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Multiple Race Categorization

In 2000, the U.S. Bureau of the Census allowed for multiple race categorization for the first time. In all prior censuses, while the various races and ethnicities have changed over time, individuals were always required to check only one box. However, in the 1990s, several multiracial organizations advocated for a mixed-race option. The consideration of a multiracial category was not without controversy, however, as many interest groups expressed concern over shifting numbers. Because census data is used to determine compliance with civil rights legislation and the Voting Rights Act, a loss in population counts could have important consequences for some racial and ethnic groups. Multiple race categorization was developed as a compromise and was instituted by the Office of Management and Budget in 1997.

History of Race Mixture and the Census

The Census Bureau has tracked race and ethnicity since the first decennial census was collected in 1790. The way in which race and ethnicity have been counted has shifted over time with changing social and cultural understandings of race and ethnicity. For example, various questions to count American Indians and the Chinese were introduced in the 1800s. The 1890 census added the Japanese to its counts, and the 1900 census included an expanded questionnaire for American Indians. By 1930, the number of Asian groups specified increased, and “Mexican” as a race category was added that year when census takers collected the information. Notably, while the categories have changed considerably, race mixture has only occasionally been recognized in the census through the occasional use of the term mulatto, beginning in 1850 (as well as the terms quadroon and octoroon briefly in 1890) and last used in 1920, in favor of a shift to the one drop rule or hypodescent.

Indeed, for most of the 20th century, no multiple race categories were used nor were many efforts made to do so. By the 1960s, increasing diversity through increased intermarriage and immigration alongside the civil rights movement pushed forward a public consciousness not only about race and ethnic identity but also the value of accurate data in analyzing inequality and discrimination. As a result, the 1960s also marked a shift in the value of racial classification data, as it was used to validate compliance with new civil rights legislation.

Efforts to Change the Census

Kimberly DaCosta notes that for the first time, the 1970 census allowed respondents to self-report race. Before that time, census takers were tasked with determining racial and ethnic identity, fostering the idea that racial categories served the purpose of recording individual self-identity. At the same time, because of the civil rights movement, racial identity had come to be understood as indicative of one's political beliefs and solidarities. In anticipation of the 1980 census, in 1977, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting, which was intended to provide better indicators of discrimination by standardizing racial categories across all government agencies. In doing so, it mandated the use of only four racial categories in official data: American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian or Pacific Islanders, black, and white. Hispanic was added as an ethnicity category, inclusive of all races, as a result of a hastily added subsample that tested the collection of Hispanic data in 1970, alongside the addition of an “other race” option. No additional changes (with the exception of additional national origin categories) were made until 2000.

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