Classifying racial and ethnic group data: The politics of negotiation and accommodation

Robbin, Alice Classifying racial and ethnic group data: The politics of negotiation and accommodation. Journal of Government Information, 2000, vol. 27, n. 2, pp. 129-156. [Journal article (Paginated)]

[thumbnail of RobbinClassifyingRacialJGI2000.pdf]
Preview
PDF
RobbinClassifyingRacialJGI2000.pdf

Download (112kB) | Preview

English abstract

"Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity," formerly known as "Statistical Policy Directive 15," is a classification system that has formed the basis of the U.S. government's collection and presentation of data on race and ethnicity since 1977. During the mid-1990s, it underwent a public evaluation to determine whether the racial and ethnic group categories should be revised. This article examines the history of Statistical Policy Directive 15 from its origins through October 1997 and evaluates its consequences on political, economic, and social life. Among the many lessons that government information specialists can take away from the history of Statistical Policy Directive 15 is that classification systems are not neutral tools that objectively reflect and measure the empirical world. Classification systems cannot be isolated from the larger political setting. They are tightly linked to public policies, and, in the case of racial and ethnic group classification, they constitute highly contested social policy about which there is little public consensus.

Item type: Journal article (Paginated)
Keywords: Federal statistics; Decennial census; Race and ethnicity; Minority groups; Multiracial identity
Subjects: B. Information use and sociology of information > BD. Information society.
B. Information use and sociology of information > BF. Information policy
Depositing user: Alice Robbin
Date deposited: 30 Mar 2008
Last modified: 02 Oct 2014 12:11
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/11341

References

U.S. Office of Management and Budget, "Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity," Federal Register 210, no. 62 (30 October 1997 ): 58782–90.

U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Draft Provisional Guidance on the Implementation of the 1997 Standards for the Collection of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity (Prepared by Tabulation Working Group Interagency Committee for the Review of Standards for Data on Race and Ethnicity) (Washington, DC: OMB, February 17, 1999) available from http://www.ccsso.org.

Alice Robbin "The Problematic Status of Statistics on Race and Ethnicity: An 'Imperfect Representation of Reality'," Journal of Government Information, 26, no. 5 (September/October 1999): 467–83.

Katherine K. Wallman and John Hodgson, "Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting," Statistical Reporter 77, no. 7 (July 1977): 450–4.

Katherine K. Wallman, "Statistics for Americans of Spanish Origin or Descent," Statistical Reporter 78, no. 2 (February 1978): 148–52.

U.S. Federal Interagency Committee on Education, Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Racial and Ethnic Definitions (Washington, DC: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, April 1993), 1.

Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Racial and Ethnic Definitions, 2.

U.S. House, Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, Economic and Social Statistics for Americans of Spanish Origin: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Census and Population of the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, 94th Cong., 1st sess., 1975.

U.S. Congress, General Accounting Office, Health and Nutrition: Collection of Vital Statistical Data on Hispanics (AO/HRD-88-68BR) (Washington, DC: General Accounting Office, March 1988).

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1900 Census of Population and Housing Content Determination Reports Race and Ethnic Origin (1990 CDR-6) (Washington, DC: Bureau of the Census, February 1991).

U.S. Congress, General Accounting Office, Federal Data Collection Agencies' Use of Consistent Race and Ethnic Definitions (GAO/GGD-93-25) (Washington, DC: General Accounting Office, December 1992).

Statistics Canada and U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Challenges of Measuring an Ethnic World: Science, Politics and Reality (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1993).

U.S. Congress, General Accounting Office, Census Reform: Early Outreach and Decisions Needed on Race and Ethnic Questions (GAO/GGD-93-36) (Washington, DC: General Accounting Office, January 1993).

Claudette Bennett and J. Gregory Robinson, "Racial Classification Issues Concerning Children in Mixed Race Households" (paper presented at the 18th National Conference on Blacks in Higher Education, Washington, DC, March–April 1993).

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1993 Research Conference on Undercounted Ethnic Populations (Washington, DC: Bureau of the Census, October 1993).

William Douglass, "Ethnic Categorization in the 1980 U.S. Census: The Basque Example," Government Publications Review 12, no. 4 (1985): 289–98.

Robert Magocsi, "Are the Armenians Really Russians?—Or How the U.S. Census Bureau Classifies America's Ethnic Groups," Government Publications Review 14, no. 2 (1987): 133–68.

N.B. Ryder, "The Interpretation of Origin Statistics," Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 21, no. 4 (1955): 466–79.

William Peterson, "The Classification of Subnations in Hawaii: An Essay in the Sociology of Knowledge," American Sociological Review 34, no. 6 (1969): 863–77.

Sharon M. Lee, "Racial Classifications in the US Census: 1890–1990," Ethnic and Racial Studies 16, no. 1 (1993): 75–94.

Tom W. Smith, "Ethnic Measurement and Identification," Ethnicity 7 (1980): 78–95.

Juri Stratford, "Responding to Reference Queries for Numeric Data and the Problems Inherent in Interpreting Statistical Sources: A Note," Journal of Government Information 25, no. 5 (1998): 413–7.

U.S. Office of Management and Budget, "Proposed Guidelines for Federal Statistical Activities," Federal Register 53, no. 12 (20 January 1988): 1542–52.

