A discussion surrounding whether Racial/Ethnic categories matter in the United States, in many different arenas.November/December 1994 issue of Poverty & Race
Part One
The July 25, 1994 New Yorker carried a very important article, by staff writer Lawrence Wright, titled “One Drop of Blood,” discussing the meaning and utility of racial and ethnic categories, particularly as these are defined by the US government, as they are used in data collection efforts, and as carious advocacy groups view them. With Mr. Wright’s permission, we present a considerably shortened, descriptive version of his essay, quoting from and paraphrasing it liberally (quotes not attributed to anyone else are Wright’s). Those who want a complete copy of the 8-page Wright article whould send us a SASE.
Given the importance and topicality of this issue, we will present a Symposium on the subject in our January/February issue. Per our usual practice, we will be asking several social scientists and activists to submit their comments; and, again as usual, we will be happy to consider other, unsolicited commentaries from P&R readers.
Part Two
The lead article in our November/December issue, “Racial/Ethnic Categories: Do They Matter?” (an edited version of a July 25, 1994 New Yorker feature by Lawrence Wright, titled “One Drop of Blood”), raised a critical scientific, personal and political issue. We asked a number of social scientists and activists to offer their comments.
- “Accurate Racial/Ethnic Data Should Drive Category Review” by Raul Yzaguirre and Sonia M. Perez
- “The Limitations of Directive 15” by Juanita Tamayo Lott
- “Categories Count” by Libero Della Piana
- “Who Thought of Dropping Racial Categories, and Why?” by john powell
- “The Error of the Third Type” by Samuel L. Myers, Jr.
- “A Single Census Question to Measure Race, Spanish-Origin and Ancestry” by Reynolds Farley
- “Proposition 187: Racism Leads to Deaths and More Poverty” by Bill Tamayo
Part Three
We continue the Symposium begun in our last issue, commenting on the lead article in our November/December issue, “Racial/Ethnic Categories: Do They Matter?” (an edited version of a July 25, 1994, New Yorker feature by Lawrence Wright, titled “One Drop of Blood”). In the last issue, we presented comments by Raul Yzaguirre/Sonia Perez, Juanita Tamayo Lott, Libero Della Piana, john powell, Samuel Myers, Jr., and Reynolds Farley. This final segment offers contributions by Ibrahim K. Sundiata, Carol Korenbrot, Nathan Glazer and Chris Hansen. To repeat our editorial practice: we go with whatever terminology, punctuation, capitalization our contributers use with respect to racial and ethnic designations.
