US updates how it classifies people by race, ethnicity
The US federal government has updated how it classifies people by race and ethnicity for the first time in over a quarter-century, aiming to better capture an increasingly diverse country and give policymakers a fuller view of the Americans their work impacts.
As a society, we cannot properly ensure equal rights and protections for all if we are not able to properly identify those impacted by overt and covert discrimination through systemic biases in the first place.
The US Office of Management and Budget announced Thursday it would combine questions about race and ethnicity on federal forms and encourage people to select multiple options if applicable. The government also will add “Middle Eastern or North African” (MENA) as a new category for the combined question, which will include seven total choices.
The changes mark the first time since 1997 that the OMB has revised a policy on the federal collection of such data.
“This is truly a momentous day,” said Meeta Anand, senior director for census and data equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a national coalition of over 200 civil rights groups. The combined question, she added, is “one of the biggest changes we’ve ever seen.”
Karin Orvis, the United States’ chief statistician, said in a Thursday blog post on the White House website that the revision will “enhance our ability to compare information and data across federal agencies, and also to understand how well federal programs serve a diverse America.”
The changes are expected to show up on a range of federal data collection forms, including the census surveys that the government sends out every 10 years. They will also be reflected in the American Community Survey, which is conducted more regularly and includes more questions.
Such data guides how federal officials analyse everything from health-care outcomes to the redrawing of congressional districts.
The revised standards go into effect immediately, though agencies have 18 months to devise plans to comply and five years to implement them.
The Arab American Institute, a Washington-based non-profit that advocates on behalf of Arab Americans, called the revised standards a “major accomplishment.”
“The new Standards will have a lasting impact on communities for generations to come, particularly Arab Americans, whose erasure in federal data collection will finally cease,” the institute’s executive director, Maya Berry, said in a statement.
At the same time, Berry said the institute has “deep concerns” that Arab Americans will continue to be undercounted because the new “Middle Eastern or North African” category does not fully capture the diversity of those groups.
- The Washington Post
Comments (1)
На нефтедоллары, конечно? Задолбали своей заботой об "арабских товарищах". Левым категорически противопоказано находится у власти.