This is the first update to the category since 1997.
HOUSTON — Thanks to a new federal initiative, you have a little more say in accounting for your racial and ethnic makeup. Ethnicity checkboxes are diverse.
Experts say the new categories will help improve policy development and resource provision. But it also gives people the power to speak accurately about how they see themselves. He said the last time the federal government updated how it classifies people was in 1997.
According to the U.S. Census, more than 330 million people live in the United States, approximately 30 million of whom live in Texas. And if you look around you, you’ll see a wide variety of people gathered together.
“It’s great to have this opportunity to really talk about who we are and feel recognized,” said Meeta Anand, senior director of Census Data Equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. ” he said.
She follows revised Office of Management and Budget policy directives regarding the maintenance, collection, and presentation of federal data on race and ethnicity. This is the first time in 27 years that the categories have been updated.
“A lot has changed in our country. Since then, what we call ourselves has evolved, and so has who we are and how we think about ourselves,” Anand said. .
Federal data collection documents include Hispanic, Middle Eastern, and North African descent as the newest categories. It also allows the user to select more than one.
“Some people may feel the need to check out races that they feel are not theirs,” Anand says.
Anand said the data is important because it helps guide policy and civil rights compliance, as well as understanding how communities are doing in areas such as education, voting and health care.
“The great thing about this new format is that you can include just Hispanics, or you can include black Hispanics if that’s how you see yourself, or you can include just how Hispanics and whites see themselves. It can also be made flexible to reflect the current situation.
Anand says that having diverse people getting married and having children allows people to express different parts of themselves.
This change only has an immediate effect on federal data collection forms, but it may take some time for the forms to be fully changed. Others may also adopt this category. And the upcoming American Community Survey and 2030 Census forms will also reveal that change.
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