The Racialization of Legal Categories in the First U.S. Census

Posted in Articles, Census/Demographics, History, Media Archive, Social Science, United States on 2015-12-23 00:23Z by Steven

The Racialization of Legal Categories in the First U.S. Census

Social Science History
Volume 39, Number 4, Winter 2015
pages 485-519

Rebecca Jean Emigh, Professor of Sociology
University of California, Los Angeles

Dylan Riley, Associate Professor of Sociology
University of California, Berkeley

Patricia Ahmed
South Dakota State University

This paper examines the demographic categories in the first few US censuses, which are asymmetrical combinations of race and legal status not mandated by the US Constitution. State actors explicitly introduced and revised these categories; however, these state actors successfully introduced these categories into the census only when they were already widespread throughout society. Thus, more generally, the paper points to flaws in a “state-centered” view of information gathering, which stresses how state actors create census categories that, in turn, shape social conditions as they become subsequently widespread. In contrast, this paper suggests that politicians draw on widespread social categories when creating census categories, showing how state and social influences interact to create the information in censuses.

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