2018/04/25 by Kenneth Prewitt · 1 citation
Mathematics · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Census and Population Estimation #Migration, Health and Trauma #Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
paper · doi:10.1177/0002716218756629
Aligning census ethnoracial categories with America’s changing demography is a never-ending task and becomes more difficult when identity claims are rationales for altering categories. We examine four current problems: (1) the Census Bureau projects a population more nonwhite than white by midcentury—social demographers document trends pointing to a different racial future; (2) the census inadequately measures second- and third-generation Americans, limiting the nation’s understanding of why some immigrant groups are “racialized” while others are “whitened”; (3) on health, education, and employment, there is more intrarace than between-race variability, which is better measured for Asians and Hispanics than it is for whites and blacks; and (4) consistency in racial self-identification is stronger for whites, blacks, and Asians than for Hispanics, Native Americans, and biracial groups, lowering the reliability of race data. These measurement problems weaken policy choices relevant to economic growth, social justice, immigrant assimilation, government reforms, and an enlightened public.