{"id":55732,"date":"2018-02-14T23:06:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T23:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=55732"},"modified":"2018-02-15T02:13:12","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T02:13:12","slug":"theres-a-big-problem-with-how-the-census-measures-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=55732","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a big problem with how the census measures race"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a big problem with how the census measures race<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a>
\n2018-02-06<\/p>\n

Richard Alba<\/strong><\/a>, Distinguished Professor of Sociology
\nGraduate Center, City University of New York<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nActivists hold signs during a news conference in front of the Supreme Court in 2015. (Getty Images)<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Will the 2020 Census be accurate? A number of observers have been worrying<\/a> about that question<\/a> for several reasons. For instance, the Justice Department has been trying to insert a citizenship question<\/a> on the census form; such a question could discourage many immigrants from completing the form. As a result, cities and regions with large numbers of immigrants could see their populations seriously undercounted, with troubling results for political representation, services and funding.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s another reason to be worried, one that hasn\u2019t gotten much attention. The Census Bureau just announced<\/a> that its 2020 form will not fundamentally change the questions it uses to ask about ethnic and racial origins. This may seem like a minor technical issue \u2014 but it will have major real-world implications. If it does not incorporate already-tested improvements into these questions, the census will deliver a less accurate picture of the United States.<\/p>\n

And as a result, census statistics will continue to roil the public discussion of diversity, by exaggerating white decline and the imminence of a majority-minority United States. Political figures and pundits who oppose immigration and diversity could exploit that, peddling an alarmist narrative that doesn\u2019t fit with the long-standing reality of mixing<\/a> between immigrant and established Americans….<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a big problem with how the census measures race The Washington Post 2018-02-06 Richard Alba, Distinguished Professor of Sociology Graduate Center, City University of New York Activists hold signs during a news conference in front of the Supreme Court in 2015. (Getty Images) Will the 2020 Census be accurate? A number of observers have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,33,14646,8,20],"tags":[9186,2875,2546,5367,2581],"class_list":["post-55732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-census","category-latino","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-richard-alba","tag-the-washington-post","tag-u-s-census-bureau","tag-united-states-census-bureau","tag-washington-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55733,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55732\/revisions\/55733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}