ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)
— The Census Bureau is considering changes to its race and ethnicity questions
that would reclassify some minorities who were considered "white" in
the past, a move that may speed up the date when America's white population
falls below 50 percent.
Census Director John
Thompson told The Associated Press this week that the bureau is testing a
number of new questions and may combine its race and ethnicity questions into
one category for the 2020 census. That would allow respondents to choose
multiple races.
The possible changes
include allowing Latinos to give more details about their ethnic backgrounds
and creating a new, distinct category for people of Middle Eastern and North
African descent.
"We haven't made
any decisions yet," Thompson said in an interview before his meeting
Tuesday with American Indian leaders in New Mexico. "But I don't think
these new questions would diminish anything. It would just give us more
information about our diverse populations."
William H. Frey, a
demographer with the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program, says
the proposed changes would grant residents more freedom to define their race
and ethnicity.
"I don't know if
this will make a huge difference in the 2020 census on whites becoming the
minority, but it could later," said Frey, author of "Diversity
Explosion: How New Racial Demographics are Remaking America."
In the past,
"white" was the only racial option available to Arab-American
respondents, a classification that didn't truly reflect their social standing
and hurt efforts for their political empowerment in post-Sept. 11 America, said
Samer Khalaf, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
"If you are going
to classify me as white, then treat (me) as white," Khalaf said.
"Especially when I go to the airport. So yeah, it's inaccurate."
For years, many U.S.
Latinos also checked the "white" box because options were limited,
said Lorenzo Cano, associate director of the Center of Mexican American Studies
at the University of Houston. But many Latinos are now opting to check
"American Indian" to identify with their links to indigenous populations
in Latin America.
Overall, "these
changes could reduce the number of people who identify as white," Cano
said.
The Census Bureau has
estimated that the country's population will have more minorities than whites
for the first time around 2043 or 2044, a result of higher birth rates among
Hispanics and a stagnating or declining birth rate among blacks, whites and
Asians.
How much the changes
could speed up the moment when minorities will outnumber whites is anyone's
guess. Analysts would first have to examine the new data — some of which won't
be comparable to 2010 because of the possible new categories, Frey said.
The proposed changes
could present a new set of challenges for the Census Bureau. For example, Dee
Ann Alexander, a census tribal specialist, said Mexican-Americans who check the
"American Indian" box could deter efforts to get an accurate count of
enrolled tribal members living in cities.
"It's a
concern," Alexander said. "Around 74 percent of Native Americans live
in urban areas, and it's a challenge to search for that population."
In addition, an
aggressive push by the census to include Arab-Americans in the count might lead
to more suspicion because many of them fear the federal government, Khalaf
said.
"They think it
will put them under surveillance," he said. "They won't fill (the
census) out because they don't want to be on any list."
Still, such new
questions could give a more accurate assessment of a changing America at a time
when 15 percent of all marriages involve couples of difference races, Frey
said.
"And who knows how
their children will identify," he said.
Cano said he can see
some in the country becoming alarmed at the rapid changes, although it will
subside eventually as groups continue to intermarry.
"Like we always
do, we'll keep moving on," Cano said, "and let love take place."
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS
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