U.S. Office of Management and Budget, "Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity," Federal Register 59, no. 110 (9 June 1994): 29833.

U.S. House, Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, Review of Federal Measurement of Race and Ethnicity: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Census, Statistics and Postal Personnel, 103rd Cong., 1st sess., 14 April, 30 June, 29 July, 3 November 1993, 223–4.

Suzann Evinger, "How to Record Race," American Demographics 18 (May 1996): 36–41.

Lawrence Wright, "The Illusion of Race in the United States," Sacramento Bee, August 28, 1994 available from http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe (November 20, 1997).

Barry Edmonston, Joshua Goldstein, Juanita Tamayo Lott, eds., Spotlight on Heterogeneity: The Federal Standards for Racial and Ethnic Classification. Summary of a Workshop (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1996).

U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Public Hearing in the Matter of Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity, Boston, July 7, 1994 (mimeo.).

Public Hearing on Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity, Denver, July 11, 1994 (mimeo).

Public Hearing on Racial and Ethnic Standards, San Francisco, July 14, 1994 (mimeo).

Public Hearing on Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity, Honolulu, July 18–19, 1994 (mimeo).

U.S. Office of Management and Budget, "Recommendations from the Interagency Committee for the Review of the Racial and Ethnic Standards to the Office of Management and Budget Concerning Changes to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity," Federal Register 62, no. 131 (July 9, 1997): 36881.

Deseret News Services, "Classifying Race Still a Hefty Issue for Census," Deseret News Archives, 28 September 1997, available from http://www.desnews.com/ [accessed November 27, 1997].

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Racial and Ethnic Classifications Used by Public Schools (NCES 96-092) (Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, 1996).

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Testing Methods of Collecting Racial and Ethnic Information: Results of the Current Population Survey Supplement on Race and Ethnicity (BLS Statistical Note 40) (Washington, DC: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1996).

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Findings on Questions on Race and Hispanic Origin Tested in the 1996 National Content Survey (Population Division Working Paper Series) (Washington, DC: Bureau of the Census, 1996).

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Results of the 1996 Race and Ethnic Targeted Test (Population Division Working Paper 18) (Washington, DC: Bureau of the Census, 1997).

U.S. Office of Management and Budget, "Interim Notice of Review and Possible Revision of OMB's Statistical Policy Directive for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity," Federal Register 60, no. 166 (28 August 1995): 44673–93.

"Coalition Statement in Opposition to Revisions of OMB Directive 15 (NAACP, National Urban League, Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies," cited by Harold McDougall, Director of the Washington Bureau of the NAACP, in testimony presented before Congress in May 1997.

U.S. House, Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, Federal Measures of Race and Ethnicity and the Implications for the 2000 Census: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology, 105th Cong., 1st sess., 23 April, 22 May, 25 July 1997, 314–6.

Interracial Voice, Multiracial Solidarity March I & II Speeches, available from http://222.webcom.com/~intvoice/msn_arch.html [accessed 28 November 1997].

1997 History of Bills Online via GPO Access, available from http://wais.access.gpo.gov/ [accessed 17 November 1997].

U.S. Office of Management and Budget, "Recommendations from the Interagency Committee for the Review of the Racial and Ethnic Standards to the Office of Management and Budget Concerning Changes to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity," Federal Register 62, no. 131 (9 July 1997): 36874–946.

Deborah Sharp, "Registering Race: Census Battle Brewing: Family Pushes for New Category on School Forms," USA Today, 5 September 1995, available from http://web.lexis-nexis-com/ [accessed 27 November 1997].

"Multiracial Checkoff is a Vote for Accuracy" (Editorial), San Francisco Chronicle, 8 June 1997, p. 10, available from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/chronicle/ [accessed 28 November 1997].

Barbara Vobejda, "House Votes to Block Census from Using Statistical Sampling," TRIB Net The News Tribune, 1 October 1997, available from http://search.tribnet.com/archive/1097/1001a43.htm [accessed 27 November 1997].

Cable News Network, "Racial Classification in Question as 2000 Census Approaches," CNN Prime News, 8 July 1997 (Transcript #97070802V21).

Cable News Network, "Racial Classification in Question as 2000 Census Approaches," Washington Unwrapped, 9 July 1997 (Transcript #97070908FN-L07).

National Broadcasting Company, "Census in Year 2000 May Be Beginning of Different Accounting Method for Racial Distinctions," NBC Nightly News, 8 July 1997.

National Public Radio, "No to Multiracial," All Things Considered, 8 July 1997 (Transcript #97070816-212) available from http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/ [accessed 27 November 1997].

Steven A. Holmes, "People Can Claim More than 1 Race on Federal Forms," New York Times, October 30, 1997, A1, A19.

Peter Schmidt, "U.S. to Let People Choose Multiple Races on Forms; Big Changes Expected in Data," The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 31, 1997 [Academe Today: News update] available from http://chronicle.com/che-data/news.dir/dailarch.dir/97103104.htm [accessed October 31, 1997].

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Preparing for Census 2000: Subjects Planned for Census 2000; Federal Legislative and Program Uses (Washington, DC: Bureau of the Census, 1997).

Barry Edmonston, Joshua Goldstein, and Juanita Tamayo Lott, Eds., Spotlight on Heterogeneity: The Federal Standards for Racial and Ethnic Classification. Summary of a Workshop (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1996), 8.


Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item