Historical Shortcomings of the US Census
The civil rights laws of the 1960s made census to become a necessary tool for enforcing fair voting, employment, and housing. However, the undercounting of racial minorities proved that the census was already failing to do its main objectives (Carter, 2013, p. 161). As a result, the civil rights movement formed to fight for the rights of the racial minorities through lawsuits so that they could be considered in the census process. The increase in population had not been anticipated by the census bureau, which resulted in undercounts that the bureau could not adjust. Vincent Carraba, the bureau’s director, stated that the 1980 census was difficult for the bureau as they had to chase down a large group of illegal aliens unworthy of the effort. The 1990 census data also showed that there was a 2.1% undercount among the blacks, native Americans, and Hispanics (Carter, 2013 p. 162). This led to the formation of two leading organizations, Reclassify All Children Equally (R.A.C.E) and the Association of Multiethnic Americans (A.M.E.A), which were the 1990s multiracial movements that aimed at including various forms of multiracial identifier in the census process. Their campaigns resulted in multiple checking during the 2000 census.
At the start of 1985, a number of philosophers called for the pulling down of racial categories. They worked independently from the multiracial movements and shared the hope of dismantling racial beliefs as they believed that multiracial communities could contribute to improving America. The 1990s was a steady evolution of the color-blind society as Howard Winant and Michael Omi, who were neoliberals and neoconservatives, abandoned racial politics. Naomi Zack, a racial nominalist, believed that race existed only in the name, disregarding the fact that it was a lived experience. Interracial marriages had faced hostility until the formation of the Interracial Family Circle (I.F.C) and the Biracial Family Network (B.E.N), which filed for the rights of interracial couples to marry each other. In addition, beyond civil rights problems and racial identity, there was a need for a multiracial category in the census, immigration research, health, and education. (Carter, 2013 p. 186).
The need for a multiracial category made Temi Petri the representative for R-Wisconsin to push legislation known as the “Tiger Woods Bill” to develop a national multiracial category. Finally, the congressional subcommittee in 1997 announced that Americans would be allowed to check on various race categories in the census process (Carter, 2013 p. 189). Because of the 2000 census, 2.4% of the population checked on more than two races, which was almost seven million people out of the 281 million that had undergone the process. It was the many multiracial category reforms that finally paid off that allowed Asians, African Americans, and Hispanics to take part in the census process. In addition to the individuals who had picked more than two races, 5.5% of the American population had picked the option of ‘other.’ The efforts of these multicultural reforms made, sure enough, changes were made to the 2000 census (Carter, 2013 p. 191). Also, it was the efforts of multicultural organizations such as RACE and AMEA that made it possible for the racial minority to be considered as Americans in the US census. Other than these organizations, various individuals, such as Naomi Zack, ensured that interracial marriages were made legal in the American constitution.