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Importance of disaggregating race & ethnicity
On March.28, 2024, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released updated standards for federal agencies to collect, maintain, and present race and ethnicity data.
Meeta Anand, senior program director, Census and Data Equity, whose mother is Indian and father Haitian. / Ritu Marwah
The Indian-American data is aggregated under the ethnic or racial category titled Asian as opposed to South Asian. On the census form, as in medical records, the race categories on offer are: American-Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and White. When filling forms in hospitals or doctors’ offices, many South Asians balk at checking ‘Asian’ as their ethnicity box. They are reluctant to lump their data in a continental pool, a pool that does not accurately reflect their health markers they feel. There is the danger of being misdiagnosed and mistreated based on stereotypes.
Meeta Anand, senior program director, Census and Data Equity, whose mother is Indian and father Haitian, would like to check two boxes that reflect her dual ethnicities.
On March.28, 2024, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released updated standards for federal agencies to collect, maintain, and present race and ethnicity data. The new standards include a new category for Middle Eastern and North African, and the government will collect race and ethnicity information using a single question.
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