The New Race Question: How the Census Counts Multiracial Individuals

Posted in Anthologies, Books, Brazil, Census/Demographics, Media Archive, United States on 2009-10-22 20:55Z by Steven

The New Race Question: How the Census Counts Multiracial Individuals

Russell Sage Foundation
October 2002
391 pages
Hardcover: ISBN-13: 978-0-87154-657-9, ISBN-10: 0-87154-657-4
Paperback: ISBN-13: 978-0-87154-658-6, ISBN-10: 0-87154-658-2

Edited by

Joel Perlmann, Senior Scholar and Program Director
Levy Economics Institute of Bard College

Mary C. Waters, M.E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology
Harvard University

The change in the way the federal government asked for information about race in the 2000 census marked an important turning point in the way Americans measure race. By allowing respondents to choose more than one racial category for the first time, the Census Bureau challenged strongly held beliefs about the nature and definition of race in our society. The New Race Question is a wide-ranging examination of what we know about racial enumeration, the likely effects of the census change, and possible policy implications for the future.

The growing incidence of interracial marriage and childrearing led to the change in the census race question. Yet this reality conflicts with the need for clear racial categories required by anti-discrimination and voting rights laws and affirmative action policies. How will racial combinations be aggregated under the Census’s new race question? Who will decide how a respondent who lists more than one race will be counted? How will the change affect established policies for documenting and redressing discrimination? The New Race Question opens with an exploration of what the attempt to count multiracials has shown in previous censuses and other large surveys. Contributor Reynolds Farley reviews the way in which the census has traditionally measured race, and shows that although the numbers of people choosing more than one race are not high at the national level, they can make a real difference in population totals at the county level. The book then takes up the debate over how the change in measurement will affect national policy in areas that rely on race counts, especially in civil rights law, but also in health, education, and income reporting. How do we relate data on poverty, graduation rates, and disease collected in 2000 to the rates calculated under the old race question? A technical appendix provides a useful manual for bridging old census data to new.

The book concludes with a discussion of the politics of racial enumeration. Hugh Davis Graham examines recent history to ask why some groups were determined to be worthy of special government protections and programs, while others were not. Posing the volume’s ultimate question, Jennifer Hochschild asks whether the official recognition of multiracials marks the beginning of the end of federal use of race data, and whether that is a good or a bad thing for society?

The New Race Question brings to light the many ways in which a seemingly small change in surveying and categorizing race can have far reaching effects and expose deep fissures in our society.

Copublished with the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College.

Read the entire first chapter here.

Table of Contents

Contributors
Acknowledgment
Introduction
PART I WHAT DO WE KNOW FROM COUNTING MULTIRACIALS?

    1. RACIAL IDENTITIES IN 2000: THE RESPONSE TO THE MULTIPLE-RACE RESPONSE OPTION — Reynolds Farley
    2. DOES IT MATTER HOW WE MEASURE? RACIAL CLASSIFICATION AND THE CHARACTERISTICS OF MULTIRACIAL YOUTH — David R. Harris
    3. MIXED RACE AND ETHNICITY IN CALIFORNIA — Sonya M. Tafoya

PART II HOW MUCH WILL IT MATTER?

    1. BACK IN THE BOX: THE DILEMMA OF USING MULTIPLE-RACE DATA FOR SINGLE-RACE LAWS — Joshua R. Goldstein and Ann J. Morning
    2. INADEQUACIES OF MULTIPLE-RESPONSE RACE DATA IN THE FEDERAL STATISTICAL SYSTEM — Roderick J. Harrison
    3. THE LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF A MULTIRACIAL CENSUS — Nathaniel Persily

PART III A MULTIRACIAL FUTURE?

    1. AMERICAN INDIANS: CLUES TO THE FUTURE OF OTHER RACIAL GROUPS — C. Matthew Snipp
    2. CENSUS BUREAU LONG-TERM RACIAL PROJECTIONS: INTERPRETING THEIR RESULTS AND SEEKING THEIR RATIONALE — Joel Perlmann
    3. RECENT TRENDS IN INTERMARRIAGE AND IMMIGRATION AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE FUTURE RACIAL COMPOSITION OF THE U.S. POPULATION — Barry Edmonston, Sharon M. Lee, and Jeffrey S. Passel

PART IV THE POLITICS OF RACE NUMBERS

    1. HISTORY, HISTORICITY, AND THE CENSUS COUNT BY RACE — Matthew Frye Jacobson
    2. WHAT RACE ARE YOU? — Werner Sollors
    3. COUNTING BY RACE: THE ANTEBELLUM LEGACY — Margo J. Anderson
    4. THE ORIGINS OF OFFICIAL MINORITY DESIGNATION — Hugh Davis Graham
    5. LESSONS FROM BRAZIL: THE IDEATIONAL AND POLITICAL DIMENSIONS OF MULTIRACIALITY — Melissa Nobles
    6. REFLECTIONS ON RACE, HISPANICITY, AND ANCESTRY IN THE U.S. CENSUS — Nathan Glazer
    7. MULTIRACIALISM AND THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE — Peter Skerry
    8. MULTIPLE RACIAL IDENTIFIERS IN THE 2000 CENSUS, AND THEN WHAT? — Jennifer L. Hochschild
    9. RACE IN THE 2000 CENSUS: A TURNING POINT — Kenneth Prewitt

