Measuring Racial Discrimination (2004) / Chapter Skim
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2 Defining Race
2 Defining Race
Pages 25-38
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From page 25... ...
We conclude that, for analyzing discrimination and its effects on social, economic, political, and other outcomes for population groups, race is best thought of as a social construct that evolves over time. The discussion here and in the next two chapters makes clear that data on race and ethnicity are necessary -- despite measurement problems -- for monitoring and analyzing evolving differences and trends among groups in the U.S.
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From page 26... ...
Race becomes socially significant when members of a society routinely divide people into groups based on the possession of these characteristics. These characteristics become socially significant when members of a society routinely use them to establish racial categories into which people are classified on the basis of their own or their ancestors' physical characteristics and when, in turn, these categorizations elicit differing social perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors toward each group (see, e.g., Hollinger, 2000; Loury, 2002; Smelser et al., 2001)
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From page 27... ...
.1 The social meaning given to racial classifications activates beliefs and assumptions about individuals in a particular racial category. Consequently, if someone is perceived or identifies himself or herself as belonging to the African American or another racial group -- regardless of the person's precise physical or other characteristics -- that classification creates a social reality that can have real and enduring consequences.
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From page 28... ...
upheld racial classifications as the basis for unequal treatment of groups, serving to maintain dominant and subordinate racial groupings in U.S. society (Feagin and Feagin, 1996)
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From page 29... ...
These people often check "other race" rather than a specifically named category, or they do not answer the race question at all. We discuss these developments, which underscore the fluid and socially and politically influenced nature of racial classification, in the next section.
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From page 30... ...
Prior to 1970, there was no nationwide standard for identifying people of Latin American origin. From 1940 to 1970, the census coded people in five southwestern states who reported Spanish language or surname as "of Spanish origin," and in 1960 and 1970 the census tabulated people of Puerto Rican birth or heritage in three northeastern states.
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From page 31... ...
. OMB currently defines five major racial categories for use in federal data collection: American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; black or African American; Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander; and white.
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From page 32... ...
Uses of these data include redrawing congressional and state legislative district boundaries; calculating and analyzing vital demographic information (e.g., birth rates, infant mortality rates) ; monitoring compliance by employers with equal opportunity employment laws; and many other applications for research and program planning, implementation, and evaluation.
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From page 33... ...
. Thus, there is research evidence that many Latin American and Latin Caribbean immigrants who come to the United States see themselves as being of mixed origin, most commonly European and American Indian or European and African.6 Shifts in societal views on race, political pressures from different groups, increasing diversity in the country's population, and consequent changes in data collection standards and practices add ambiguity to the way we understand race and interpret data on race.
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From page 34... ...
. For another example, a 1995 supplement to the Current Population Survey found that a smaller proportion of respondents identified themselves as Hispanic when a combined race and Hispanic origin question was used, compared with having separate questions on race and ethnicity.8 Finally, 7In the 2000 census, 97 percent of people reporting "some other race" were of Hispanic origin, and about one-half of Hispanics either marked "some other race" or marked two or more races, most often a combination of "white" and "some other race" (del Pinal, 2003)
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From page 35... ...
For American Indian and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander groups -- both small populations -- rates of inconsistent reporting across surveys can be high. For instance, census counts of American Indians and Alaska Natives increased dramatically following the 1950 census -- by 51 percent from 1950 to 1960, 50 percent from 1960 to 1970, and 71 percent from 1970 to 1980.
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From page 36... ...
find high levels of consistent reporting for people reporting African American, Asian, or white race, even when the data are collected by different methods (e.g., computer-assisted personal interviewing versus mail response) and use different question formats.
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From page 37... ...
Thus, a mixed-race individual may identify herself as multiracial in private settings but express her dominant race in public and be classified in different categories by different observers. Obtaining multiple indicators of racial identification would likely provide helpful data to inform racial classification and analysis.
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From page 38... ...
. There is no scientifically objective information that people use or can use as a basis for creating unambiguous, consistent racial classifications that have social meaning and effects.
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