For the first time, the U.S. Census Bureau is giving people in the country’s two largest racial categories space to give more details about their origins.
People who identify as “white” or “Black or African American” will have 16 blank spaces to explain their ethnic makeup when filling out the paper copy. Those filling out the form online will have 200 characters.
In previous decades, the option to elaborate has only been available to Native Americans, people of Hispanic or Latino origin, Pacific Islanders and those who identify as “some other race.”
The change in the form aims to collect more detailed data and better reflect the country’s changing demographics, such as the increasing number of African immigrants.
For decades, census data has been used to track newcomers’ mobility over time.
D’Vera Cohn, a senior writer and editor with the Pew Research Center, has focused on the census since 1990. Giving Black and African American people more room to elaborate on their heritage, she said, “may help trace some of the differences in the immigrant experience versus the sort of longer term African American experience in the U.S.”
“The census numbers give you strength,” said Linda Berk, with the New York Regional Census Center, which includes New Jersey. “They give you support in showing that you are here, and you want services and to document that for them.”
Source: White and Black people to get more room on 2020 census to explain their origins
