The U.S. government recently released a new set of standards — the first change in nearly 30 years — that it will use, including for the U.S. census, to identify the race and ethnicity of citizens, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Among these standards will be two new categories as possible choices: Middle Eastern and North African.
To simplify matters, only one question will be asked to measure a respondent’s race or ethnicity from among seven broad categories: White, Hispanic or Latino, Black or African American, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and the two new categories, Middle Eastern and North African.
Still, the question remains “so what” given the caveat within the announcement that federal agencies will not only have 18 months to submit an action plan to OMB but will then be allowed up to five years to implement the new standards.
If you do the math, that means that the new standards could take up to six-and-a-half years before they’re implemented. Now given the unexpected rapid “browning” of America, somewhere between the years 2040 and 2045, according to census and immigration data, white Americans will no longer be the racial majority. With that in mind, as more “browning” occurs, this demographic change may require the addition of even more categories to accurately identify the race and ethnicity of Americans.
In response, the OMB’s chief statistician said the “updated standards will help create more useful, accurate and up to date federal data on race and ethnicity… [as well as] enhance our ability to compare information and data across federal agencies, and also to understand how well federal programs serve a diverse America.”
But aren’t there better methods that the government can employ that would lead to the achievement of their goals? It’s hard to imagine that increasing the number of boxes on government questionnaires will have any impact on policies that might reduce the health and economic disparities that have plagued African Americans for nearly four centuries. Nor will they adequately address and reduce the widening gap between family incomes and wealth that currently places white Americans at the top, other ethnic groups jockeying for middle positions and Blacks, again, far behind in a distant last place.
While groups like the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) may be correct in concluding that government programs and services are less responsive and effective when communities are inaccurately grouped together, experts find the latest decision by OMB to update standards lack any real teeth.
To be honest, it’s difficult to believe that maintaining and supporting diversity is still among America’s goals. Consider the recent dismantling of affirmative action, the refusal of all but a handful of politicians to even consider any forms of reparations, and the surge in nativism and xenophobia that have undergirded the agendas and policies of politicians within more conservative camps including former President Donald Trump and Sen.Ted Cruz.
For them, any efforts to either support or increase diversity and policies or initiatives related to diversity have long been replaced by a collective mission to “make America great again.” White Americans may be in the minority in the U.S. by 2045, but it’s clear that by itself that will not make the country more racially tolerant.
James Brown was on the money when he said, “You can’t tell me what I’m doing wrong when you keep jiving and singing that same old funny song … Like a dull knife just ain’t cutting … You’re just talking loud and saying nothing.”