#Race percentages in america skin
#Race percentages in america tv

He argues that this winds up including too many Latinos, inflating the “white alone” finding. Rynerson said the “white alone” figure in recent Census estimates uses statistical assumptions that aren’t valid. Figures do not add to 100% because some categories reflect people who listed more than one race. He said experts typically use this number to give the most accurate snapshot of the population.

“That’s the number you should be using,” said Charles Rynerson, a demographer at Portland State University’s Population Research Center. That includes everyone who identifies as white except for people who identify as Latino.

#Race percentages in america tv

Locally, that statistic was also used by KGW TV and Oregon Public Broadcasting (which later amended the story to include a broader picture of Oregon’s diversity).Īt the bottom of the Census chart, the non-Hispanic white population is listed at 75.1%. In recent weeks, The New York Times and USA Today both described Oregon as 87% white. To the unwary, it sounds straight-forward enough. The first line is labeled “white alone,” which includes everyone who identifies as white and no other race. Among them are charts on race and ethnicity. The Census Bureau’s popular “Quick Facts” feature on its website includes several key statistics covering the United States, individual states and localities. “And I think that’s pretty much where the confusion is.” “Generally speaking, culturally speaking, we see white, black, Hispanic, Asian as all these different races,” he said. So Latinos are also asked to separately describe their race and, for a variety of reasons, many identify as white on the Census form.īut DeShay said many Americans don’t see this distinction between ethnicity and race.

#Race percentages in america skin

The Census Bureau sees this as an ethnicity – in this case, a shared heritage – and not as race, a social construct usually linked with physical traits such as skin color. Much, but not all, of the confusion revolves around the statistics documenting Oregon’s largest minority group: the 13.3 percent of people who describe themselves as Latino or Hispanic. “It really takes someone who understands the definition of Census numbers.” The confusion lies in how demographers track racial identifiers, the many nuances of ethnicity – and even the way statistics are displayed on the Census website.Īkiim DeShay, who owns a Houston-based firm that studies Black demographics, said Census figures can be easy to misinterpret.