Seeking better data on Hispanics, Census Bureau may change Census race questions

[jimrtex]

Seeking better data on Hispanics, Census Bureau may change how it asks about race
D’Vera Cohn/Pew Research Center
April 20, 2017

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More at the link.

The import of this, as I understand it, would make Hispanic and Middle Eastern a race, lowering the number of those who identify as White, (to a lesser extent) African-American, and (especially) Other race in the current framework.

But is it really a good idea to change the way we ask about race when things appear not to be backwards compatible?

When I was a test subject for a census test in 2016, there were 8 choices:

Hispanic
White
Black
Asian
Middle Eastern or North African
American Indian or Alaskan Native
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
Other

Under each you could provide additional details, so that "White" could be transformed into more of a European ethnicity. There is some debate whether MENA should include examples such as Armenian, Israeli, Iranian (Persian), etc.

[jimrtex]

When I was a test subject for a census test in 2016, there were 8 choices:

Hispanic
White
Black
Asian
Middle Eastern or North African
American Indian or Alaskan Native
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
Other

Under each you could provide additional details, so that "White" could be transformed into more of a European ethnicity. There is some debate whether MENA should include examples such as Armenian, Israeli, Iranian (Persian), etc.

As I understand it, you could choose multiple races, correct?

I selected all 8. I am a curious person.

If you scroll down in the following, you will see an example of the web-based form:

Update on the U.S. Census Bureau's Race and Ethnic Research for the 2020 Census

After you select the major categories, you are then given a screen for each that permits greater expansion. This makes all the classifications more consistent and somewhat more like ethnicity or ancestry (the census does not count Chinese, Japanese, etc. as ancestry).

In 2010, there was not an Asian checkbox, but there were a group of boxes for Chinese, Japanese, etc. If you checked any, you were counted as Asian.

The Census Bureau has discovered that respondents are confused by terms such as "race", "ethnicity", etc. And it seems that Spanish-speaking respondents are confused by the more generic categories. The best responses appear to come from not actually asking a question but giving example answers:

"What are you? White, Black, Hispanic, etc.