Welcome to the latest installment of the Alaska Library
Association
Documents Roundtable's tutorial on Census 2000. This week we
explore the largest change to the Census, the change that will allow
sociologists and historians of the future to better track America's great
diversity, while
potentially turning simple information requests into
exercises of
frustration. I'm speaking, naturally, of the Federal
government's decision
to allow respondents to choose up to six races to
describe themselves.
This sea change in how the government collects race
information began in
earnest back in 1997. For detailed reasoning behind the
decision, please
see the Census "Race Data" page at
[http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/race.html].
There are a
number of background documents that outline the process that
lead to the
current decision.
WHAT'S ON THE MENU?
For the 2000 Census, people could choose up to six races
from the following list:
American Indian
and Alaska Native (extra space to designate
tribe)
Asian (extra space to denote Chinese, Japanese, Filipino,
Asian Indian, Korean, and Vietnamese
or Some Other Asian.)
Black or African American
Native Hawaiian and Other
Pacific Islander (extra space to denote Native
Hawaiian, Samoan, and Guamanian or Chamorro or Some Other
Pacific
Islander)
White
Some
Other Race (Fill in the blank)
WHAT WAS THE RESULT?
Nationwide, only
2.4% of the population chose to describe themselves as
belonging to more
than one race. This "only 2.4%" represents over six
million people, so you
can start to see why these new combinations were
needed. In Alaska, 5.4% of
the population described themselves as
multiracial, while in Juneau; nearly
seven percent of the population
described themselves as
belonging to more than one race. With this much of the population refusing to be boxed into
single categories, it's a safe
assumption the new race
categories/combinations are here to stay.
HOW WILL ALL THIS DIVERSITY BE
TABLULATED?
The Census Bureau will present race data three ways. Here are the
three
options in the own words:
"Data on race will be shown using
several different options. For example,
in the Public
Law 94-171 (redistricting) file [AVAILABLE NOW], data will be shown for 63
racial categories. These include White alone, Black or African American alone,
American Indian and Alaska Native alone, Asian alone, Native Hawaiian and Other
Pacific Islander alone, Some other race alone and 57 possible
combinations of the above six categories.
In data products where it will
not be possible to show 63 racial
categories, such as the Demographic
Profiles [AVAILABLE NOW at
[http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/index.html]]
data will be shown for
seven mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories.
The seven categories
are White alone, Black or African American alone,
American Indian and
Alaska Native alone, Asian alone, Native Hawaiian and
Other Pacific
Islander alone, Some other race alone, and Two or more races.
The two or
more races category represents
all those respondents who reported more than one race. The Demographic Profiles
also provide a further breakdown of the Asian and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
categories.
A third option provides data about people who reported a race
either alone
or in combination with one or more other races. For example,
the White
alone or in combination category consists of
those respondents who reported White, whether or not they reported any other
races. In other words, people who reported only White or who reported
combinations such as "White and Black or African American," or "White and Asian
and American Indian and Alaska Native" are included in the White alone or in
combination category.
Using this option there are six alone or in combinations groups:
White
alone or in combination;
Black or African American alone or in combination, American Indian and Alaska
Native alone or in combination, Asian alone or in combination, Native Hawaiian
and Other Pacific Islander alone or in combination, and Some other race alone or
in combination. If the number of people in these six categories is calculated, it will equal the
total
number of responses and will generally exceed the total
population."
(Source: [ http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/raceqandas.html
]
Please note that only the first two options allow the race responses to
equal the total population. Adding up the race responses for option three
will exceed the total number of people counted for that area. Let me make
this clear with an illustration from
the imaginary town of Tiny, Alaska. Tiny, Alaska has a population of three
individuals:
Tom, who is
White.
Dick, who is Black and Asian
Harry, who is Asian and Alaska
Native
Under Census option
1:
White
alone
1
Black or African American,
Asian
-
1
Asian and American
Indian and Alaska Native
- 1
Total Race
Responses
3 = Total Population
Under Census option
2:
White Alone
-
1
Two or More Races
-
2
Total Race Responses
-
3 = Total Population
Under Census option
3:
White Alone
or in Combination
-
1
Black
or African American Alone or in
Combination 1
Asian Alone
or in
Combination
2
American Indian and Alaska
Native Alone or in Combination -
1
Total Race
Responses
-
5
*TWO MORE THAN TOTAL POPULATION*
I need to point out that Census products
will contain ALL categories for
all places. That means that if there were a
real detailed race table for
Tiny, AK, it would contain 63 lines, 60 of
which would have zeros at the
end. This may be a touch disconcerting for
those of you who live in small
towns of villages.
