Latin@s/Hispanics are comprised of many races! Stop Anti-Blackness!
Latin@s/Hispanics are comprised of many races! Stop Anti-Blackness by Opposing Proposed Federal Standards that flatten the Difference between Hispanic Ethnicity and Race!
By Nancy López, Ph.D.
¡No se puede tapar el sol con un dedo! You cannot cover the sun with a finger! Latin@s are comprised of many races, colors, ethnicity/cultural backgrounds, national origins, ancestries, and geographic origins. You cannot hide or deny that reality. It is true that both race and ethnicity are social constructions; however, race is a social position in society that is based on social meanings attributed to a conglomeration of physical characteristics, including skin color, facial features, etc., I call it “street race” or the race others would assume you are based on what you look like in grids of power. Ethnicity refers to your cultural background (e.g., Colombian, Salvadoran, Argentinian, etc.). Yet, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has just released proposed changes to federal standards that would in effect make Hispanic ethnicity and race co-equal and analytically equivalent. Regardless of intent, this initial proposal contributes to color and power-evasiveness, and specifically anti-Blackness.
For decades OMB standards stipulate that federal agencies collect data in two SEPARATE questions, one on Hispanic ethnicity, and one on race:
If we do not organize, mobilize and make our voices heard before the April 12, 2023, deadline for comments, the proposed standards will dramatically change how federal, state, and local agencies ask about race and ethnicity. We will have only one question that flattens the difference between these two constructs:
What do you think will happen to data used to protect civil rights and measure racial discrimination in voting rights, fair housing, equal employment, health care access? Imagine ten to twenty years from now, when the most Hispanics will check the box and even write in a detailed origin (e.g., Puerto Rican, Mexican, Honduran, etc.), but nothing else about their race? Are we to assume that they all occupy the same racial status for civil rights enforcement? If we do not use one question to collect data on income and educational attainment or gender and sexuality, why would we use one question to collect data on Hispanic ethnicity and race? Will the combined Hispanic ethnicity and race question format contribute to reductions in the number of people that would have identified as AfroLatin@ in the previous two separate question formats? The Census Bureau’s 2015 National Content Test (NCT) was inconclusive; however, it is very likely that AfroLatin@ numbers did decrease and would continue to do so in the future.
I find it interesting that while many Latin American and Caribbean countries are rectifying their color and power evasive national data infrastructure on race as analytically distinct from ethnicity, in the US the opposite is occurring. Are we poised to avoiding an inconvenient truth? Are we assuming that all Hispanics/Latin@s are part of a “Brown monolith”? One thing is clear: Pretending that Blackness exists outside of Hispanic ethnicity and that Latin@s are racialized in similar ways, the proposed changes contribute to AfroLatin@ erasure and anti-Blackness.
It is not too late to have your voice heard. Write to the Federal Registry and ask: What exactly are you asking about in one question? Is it race? Is it ethnicity? Is it national origin? Is it ancestry? Are we post racial? If people are confused about the difference between gender and sexuality or income and educational attainment, would we simply combine these questions into one? Think of our ancestors and the distribution of resources for our future generations. We must organize to protect AfroLatin@ futures! We must act now!
The last date to provide comments in the federal registry is April 12, 2023. You can also leave your comments at: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/01/27/2023-01635/initial-proposals-for-updating-ombs-race-and-ethnicity-statistical-standards. You can send an email to: Statistical_Directives@omb.eop.gov.
Dr. Nancy López is a professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico, she is the Director and Co-founder, Institute for Study of "Race" & Social Justice (race.unm.edu) a Coordinator of the NM Statewide Race, Gender, Class Data Policy Consortium and Advisor, Race and Social Justice Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate.