Appendix BRIDGING FROM OLD TO NEW

  1. Chapter 19 COMPARING CENSUS RACE DATA UNDER THE OLD AND THE NEW STANDARDS — Clyde Tucker, Steve Miller, and Jennifer Parker

Index

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New Faces in a Changing America: Multiracial Identity in the 21st Century

Posted in Africa, Anthologies, Books, Brazil, Census/Demographics, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy, Social Science, South Africa, United States, Women on 2009-10-16 03:06Z by Steven

New Faces in a Changing America: Multiracial Identity in the 21st Century

SAGE Publications, Inc.
Paperback ISBN: 9780761923008
2001
432 pages

Edited by

Loretta I. Winters
California State University, Northridge

Herman L. DeBose
California State University, Northridge

How multiracial people identify themselves can have major consequences on their positions in their families, communities and society. Even the U.S. Census has recognized the rapidly increasing numbers of those who consider themselves multiracial, adding a new racial category to the 2000 Census form: two or more races.

New Faces in a Changing America: Multiracial Identity in the 21st Century examines the multiracial experience, its history and the political issues and consequences surrounding biracial and multiracial identity, bringing together top names in the field to give readers cutting edge views and insights gained from contemporary research.

This important new text follows the trail blazed by Maria Root, who contributes its opening chapter. An introduction places the issues of multiracial identity into context via a discussion of U.S. Census data and debates, providing an overview of the varied readings to come covering such topics as:

  • Race as a social, rather than biological, construction
  • The Multiracial Movement
  • Racial/Ethnic Groups in America and Beyond
  • Race, Gender & Hierarchy
  • Gang Affiliation and Self-Esteem
  • Black/White Interracial Couples and the Beliefs that Help Them to Bridge the Racial Divide

The book concludes with “The Multiracial Movement: Harmony and Discord,” by co-editor Loretta Winters, an epilogue putting the readings into perspective according to three models in the multiracial identity literature: the Multiracial Movement model, the Counter Multiracial movements model and the Ethnic Movement model.

Timely and comprehensive in its range of topics, this is an important resource for many audiences: students in Ethnic Studies, Race Relations and related courses; human service professionals including psychologists, counselors, social workers and school personnel and, importantly, multiracial individuals themselves.

Forward  
Introduction Herman L. DeBose
Acknowledgments  
PART I: RACE AS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION  
1. Five Mixed Race Identities: From Relic to Revolution Maria P. P. Root
2. The New Multiracialism: An Affirmation or an End to Race as we Know It? Mary Thierry Texeira
PART II: THE MULTIRACIAL MOVEMENT  
3. New Faces, Old Faces: Counting the Multiracial Population (Click here to read.) Ann Morning
4. Multiracial Identity: From Personal Problem to Public Issue Kimberly McClain DaCosta
5. From Civil Rights to the Multiracial Movement Kim M. Williams
6. Census 2000: Assessments in Significance Rainier Spencer
7. Evolution of Multiracial Organizations: Where We Have Been & Where We Are Going Nancy G. Brown & Ramona E. Douglas
PART III: RACIAL/ETHNIC GROUPS IN AMERICA & BEYOND  
8. The Dilemma of Biracial People of African American Descent Herman L. DeBose & Loretta L. Winters
9. Check All That Apply: Trends & Perspectives Among Asian Descent Multiracials Teresa Williams-Leon
10. Beyond Mestizaje: The Future of Race in America Gregory Velazco y Trianosky
11. Colonization, Cultural Imperialism, and the Social Construction of American Indian Mixed Blood Identity Karren Baird-Olson
12. “Race,” “Ethnicity,” and “Culture” in Hawai’i: The Myth of the “Model Minority” State Laura Desfor Edles
13. Multiracial Identity in Global Perspective: The United States, Brazil, and South Africa G. Reginald Daniel
PART IV: RACE, GENDER & HIERARCHY  
14. Does Multiraciality Lighten? Me-too Ethnicity & the Whiteness Trap Paul Spickard
15. The Hazards of Visibility: “Biracial Women,” Media Images, and Narratives of Identity Caroline A. Streeter
16. Masculine Multiracial Comedians Darby Li Po Price
PART V: SPECIAL TOPICS  
17. Gang Affiliation & Self-Esteem: The Effects of a Mixed Heritage Identity Patricia O’Donnell Brummett & Loretta I. Winters
18. Black/White Interracial Couples & the Beliefs That Help Them to Bridge the Racial Divide Kristyan M. Kouri
Epilogue: The Multiracial Movement: Harmony & Discord Loretta I. Winters
Index  
About the Editors  
About the Contributors
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