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   Census 2010: Ethnicity Counts

The 2010 census - and its "10 questions in 10 minutes" questionnaire - inspired serious questions of its own among our nation's many ethnic and racial groups. Facing a short list of race and ethnicity boxes to check, along with four separate write-in areas, the communities that don't fit neatly into one category sought to establish and promote a way to represent the full strength of their populations.

Leaders in the Arab-American community discouraged their peers from self-identifying as "white," which is how the census has traditionally designated people of European, Middle Eastern or North African descent. Instead, they advocated checking the box for "some other race" and writing in "Arab." Caribbean-Americans not from Puerto Rico or Cuba also promoted the write-in area as a way to identify ethnicity and potentially to increase the federal dollars allocated to their community significantly.

The issue of self-identification is amplified for indigenous migrant communities like the Zapotecos, Mixtecos or Triquis. Members of these indigenous groups from Mexico have immigrated to the United States but remain profoundly isolated due to language and cultural barriers, marginalization, poverty and a deep-seated mistrust of government and labor unions. Read more...