WHY REFERENCE MAY
BE ROUGH
Since the Census Bureau will report race as numbers as both "Race
Alone"
and "Race Alone or in Combination," there
will no longer be a single number we can point to. Supposed someone asked, "How
many African Americans lived in Juneau in 1990 and 2000? How did that population
change?" Our first answer could conceivably
be:
1990:
292
2000: Either 248, 439,
or 385, depending on your
purposes.
Change between
1990 and 2000: ???
I picture patrons being understandably upset we can't
answer such a
seemingly simple question. It will be important to explain
where the
numbers come from. If you've been following
along ok, then you've probably guessed that the first number is Black or African
American Alone and that the second number is Black or African American Alone or in
Combination.
These two numbers together give someone a range of how many
people in
Juneau identify with an African American heritage. If you have
patrons
needing race data for a particular grant or other aid program, they
need to
check with their aid agency to be sure of what numbers to report.
What
about that third number? Why that's the figure used by the EEOC and
other
agencies with civil rights responsibilities. See the next
section for details.
CIVIL RIGHTS/EEOC ALERT
The federal government decided that
they would only use 10 of the possible 63 race categories to guide compliance in
civil rights monitoring and enforcement.
These
categories (Announced in OMB (Office of Management and Budget)
Bulletin No. 00-02, "Guidance on Aggregation and
Allocation of Data on Race for Use in
Civil Rights Monitoring and Enforcement") to be used
are:
1. American Indian and Alaska
Native
2. Asian
3. Black or African
American
4. Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific
Islander
5. White
6. American Indian
and Alaska Native and White
7. Asian and
White
8. Black or African American and
White
9. American Indian and Alaska Native and Black or
African American
10. >1 percent: Fill in if applicable with
multiracial combinations
greater than 1% of the population
11. Balance of individuals reporting more than one race
12.
Total
The use of these categories, including the identification of
specific two
or more race combinations greater than 1 percent, is mandatory
for civil
rights monitoring and enforcement agencies. For more information,
see
[http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/bulletins/b00-02.html].
As
far as I've been able to determine, the Census Bureau has no plans to
offer
race tabulations in the format described in OMB Bulletin 00-02. If
your
patron needs this kind of data, I would refer them to the detailed
race
tables that list all 63 race combinations and let them make their own
calculations. If one of you is aware of a Census product that will provide
just the OMB specific civil rights categories, please let me know and I'll
post it to the group.
A NOTE ON COMPARABILITY
I hate to repeat the
obvious, but it's too important not to. Race data in
Census 2000 is NOT
directly comparable to race data collected in prior
censuses. I'm reprinting
two Q&A's on race comparability from the Census
Bureau:
"Question: Can data users compare data by race from Census
2000 with
previous censuses?
Answer: Data on race from Census 2000
are not directly comparable with
those from the 1990 census and previous
censuses due, in large part, to
giving respondents the option to report more
than one race. Other factors,
such as reversing the order of the questions
on race and Hispanic origin
and changing question wording and format, also
may affect comparability.
Question: Will the
Census Bureau develop methods to facilitate comparisons between the race data in Census 2000 and
previous censuses?
Answer: An OMB federal agency working group is studying
possible bridging methods for comparing Census 2000 data on race with data from
previous censuses. The Census Bureau did not develop these methods, but it is
participating with the working group that is evaluating them. The Census Bureau is conducting evaluation studies to understand
better the impact of
changes to the question on race. For example, during
the summer of 2001,
the Census Bureau will implement a Census Quality
Survey, gathering data
from approximately 50,000 households, to assess the
reporting of race and
Hispanic origin in Census 2000. The purpose of this
study is to produce a
data file that will assist users in developing ways to
make comparisons
between Census 2000
data on race, where respondents were asked to report one or more races, and data on race from other sources that
asked for only
a single race."
If you'd like to see the rest of this
helpful Q&A, it is available at:
[http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/raceqandas.html].
Thank
you all for staying with me through five pages of detail on how new
multiracial categories both rightfully reflect diversity and challenge us
at the Reference desk. If you have additional questions on race or if I
wasn't clear on this topic, let me know. If enough of you ask for
clarification, I will add one to next week's message.
Until next
week,
Daniel Cornwall, Member Alaska Library Association Government Documents Roundtable.
If you find any part of this tutorial useful, you may use it in training materials with proper attribution, and if you drop me a line at dan_cornwall@eed.state.ak.us telling me how you're going to use it. Thanks!
This Page was last updated May 27, 2001.