U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent racial and ethnic categories.
For this assignment, consider the racial and ethnic categories used in the 2020 Census with the four racial, ethnic, and gender categories used in the 1790 Census: Free white males, free white females, all other free persons, slaves (Pew Research Center, 2015). Analyze the concepts of race, ethnicity, and gender as social constructs, just as sociologists do, by addressing the following:
- Explain how you might have been categorized by the 1790 Census and how you would have been categorized by the 2020 Census.
- Compare and contrast the two potential categorizations and explain how this exercise shows that the concepts of race, ethnicity, and even gender change over time. Most importantly, explain how this exercise shows that the concepts of race, ethnicity, and gender are social constructs.
- Determine and describe what ethnic, racial, and/or gender categories, if any, would be best, in your view, for the 2030 Census, to most accurately show the diversity of the U.S. population and to promote social justice. What categories would be best to reveal the segments of the U. S. population most vulnerable to racial, ethnic, and/or gender inequalities or discrimination? What categories could be listed in the 2030 Census that might best educate the U. S. population on differences between race and ethnicity, and promote social justice? Explain your decisions
Include headings for each of the three main sections of the paper:
- What the Census Might Have Called Me
- Social Constructs
- Better Future Census Categories
Each of the three main sections of your paper must contain scholarly support in the form of quotes or paraphrases with respective citations from assigned reading (the textbook/lesson) and the outside scholarly source that you identify on your own.
*This assignment is adapted from Glaser (2018).
Overview of the assignment
The many ways in which the United States government has counted Americans over time provide a peek into the country’s history, from slavery to contemporary waves of immigration. Since the first census in 1790, racial categories have evolved from decade to decade, reflecting the politics and science of the period.
People could not choose their own race until 1960. Prior to that, census takers, known as enumerators, determined an individual’s race. It wasn’t until the year 2000 that Americans could choose more than one race to characterize themselves, providing for an estimate of the country’s multiracial population.
For the first time in 2020, the form invites respondents who select white or black as their race to provide extra information about their origins, such as German, Lebanese, African American, or Somali.
The United States has updated its classification of persons who are racially both black and white more than any other group, reflecting the nation’s history of slavery as well as changes in social and political thinking over time. Some race scientists, for example, theorized in the mid-nineteenth century that mixed children of black and white parents were genetically inferior, and sought statistical evidence in the form of census data to back up their ideas.
