President of MASC, Thomas Lopez, continues to discuss mixed race/multiracial and Latino/Hispanic racial categories on the U.S. Census and how these differ from California’s categories.
Watch Part 1 of the video here: bit.ly/28M6AIO
Visit MASC (Multiracial Americans of Southern California) here: bit.ly/28KMb19
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TRANSCRIPT:
THOMAS LOPEZ: Yeah, so society needs to get ready for this change. The multi-racial community needs to get ready for this change. The state of California is gonna have some problems with it because the state of California is also—
DAUGHTER: Yeah.
TL: – doing this type of one-drop rule, okay. Here’s another funny story for you.
D: Explain.
TL: Explain.
D: [Chuckle]
TL: I’ll explain this for you, okay?
D: Okay.
TL: Three years ago in 2013, The California Department of Finance, they did a study looking at California, seeing how the different racial groups are going to grow or change in size between now, all the way out to the year 2060, okay. They were looking way into the future, where the trends are. They predicted that in 2014 Latinos will out-number whites for the first time since, I guess, the state founded or a long time ago.
D: That’s a very long time ago.
TL: Yeah. What’s funny about that, though, is that they used census data to come up with these projections and, like I said before, Latinos currently are not counted along as a race. How can you say that Latinos are out-numbering Whites when it’s possible for Latinos to be white? Do you see?
D: Good point.
TL: Yeah, so it’s kind of confusing. I went and I looked at their study to try and figure out how did they come up with these numbers and I found something very interesting. They actually manipulated the census data. They tweaked the data.
D: Umm.
TL: Okay?
D: That’s not great then.
TL: No, it’s not good at all. It wasn’t written into the report. You actually had to look at the table of data that they put there with all the numbers, and when you look at the column headings that they had for each group, then you realize what they did. The first thing that they did that was unlike the census is they created a mixed race category.
D: Ah.
TL: See, the census doesn’t—
D: Is that good or bad?
TL: Well, it’s just different. It’s different from the census.
D: Okay.
TL: The census doesn’t have a mixed race category. They don’t call people multiracial or mixed race. They count people as two or more races, right? Say you were mixed white and black, okay?
D: Mm-hmm.
TL: They would count you as white and they would count you as Black at the same time. Your number would show up under the white column and the black column.
D: Okay.
TL: Okay, and so you would end up with a greater number of people counting by races than actual people. For example, say you have three people.
D: Alright.
TL: Say you had three people.
D: Hello three people.
TL: One person’s white. One person’s black and one person is mixed white and black.
D: Okay.
TL: Okay? We know the total number of people is three, but if we counted the number of white people, you would have two white people and you would have two black people.
D: Yeah, right.
TL: Two plus two is four.
D: Yeah.
TL: Right? How do you end up with more people? Well, obviously the mixed race person is being counted twice. Okay, do you see how that works?
D: Yeah.
TL: Alright. That’s how the census does it. If you total up all the people by race, you end up with a bigger number than the total number of people because mixed race people are being counted more than once.
D: Okay.
TL: California decided not to do that. Instead, what they did is anybody that marked off two or more races they put in a separate column called ‘mixed race.’
D: Okay.
TL: If you were white and black, you were not counted as white and you were not counted as black, you were counted as multiracial.
D: Okay, that sounds a bit easier to understand ’cause you’re doubling it and then they—
TL: It is easier to understand, but you lose something because now the mixed race people are sort of being torn away from where they came from. Us being mixed Latino and white, right?
D: Yeah.
TL: We don’t stop being Latino and we don’t stop being white just because we’re mixed. We still hang out with our families, both sides.
D: Mm-hmm, yeah.
TL: We’re still a part of that, but we’re also something different. By pulling out the mixed race people and putting them in a separate column, it makes the math easier okay, but it doesn’t quite capture with as much detail what’s happening with these mixed people, you know?
D: Yeah.
TL: They’re sacrificing truer identity or whatever to make the math work out better. You see what I’m saying?
D: Okay.
TL: Here’s the other result, by putting the mixed race people in that column it’s subtracted everybody else’s numbers.
D: Okay.
TL: The number of white people went down. The number of black people went down. Everybody’s race went down, okay, because now they’re counted as mixed race, right?
D: Okay.
TL: Then, they did a second thing that was different from the census.
D: Alright.
