Rep. Jose E. Serrano: We're Not a Race, but We Count

• Originally published in the Los Angeles Times March 13, 2005

Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times

By Jose E. Serrano, Jose E. Serrano, a Democrat and a U.S. House member from New York, serves on the subcommittee responsible for Census Bureau funding.


The Census Bureau's recent proposal to force all Americans to pick among one of five racial categories on its new form defied demographic reality. The choices: White, African American, Asian, American Indian and Pacific Islander.

"Hispanic/Latino" was not included on grounds it's an ethnicity, not a race.

What it really means to be Hispanic or Latino is hotly debated. So many racial and ethnic categories and identities exist within our community that we don't neatly fit into the preferred racial boxes. Other Americans are equally uneasy with the categories. So the Census Bureau offered an "other" option, which millions of Hispanics and other Americans checked and then wrote in the term they felt best described them racially.

But a small group of demographers at the Census Bureau wanted to throw this option out. They believed "other" was confusing, and that it was scientifically incorrect to have more than five racial categories. They persuaded the Census Bureau to go along.

This may seem a small issue, but to many American Hispanics feelings about race and identity are important. Many celebrate their Native American, European and/or African heritage but don't really consider themselves white, black or Native American. To force them to choose one of these racial categories -- or even to declare themselves biracial white and Native American, for instance -- would result in inaccurate data and undermine the census' central mission.

With support of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, I inserted language in last year's omnibus appropriations bill that prevented the Census Bureau from carrying out its plan to strike "other." We need to know the size and growth rate of the nation's Hispanic and other communities to prepare for the challenges this growth represents. Eliminating the "other" option would have made this task much more difficult.