said “if people cannot be categorized they cannot be represented in society, and their needs in the political, educational, and societal realms will not be met,” said Luna.

The 2010 Census states, that “race is key to implementing many federal laws and is needed to monitor compliance with the voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act.” It is also used “to monitor racial disparities in characteristics such as health and education and to plan and obtain funds for public services.”

These questions along with the others presented on the Census, are used to help determine how over $400 billion is allocated to communities around the country, according to Census.gov.

When USLT students were asked why they chose ‘other’ in the practice census, many said that they identified their nationality as their race because they felt that they did not fit into the categories given such as Black, Caucasian, Asian, or Native American. This shows how a common misconception is that the titles of Hispanic or Latino are not racial identifier.

The census’ reasoning for the racial and ethnic classifications used since the 2000 Census is that “Hispanics are asked to indicate their origin in the question on Hispanic origin, not in the question on race, because in the federal statistical system ethnic origin is considered to be a separate concept from race,” according to the census web site.

Dora Cortez, a senior urban planning major and U.S. Latino Studies minor, said “Who came up with those definitions? We are all one race, mankind.”

The Census Bureau is trying to develop and grow to fit the fast changes that the United States’ demographic is making. Unlike its predecessors, the upcoming census allows an individual to define their “other” race. Many students in Rodriguez’s class identified their race as Latino or mestizo (mixed raced).

According to census.gov, “The racial and ethnic makeup of the country has changed since 1977, giving rise to the question of whether those standards still reflected the diversity of the country’s present population.”

Our society is still extremely color dominated, but the way an individual perceives themselves has a major impact on what they would categorize themselves as on the Census. This can be seen in the ever growing population of mixed raced people who can choose multiple racial options.

The idea of race in America needs to develop into something that can categorize everyone that fits in between the Black and White color lines, like those of mixed race.

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Posted by admin on Dec 8 2009. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry