{"id":966,"date":"2012-11-02T13:01:34","date_gmt":"2012-11-02T18:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/indianamericanstory.wordpress.com\/?p=966"},"modified":"2015-03-09T16:47:52","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T16:47:52","slug":"has-the-census-evolved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/has-the-census-evolved\/","title":{"rendered":"Has the Census Evolved?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Faceless by Desi Girls on the Rise (from South Asian Youth Action). Created by Smrati, Lubaba, Ishrat, Surbjeet, Kamaljeet and Sadia, Faceless is a mural mosaic representing the variety of voices that compose the experience of South Asian American Woman.<\/p><\/div>\n

by Emily Vallerga, Fall 2012 Intern<\/p>\n

As part of my research for the upcoming Indian American Heritage Project exhibition Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation<\/em>, I have been looking at how Indian Americans in the U.S. have been categorized and counted by the official U.S. Census.  I started in 1890, when the first critical mass of Indian immigrants arrived in the U.S., and searched through the decades, ending in 2010.<\/p>\n

Here is what I found:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Click to download PDF<\/p><\/div>\n

From 1890-2010, the U.S. Census made different attempts to define \u201crace\u201d. In the early censuses, \u201ccolor\u201d was a category and nonwhites were further categorized by \u201crace\u201d or national origin. For example, Asian Indians, regardless of religious affiliation, were identified as Nonwhite \u201cHindu\u201d between 1910-1930. Interestingly, from 1940-1970, Indian Americans were completely ignored. From 1980-2010, Asian Indian was created as a category.<\/p>\n

1980 marked a turning point as Asian Indians were no longer considered \u201cother.\u201d The Census Bureau has long used nationality to create the categories of \u201crace.\u201d However, these categories are also created with specific attention to whether or not these \u201craces\u201d can be included in the \u201cwhite\u201d category. For example, Asian Indians are perceived as dark skinned, however they are not considered to be \u201cblack\u201d or \u201cAfrican American.\u201d In order to classify Asian Indians, the Census Bureau created an additional racial category, and thus they relied on the national origin, Asian Indian.<\/p>\n

It is fascinating that some racial categories are based on color while others refer specifically to national origin. As our society\u2019s understanding of race continues to evolve, will this continue to be the way we describe and track identity?<\/p>\n

Emily Vallerga, a recent graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz, is an intern with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\u2019s Indian American Heritage Project this semester.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Emily Vallerga, Fall 2012 Intern As part of my research for the upcoming Indian American Heritage Project exhibition Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation, I have been looking at how Indian Americans in the U.S. have been categorized and counted by the official…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beyond-bollywood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=966"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8873,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions\/8873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}