Americans have long had an intense conversation about what race and ethnicity says about who they are. Now the U.S. government is contemplating changes to how it sorts people into racial and ethnic groups.
The idea of revising categories for ethnic and racial identities, both in the census and in gathering demographic information between head counts, has fueled editorials and think-tank essays as well as thousands of written comments by individuals in what is almost a Rorschach test for how Americans identify themselves. The White House s Office of Management and Budget is set to decide on new classifications next year and is hosting three virtual town halls on the subject this week.
Nyhiem Way is weary of people conflating African American and Black. Shalini Parekh wants a way for South Asian people to identify themselves differently than East Asians with roots in places like China or Japan. And Byron Haskins wants the U.S. to toss racial and ethnic labels altogether.