National Census Day

Today is National Census Day. April 1st is the deadline to turn in the census form. I'm heading over to the post office in a few minutes to mail mine. It's been sitting on my kitchen table. I brought it to school today to discuss with my classes. Hispanics are asked to identify their "national origin" (in 2010 Hispanic background is not classified as race). The follow-up question asked respondents to identify themselves by race, and some folks are just saying "American."

I filled out the racial sections of the forms. Despite my concerns over partisan manipulation and abuse, the census is nevertheless an important document. That said, Abigail Thernstrom has more, "Answer the Race Question":

Many of us believe America is too preoccupied with race. The race question on the census reflects that preoccupation. Why answer it, when it just perpetuates race-think? Aside from the question of whether doing so is against the law, why not refuse to fill in the blank?

Race is an obsession, and we conceptualize the term in a peculiar way. We are an ethnically diverse society, and presumably that’s good. But, in defining the diversity of the nation, why focus on blacks and Hispanics and ignore, for instance, Jews? Like Hispanics, Jews are an ethnic group. In fact, if we are going to understand America as a pluralistic society, why not both expand the definition of ethnicity and add a religious question?

In addition, the race/ethnic categories are a mess. For instance, East Indians are classified as Asians, but only because East Indian spokesmen in the 1980s pressured to have the group treated as a protected minority group by the Small Business Administration in order to get below-market-rate loans — even though East Indians generally have incomes far above the national average. The census picked up the classification from the SBA. It’s an arbitrary classification — and not uniquely so.

Many legitimate arguments are being made for refusing to answer the race question on the census by dear and admired friends of mine. But I see two problems: One, if you don’t answer, census officials will just impute your race, most often on the basis of the color your neighbors. Refusing to answer is thus a no-win strategy.

More important, if we want accurate information on, say, black unemployment, would we rather rely on census data or on the NAACP, which is driven by a political agenda that is not necessarily in the national interest? Steve and I make much use of census numbers in writing about race and ethnicity in America; we like to think we are conveying an accurate picture, thanks to the Bureau of the Census.

Added: At Red State, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), "Returning the Census is Our Constitutional Duty" (via Memeorandum).