A Middle Eastern and North African category could be added to U.S. federal surveys and censuses, and changes could be made to how Hispanics are able to self-identify, under preliminary recommendations released by the Biden administration. (AP)
The proposals encourage the collection of more detailed race and ethnicity information by allowing respondents on government forms to list their country of origin when answering a question about their race or ethnicity.
Using the 1997 standards, U.S. residents from Middle Eastern and North African countries were encouraged to identify as βwhite.β
Another proposal would remove outdated language from the government's current racial and ethnic data policy, including "Negro" as a term to describe the "Black" category and "Far East" to describe a geographic region of origin for people of Asian descent.
The need to update the standards was driven by increasing racial and ethnic diversity, a growing number of people who identify as more than one race or ethnicity, and changing immigration and migration patterns, according to the Federal Register notice.
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