Changes in Census Racial Categories Over Time

OVERVIEW

Race and racial categories are socially constructed.  Racial categories, the way a society identifes humans based on physical characteristics has changed over time.  These superficial physical differences can and often do carry considerable societal significance and importance.  Socially constructed racial categories are arbitrarily assigned, based on pseudoscience.  Although racial categories are socially constructed, they nonetheless can determine an individual placement on social and racial hierarchies, and in turn, impact the individual access to social benefits and privileges.  Racial categories are assigned in the United States and oftentimes have been determined through legal and political considerations.  Socially constructed descriptors such as black or white can be assigned despite a person’s physical attributes as a result of policies such as the “one drop rule”.  Racial categories are often shifting and changing based on historical context, social needs, and political events.  

OBJECTIVES

1. Define racial category.

2. Analyze the impact of political and historical events on changes in racial categories.

3. Illustrate how changes in racial categories helped determine access to power, wealth and privilege.

FURTHER READING

Omi, M., & Winant, H. (2015). Racial formation in the United States. Routledge. 

Delgado, R. (2013). Racial Classification in America: Where do we go from here? by Kenneth Prewitt. In Critical race theory: The cutting edge (pp. 511–520). essay, Temple Univ. Press. 

Delgado, R., and Stefancic, J. (2017). Critical race theory: An introduction. New York University Press. 

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

1. Identify changes in racial categories in the United States over time.  Discuss how these changes over time help strengthen the argument that race is socially constructed.

2. Analyze ways changes in racial categories have coincided with economic, political, and social policies and events.  

3. Research the impact of doing away with racial categories in the United States census count.  In terms of racial justice, what impact would discarding racial categories have in determining the impact of contemporary forms of discrimination?  

4. What categories, in addition to racial categories, could be analyzed by the Census Bureau to further study the impact of racism and discrimination on specific ethnicities and cultures?

ACTIVITIES

1. Visit the United States Office and Management and Budget’s (OMB) “Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity.  Review the  OMB’s explanation of what race is, why it is tracked, and how. 

2. Analyze the data and determine how many racial categories are currently in the United States.  Determine if the collection of racial data is helpful or harmful or both.  Explain your answer.  Give examples.

3. Racial categories have changed significantly over time.  For example, individuals of Mexican descent have been categorized as both white and non-white given the economic and political climate.  Given the argument that race is socially constructed and has no basis in biological or scientific terms, find examples to argue whether or not race is real. Give examples and explain your answer.