The proposed revision by the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to combine race and ethnicity into one question for the 2030 Census has sparked mixed reactions from scholars, thinkers, activists, journalists, media professionals, marketers, and policy makers. While some support this change as a significant step towards addressing historical misclassifications of people from Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) regions under “White” populations since 1977, others are skeptical due to potential issues related to the loss of data on respondents identifying as both Latino and Black.
The OMB’s decision is rooted in the idea that Latin American cultures create Latinos resistance towards racial identity because they have mixed-race culture conflicts. However, this notion overlooks how actual Latin Americans fill out census forms with pride, showing up at censuses for a simple reason – they believe doing so will help their communities receive more resources and representation from government agencies.
The proposed revision could potentially tamper with collecting federal data that journalists use to surface issues affecting Latinos’ health, income, education or accessing healthy green spaces, particularly the uniquely trended experiences of Afro-Latinos in comparison to non-Black Latinx subgroups due to limited access to disaggregated data.
The combination of race and ethnicity for Hispanic/Latinxs could also lead to statistical gaslighting promoting the myth of a post-racial America, as it would result in oversimplifying Latino experiences by combining them into one single category that will not accurately represent their diverse realities. This change may negatively impact journalists’ ability to present fairer pictures of these communities due to flawed governmental data for news reports while leaving Latinxs, and most prominently Arab Americans and the broader MENA community unseen in federal agencies’ programs and services or protected from discrimination.
The addition of a “Middle Eastern or North African (MENA)” reporting category is overdue as it will extend recognition, self-determination and power for Arabs to be finally seen as citizens engaging politically with their communities across all federal agencies’ data collection processes while addressing disparities in health care, business, education.
In light of these debates around the OMB revision proposal, some scholars have proposed alternative approaches that could better address issues related to race and ethnicity among Latinos without oversimplifying or erasing them from governmental programs and services’ data collection processes. These alternatives include separate questions for both categories while also exploring societal factors such as anti-Black racism within Latinx communities, which are currently ignored in existing conversations about these matters.
In summary, the proposed OMB revision to combine race and ethnicity into one question is a contentious issue that has sparked mixed reactions from various stakeholders who have highlighted potential drawbacks for accuracy regarding issues of social equity concerning people identified as Latino or MENA populations in federal programs’ data collection processes. As such, alternative approaches are being proposed by scholars to address these concerns while ensuring the preservation and recognition of diverse Latinx communities that should not be overlooked due to statistical gaslighting promoted through oversimplification of their experiences.
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