TL: They created a Latino racial category. The way they did that is anybody with mixed stuff.
TL: Yeah, they combined the data. Remember, I said that there was two separate questions?
D: Yeah.
TL: California decided to combine them.
D: Okay.
TL: Okay, and they did that by subtracting anybody that marked Latino from their category. If you were Latino and white, they subtracted you from white and put you under Latino. If you are Latino and black, they subtracted you from black and put you under Latino.
D: Mm-hmm.
TL: If you were mixed race and Latino, they subtracted you from mixed race and put you in Latino. In other words—
D: Okay, [inaudible 16:25].
TL: – they dumped everybody that was Latino into the Latino category and, again, subtracted from the white, subtracted from the black, subtracted from mixed race people too.
D: Yeah.
TL: Alright? No wonder Latinos are such a large part of the California population because the state of California ripped them out, put them in their own column and lowered everybody else’s number.
D: Yeah.
TL: Alright? Again, that makes the math a little bit easier, but—
D: It’s not exactly true.
TL: – it’s not exactly true ’cause it makes Latinos seem like they’re very separate from everybody else when they’re not. The Latinos are very integrated in society.
D: Yeah.
TL: It’s sacrificing reality for better math, okay. This is where it gets really tricky. In 2020, right, the census, like I said, is going to combine these two questions. Latinos are gonna be able to mark off two or more boxes.
D: Okay.
TL: What is the state of California gonna do when they get this data from the census? They’re gonna have choice. Remember, anyone that marked off two or more races got put into a mixed race column, but if Latinos mark off two or more races is the state of California gonna put them in the mixed race column, or are they gonna continue to put them in their own Latino column?
D: We don’t know?
TL: We don’t know. Here’s the deal.
D: Da-da-da-da.
TL: Yeah, here’s the other deal. About one in four Latinos are expected to mark off two or more boxes, so if the state of California decides to count them as mixed race, then the Latino population in California is gonna go down by about 25 percent. If they decide to count them as Latino, then the mixed race population is going to be cut almost in half.
D: Yikes.
TL: The state of California has some decisions to make, if they’re gonna continue on with their current policy, or are they gonna come more in line with what Census Bureau is doing? Do you see?
D: Aren’t they supposed to kind of by law?, As in Congress…
TL: That’s a really good question. That’s very astute of you to ask that. Yes!
[Laughter]
TL: They should be following federal standards, but they’re not.
D: Okay.
TL: I don’t know, but this is gonna be really interesting, what could end up happening. People’s numbers are very important because it has to do with discrimination, treatment. It has to do with voting districts, how those are set up and everything.
D: Yeah.
TL: Okay? It’s really important that they get this right. Because of what California is doing, they might actually be setting the stage for a fight between Latinos and mixed race people—
D: I don’t want that to happen.
TL: – to get counted properly. Yeah, it’s—
D: Not very good.
TL: – it’s unnecessary. That’s not very good, no. Fighting is bad and it’s unnecessary. The only reason why it’s happening is because California chooses to do their policy in a particular way. If they choose to instead do their policy more in line with what the census is going to do, then the problem goes away.
D: Yeah.
TL: It becomes our responsibility now to go to California and say, ”Hey, let’s talk about this. Let’s get this done right. Let’s do it now before it’s too late,” you know?
D: Da, da, da, da, civil war that will escalate into other states. The country falls.
TL: Let’s not get crazy, okay.
D: Okay.
TL: Alright. Well, so I just told you about the one-drop rule. I told you about how it still applies to Latinos today.
D: Lots of history applies to today.
TL: Yes. I also told you how, in the future, it might be causing problems in the future, unless we solve some problems.
D: Yeah.
TL: Thank you for listening to our video, and if you wanna learn more about what Multiracial Americans of Southern California are up to you can visit—
D: AKA, MASC.
TL: Yeah, you can visit our website at mascsite.org. M-A-S-C-S-I-T-E dot org. We are also on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. If you wanna learn more about our national advocacy issues, including how to deal with the state of California, you can visit our blog on Tumblr called the Multiracial Advocate.
D: I like Tumblr!
TL: What are you doing on Tumblr?
D: [Chuckling], I’ll tell you later.
TL: Okay. We also have a survey where you can hear about our national initiatives and show your support. Thank you very much for joining me in this conversation and hope to hear from you sometime in the future.
TL & D: Bye!
