By Sheila Reynoso, Research Intern
Filling out the Census that arrived in my mailbox this month brought up a recurring problem for me and others in the Latino community.
Once you reach question 8, it is a relief that you can finally check out a box that you could identify with. I am 100% Dominican, so I will confidently check the box that says, “Yes, other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino.” But once I get to question 9, what is my race? The Census does not consider Hispanic or Latino a race, because it encompasses many other races.
While I might understand this reasoning, isn’t it about time that we receive a box in the race category? I cannot identity with any of the races offered in question 9: I am not White, Black, African American, or Negro, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Other Asian, Native Hawaiian, Guamanian or Chamorro, Samoan, Other Pacific Islander or some other race. The only other choice that I have is to check off, “Some Other Race,” in which the wording of it makes it sound as if I do not even belong here.
This fill in the blank is the opportunity for many of us to fill in what each one of us identify with and what I will write down is Latino. What is troubling is how the Latino/Hispanic population encompasses one of the major minority groups in the United States, yet we are still not being accurately represented in the U.S. Census.
This does not only happen when filling out the Census, but when taking other surveys as well. I filled out a survey for my school a couple of weeks ago and it asked me if I was of Hispanic descent, I clicked yes. The next question asked, “Non-Hispanic Black or Non-Hispanic White.” I clicked next without checking either. Yet I was not able to move forward, I had to check one box and one box only. Once again, a grouping I did not identify myself with.
Even as I do research here at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, many of the groupings that I see when I read articles that have done research on the Latino population, the categories still appear as, “Non-Hispanic White or Non-Hispanic Black.” These groupings do not help researchers or policy makers understand what the needs of the Latino/Hispanic population are when research is not able to represent us well. We need better alternatives that will be able to symbolize the Latino/Hispanic population so that we may be able to tackle on the issues that affect the community.
Ultmiately, I do encourage for everyone to fill out the Census, write in what it is that you best identify and make yourself count.
By Sheila Reynoso, Research Intern
