Maybe Dave Gordon was talking to the wrong people in Washington. The
people who need convincing that race is not a scientific construction is the
US Bureau of Statistics. The Bureau actually has a heading on their
website that lists about 200 "Racial statistics news releases" that go back
to 1996. One of the more recent, dated June 12, 2003, starts as follows:
*****************************************
U.S. Census Bureau Guidance on the
Presentation and Comparison of Race and Hispanic Origin Data
Background
Traditional and current data collection and classification treat race and
Hispanic origin as two separate and distinct concepts in accordance with
guidelines from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In contrast, the
practice of some organizations, researchers, and media is to show race and
Hispanic origin together as one concept. The introduction of the option to
report more than one race added more complexity to the presentation and
comparison of these data. This document provides U.S. Census Bureau guidance
to the user community on how to handle the interpretation of race and
Hispanic origin data.
Summary of Issues
a.. Race and Hispanic origin are two separate concepts in the federal
statistical system.
a.. People who are Hispanic may be of any race.
b.. People in each race group may be either Hispanic or Not Hispanic.
c.. Each person has two attributes, their race (or races) and whether or
not they are Hispanic.
b.. Overlap of race and Hispanic origin is the main comparability issue.
a.. For example, Black Hispanics (Hispanic Blacks) are included in both
the number of Blacks and in the number of Hispanics.
. . . . . . . . .
***********************************************
******************************************************
Please note that if you press the 'Reply' button your
message will go only to the sender of this message.
If you want to reply to the whole list, use your mailer's
'Reply-to-All' button to send your message automatically
to [log in to unmask]
*******************************************************
|