Census and them

Critical Analysis

1. According to the data from the chart, In 2020 what percentage of Americans identified as non-white?

2. According to the data from the chart, what non-white group in the United States had the largest growth between the 2010 and 2020 census?

3. According to the data from the chart what has happened to the non-white population since 1950?

4. Explain two reasons for that demographic change.

5. A student named Ralph made the following claim: the growth in the non-white population over the past 70 years has fueled fear and racism in the United States and directly led to rise of Trumpism. Respond to Ralph’s claim.

6. How does the data in this chart reflect the racial demographics of your school?

7. How would you have answered the census question shown below?*

8. In the first few censuses, taken between 1790 to 1810, just three terms were used to measure one’s racial identity: free white people, enslaved Africans and all other free persons. Based on the 2020 census shown below* how many terms are used today to measure racial identity?

9. According to the chart below* describe how demographic and racial categories have changed over the life of the United States?*

10. Even though certain European immigrants, like those from Italy and Ireland, were often vilified and viewed as “inferior” by other white Americans, Richard Alba, a sociology professor at the CUNY Graduate Center writes that these immigrants “were always viewed as white as far as the government was concerned.” But for other immigrants, the requirements for citizenship were enforced haphazardly. A Japanese man, for example, was denied citizenship in 1922 because he wasn’t Caucasian, but the following year, a South Asian man — technically “Caucasian,” according to the contemporary pseudoscience — lost his citizenship because his skin wasn’t light enough. Meanwhile, Chinese immigrants were barred from becoming U.S. citizens until 1943, although many Middle Eastern immigrants were classified as white despite also being considered “Asiatic.” Why do we have a census, why do we ask about race in the census, and what is the data used for (see learning extension below*)?

Learning Extension

The U.S. Constitution empowers the Congress to carry out the census in "such manner as they shall by Law direct" (Article I, Section 2). The Founders of our fledgling nation had a bold and ambitious plan to empower the people over their new government. The plan was to count every person living in the newly created United States of America, and to use that count to determine representation in the Congress. The Census Act of 1790 is the original act which provided for the very first taking of the census in 1790, which was passed during the 2nd Session of the First Congress in March of 1790.

Action Extension

Contact the U.S. Census Bureau at their Call Center: 301-763-INFO (4636) or 800-923-8282 or by email ask.census.gov and let them know what you think about the 2020 Census count.

Visual Extension*