Erika Prosper, who is Mexican American, remembers being unsure of how to fill out census forms for her family.
“I had never felt like I belonged to what was assumed to be the white population,” said Prosper, 48. “I had the responsibility of filling out the paperwork for my family as a young person. I remember consciously putting ‘other’ because we had been treated like an other.”
When the last census survey came around in 2020, she checked multiracial to reflect a mix of what she said is her Latine (a word some Latinos use to be inclusive) and Indigenous roots. “I don’t think I’m alone,” she said. Prosper’s husband, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent from Eastern Europe and has Filipino, Malay, Indian and British roots.
Both may have many more specific options to select by the time the next census survey rolls out in 2030.
The Biden administration is working to update how it identifies American’s race and ethnicity for official use. It is collecting public feedback on its Jan. 27 proposal to change the choice for people who identify as Hispanic or Latino or a version of those. Comments can be submitted through the federal website until April 12.
The federal government has been wrestling for decades with how to capture the complexity of the ever-increasing population of people with Latino or Hispanic roots. The ramifications of the proposed changes are wide, ranging from how people are asked about their identity on the census to how a local police officer would identify a person cited for a traffic violation.
The disproportionate impact of the pandemic on communities of color and lack of data from some states and locales to show their rates of illness, hospitalizations, vaccinations and deaths demonstrated the need for precision in gathering such information.
“States adopt what the federal is doing. Your schools, your law enforcement, all of these … are taking their cues from what the government is doing,” said Julie…
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