Fordham Law Prof. Tanya Hernández argues that, while new OMB standards for data collection on race & ethnicity aim for inclusivity, the exclusion of Afro Latinos misses that mark and underscores the importance of nuanced data collection.
The recent OMB decision to list Latino ethnicity as commensurate with the existing racial categories on federal government data collection forms like the Census is mistakenly rooted in the idea that Latin American mestizo/mixed-race culture conflicts with having a racial identity. Hence the notion that Latinos are too mixed to embrace race.
The reality of actual Latin American census taking gives the lie to the OMB presumption that Latin American cultures create Latino resistance to racial identity.
Read “The next Census could reveal a very different America” on CNN.