The Census Predicament: Counting Americans by Race.

Wall Street Journal ^ | November 27, 2020 | Janet Adamy and Paul Overberg

[karpov]

As director of the U.S. Census Bureau from 1998 to 2001, Kenneth Prewitt oversaw the first decennial count of the new century. When the enormous job of data collection was finally done, he arrived at a stark conclusion: The government should stop asking every American to report their race. “The race question is incoherent because race is incoherent,” said Prof. Prewitt, now a professor of public affairs at Columbia University. “We pay a price for not having a more subtle, nuanced set of numbers than what we currently have.”

Prof. Prewitt and many other demographers and sociologists say that the government’s centuries-old classifications no longer reflect realities on the ground, especially when it comes to generations of immigrants who have edged toward assimilation. Racial or ethnic labels are also falling behind the growing diversity within each racial and ethnic group and failing to capture mixed-race people. Americans of two or more races or ethnicities—including Vice President-elect Kamala Harris—are the country’s fastest-growing demographic, and they defy labels.

The government, which plays a dominant role in setting racial and ethnic categories, hasn’t developed the tools to keep pace with a shifting population, demographers say. Four decades ago, for example, the U.S. Census added an ethnic “Hispanic” category to its authoritative survey of America’s demographic contours. Today, Hispanics include a vast population of both new immigrants and multi-generation American families with varying depths of ties to Latin America. New research suggests that many Hispanics are assimilating in ways that echo how Italian, Polish and other European immigrants a century ago were eventually absorbed into the American mainstream. As they do, they are diverging economically, socially and politically.

The 2020 election showed this divergence in the voting patterns of those who claim Hispanic ethnicity.

[karpov]

Full story. Either stop counting by race, since such data is now used to fabricate stories of "systemic racism", or ask on the census about the race of each person's biological parents, and report the fractions of each mix, such as white/white, white/black, white/Asian, black/black, black/Asian, etc.

[Raceway]

Guess we finally need a racial determination board,just like in SA. To determine what privileges each of our citizens and residents have.

[Grey182]

In the UK they just lie about the percentage of imported foreigners.

[I want the USA back]

Counting by race, religion or sexual orientation must stop. It allows the government to divide us into warring groups and keep us perpetually hostile to other groups.

[libertylover]

Counting by race, religion or sexual orientation preference must stop. It allows the government to divide us into warring groups and keep us perpetually hostile to other groups.

Slight correction.