Under proposed changes under consideration by the Census Bureau in its once-a-decade census forms, Latino and Hispanic would be added to the list of government-defined races, rather than being listed separately as an ethnicity. And people from the Middle East and North Africa, now counted as white, would be allowed to write in their country of origin.
U.S. residents of Spanish origin typically have no trouble checking the box on their census form that asks whether they are Latino, Hispanic or Spanish.
It’s a different question — the one that asks their race — that apparently gives some of them pause.
In the 2010 census, well over one-third — perhaps unsure how to answer that question — either checked “some other race” or skipped the question entirely.
Now, in advance of the 2020 count and as part of its ongoing effort to allow Americans to better reflect how they see themselves, the U.S. Census Bureau is researching ways to clear up the confusion by adding Latino or Hispanic to a list of government-defined race categories that includes White, Asian, Pacific Islander, Black and American Indian, along with a “two or more races” option.
The bureau is also considering an end to use of the term Negro, which is listed alongside black and African American on the form. And it’s floating the idea of allowing people from the Middle East and North Africa, now counted as white, to write in their country of origin.
The question of race has long been a thorny one, and over the decades the categories for it on the once-a-decade census form have morphed and expanded.
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