US Census Fumble. A Reversal of 10 Years of Progress for U.S. Black Latinxs?

Just as Latin America starts to embrace demographic recognition of its Black populations as in Mexico in 2021 and Panama most recently, the US is proposing a drastic shift in the Census by changing Latino from an ethnic category to a racial category for the 2030 Census.  This will effectively reverse the progress made by the Black Latino/a/x/e community in the United States for recognition. 

As recently as 2022, Pew Center for Research noted that approximately 25% of Latino/a/x/e's self-identified as Afrolatin, and among those 1/3 identified as Black, effectively 4-6 million self identified Afrolatins in the U.S. In changing the categorizations, it will severely hamper any further opportunity we, the Afrolatinx community has to be counted and recognized. Furthermore, Latin America and by default those descended from the region know the region is not a monolith and neither is the term Latino as it includes whites, mestizos, Afrodescendants, indigenous, Asian and Middle Eastern. Ironically the US Census also proposes to make North African and Arabic its own category separate from "white" a disaggregation that will raise their statistical visibility an effort  long sought by that community. For Latinos the proposal has been presented as a way to simplify the racial and ethnic questions on the Census which has "confused" Latinos for some time and to reduce undercounting by those who check the "other" category.  This proposal is currently open to public commentary  to the Office of Management and Budget until April 12 and is being opposed by many including a recently formed coalition of Black Latinx organizations.

The Afrolatin@ Project joins in opposition to these propsoed changes for several reasons: 1) In one fell swoop, we will lose hard fought gains in statistical visibility as we near the end of the United Nations International Decade for Afrodescendants, the exact opposite of what was intended, 2) it undermines disaggregation of health, economic, legal and social disparities within Latino communities, and 3) as more people from Latin America migrate to the US including many AfroLatinos it will mask racial prejudices, biases, and disparities in treatment among both current and newly arrived Latinx migrants many whom are Black. Disparate treatment based on race has and continues to be an underreported by very relevant issue in the current immigration discussions happening throughout the Americas. Despite the purported confusion about ethnicity in the U.S., the majority/mestizo Latino/Latin American agenda has always intended and sought to subsume any kind of ethnic distinctions or resistance to the agendas of nation building and identity formation. The Latin American desire to impose a pan-ethnic, "crisol de razas" under the false guise of racially democratic societies deceives reality. The proposed changes will  actually serve as a continuation of a status quo we summarily reject. If the U.S. Census seeks changes then they should be changes that do not abandon and undermine the United States' own obligations as signatories to the International Decade of Afrodescendants.  

This Thursday March 9, 2023 from 6-8PM join Dash Harris of Afrolatinx Travel, Fordham University School of Law Professor Tanya K. Hernandez, and University of New Mexico Professor, Nancy Lopez as they discuss the risks of not opposing these proposed Census changes. Visit www.latinoisnotarace.info to watch this virtual discussion. 

Fordham School of Law Professor Tanya K. Hernandez, author of Racial Innocence: UnMasking Latino Anti-Black Bias and the Struggle for Equality. We were fortunate preview this important book at the 11th Annual Afro-Latino Fest NYC June 2022.

López, Nancy, TEDx ABQ Salon En español – “¿Y Tú, Que Vas a Macar Para el Censo 2020? ¿Origen Hispano? ¿Raza o Color?” / “What Will You Mark for the 2020 Census? Hispanic Origin? Race or Color?”