"I'm not black and I'm not white; we don't define ourselves that way," said Ms. Mendez, a 25-year-old hair stylist who has lived in the United States for nine years. "So I would choose 'some other race.' '' But now census officials are hoping to eliminate the option from the 2010 questionnaire in an effort to encourage Hispanics to choose one or more of five standard racial categories: white, black, Asian, American Indian or Alaska native, or a category that includes natives of Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. Over the last three decades, the number of Hispanics choosing "some other race" has surged rapidly, making it the Census Bureau's fastest growing racial category. Census officials say the proposed change, which is expected to remain under consideration until 2006, would improve the accuracy of the nation's racial data because federal agencies typically rely on data from the standard racial groups to make statistical calculations about race. The proposal to eliminate the category, which was used almost exclusively by Hispanics in the 2000 census, has stirred a furious debate among Hispanic advocacy groups, statisticians and officials over how the nation's largest minority group should be defined racially. If approved, the shift would be the first time since 1940 that officials have eliminated a racial category from the census, Census Bureau officials say. [more ]
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