Race and ethnicity are neither scientifically reliable nor valid categories… |
Race and ethnicity are neither scientifically reliable nor valid categories, and assignments to racial or ethnic categories are often based on observer biases, changing situational identities, and historical-political vagaries (Lee 1993; Kaplan and Bennett 2003; Williams 2007). In real life, people do not have only one fixed racial or ethnic identity which remains the same over time and space and that can be accurately measured. A further complication inherent in categorization is that people embrace biracial, multiracial, and multi-ethnic identities, which makes the categories even more difficult to sustain, compare, and enumerate. Current racial and ethnic categories for federal data collection are not sensitive to the complex intra-group heterogeneity that exists in the nation (Kaplan and Bennett 2003; Office of Management and Budget 1997).
Alison Stratton, Ava Nepaul, and Margaret Hynes, “Issue Brief – Race and Ethnicity Matters: Concepts and Challenges of Racial and Ethnic Classifications in Public Health,” The Connecticut Health Disparities Project, (Hartford, Connecticut: Connecticut Department of Public Health, Fall 2007). http://www.ct.gov/dph/lib/dph/hisr/pdf/race_and_ethnicity_matters.pdf.
Tags: Alison Stratton, Ava Nepaul, Connecticut Department of Public Health, Margaret Hynes, The Connecticut Health Disparities Project