27年来首次：美国官方修订族裔分类，亚裔再细分成华裔、印度裔…….

美国联邦政府近27年来首次，更新了官方表格上关于族裔分类的方式。

原先的“亚裔和太平洋岛民(AAPI)”被分为了“亚裔”和“太平洋岛民”。此外，在“亚裔”分类下，还进一步按照原籍国家：中国、日本、越南等进行了细分。

也就是说以后在美国医疗、公共教育、社会福利等部门统计人口数据时，不再将来自亚洲的美国人统称为“亚裔”，而是细分为华裔、菲律宾裔、印度裔、越南裔、韩裔、日裔等不同族裔选项，以供各个族裔进行选择。

美国当地时间3月28日(星期四)，美国联邦政府自1997年以来，首次更新了官方表格上关于族裔分类的方式，并鼓励人们在适用的情况下选择多个选项。

例如选择Asian亚裔之后，需要继续选择华裔、菲律宾裔、印度裔、越南裔、韩裔、日裔，或其他。

据悉，此次调整是参考了2020年人口普查的结果，当时发现了若干族群人口明显增加的情况。

考虑到民众的背景颇为多样性，不一定能够覆盖所有的选择，美国管理和预算办公室(OMB)同时在指引中鼓励各个行政机构，在“其他群体”一栏留下填写空间，方便民众阐述自己的身份。

官员表示，拜登政府正致力于改善数据收集、研究和分类，以推动种族平等和包容。

修订后的表格，把以前在表格中单独询问的种族和民族问题，合并为一个问题，即使受访者可以同时选择多个类别。

具体表格如下：

重新修订族裔分类标准，除了适用于联邦政府的表格外，同样将会用于州府和多数私营机构的文件，包括每10年进行的人口普查问卷、医疗保健结果以及国会选区的重新划分等。相信不久后，企业、大学和其他民间团也会追随联邦政府的做法。

修订后的标准立即生效，不过各机构仍有18个月的时间制定符合要求的计划，并有5年的时间来实施这些计划。

早在2010年代中期奥巴马政府期间就开始进行改变种族和族裔类别，但在川普于2017年当选总统后该计划则停滞了。而民主党总统拜登于2021年上任后，该计划再次启动。

而上一次更新则是在1997年，当时种族类别被单独分组为非西班牙裔、西班牙裔或拉丁裔。然后划分了五个基本种族类别——美洲印第安人或阿拉斯加土著人(American Indian or Alaska Native)、亚洲人(Asian)、黑人或非裔美国人(Black or African American)、夏威夷土著人或其他太平洋岛民(Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander)和白人(White)，受访者可以选择一个以上的种族。

这次联邦更新的表格中还删除了“黑人”(Negro)和“远东”(Far East)这两个现在被广泛视为贬义词的词，以及“多数人”(majority)和“少数人”(minority)这两个词，因为无法反映美国复杂的种族和民族多样性。此外，修订中还鼓励收集最低标准之外的详细种族和民族数据，如“海地人”(Haitian)或“牙买加人”(Jamaican)曾代表勾选“黑人”(Black)。

据报道，此次标准的修订是由一群“置身于政治纷争之外”的联邦统计学家和官僚，在历时两年时间共同制定的。但随着被归类为“白人”的人数减少，这些修订未来可能会对立法重划选区、民权法律、卫生统计甚至对政治都有着长期影响。

为何会提出亚裔细分？

美国联邦政府最新更新的官方表格上关于族裔分类的方式中，亚裔也将被细分。

也就是说，在美国医疗、公共教育、社会福利等部门统计人口数据时，不再将来自亚洲的美国人统称为“亚裔”，而是细分为华裔、菲律宾裔、印度裔、越南裔、韩裔、日裔等不同族裔选项，以供各个族裔进行选择。

对于亚裔细分的起因，目前有三种主要观点。

第一种观点：

亚裔细分是由亚裔中的弱势群体自发提出的运动，他们希望摆脱强势群体的影响。在1990年代中期之前，亚裔各族群在美国处于相对弱势地位，因此能够保持一定的团结。

然而，随着来自中国大陆和印度移民数量的增加，他们逐渐在教育和经济方面获得了优势地位。这时，其他亚裔群体开始感到内心不平衡，开始要求与华裔、印度裔等群体分开，被归类为“缺乏足够关注的少数族裔”(Underrepresented minorities)，就像非洲裔、拉丁裔一样，可以享受特殊资源和关注。

第二种观点：

亚裔细分是民主党的阴谋，是他们扩大选民基础的策略手段之一。根据美国人口普查数据，截至2013年，美国共有约1944万亚裔人口，占总人口近6%。其中，华裔约435万、菲律宾裔约365万、印度裔约346万、越南裔约191万、韩裔约177万、日裔约143万。

这种观点认为，将亚裔细分后，菲律宾裔、越南裔等被归类为“缺乏足够关注的少数族裔”，将会得到更多的资源和关注，因此可能会更加忠诚于民主党。而华裔、印度裔所享有的优势教育资源可能会被非裔、拉丁裔分散，从而进一步巩固了民主党的选民基础。

而第三种观点：

亚裔细分是美国实行“精准扶贫”的前提，并不是什么阴谋。

不少华裔反对“亚裔细分”

此前，细分亚裔法案已经在加州、华盛顿州、明尼苏达州、夏威夷、纽约市和罗德岛先后通过。每一次法案的通过，都会在华人社区引起轩然大波。

那么为什么华裔如此抵触“亚裔细分”？

亚裔被收集的信息可能涵盖种族、出生国家、收入水平、教育程度等。这些信息可能被用于帮助各州政府在资源分配、税收、选举民意代表等方面做出决策。

华人社区代表曾表示，亚裔是美国人口最少的族群之一，在政治上已经处于“轻量级”的地位。如果再次对亚裔进行细分，将进一步削弱亚裔群体的政治影响力，可能导致不同族裔在社区内的对立，并引发不必要的资源竞争。

此外，亚裔细分还可能会进一步助长配额制度的推行。未来，华裔学子不仅要和白人、非裔及西语裔竞争，甚至还可能在亚裔社区内部经受配额的挑选。

中华公所社区会议也表示，“亚裔细分”很可能会给亚裔社区带来更多不必要的困扰，甚至对亚裔社区的权益产生长远影响。

—

US is changing federal race and ethnicity categories for first time in 27 years
Americans of Middle Eastern descent used to have to identify as white on government forms – new categories will change that

For the first time in 27 years, the US government is changing how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity, an effort that federal officials believe will more accurately count residents who identify as Hispanic and of Middle Eastern and North African heritage.

The revisions to the minimum categories on race and ethnicity, announced Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget, are the latest effort to label and define the people of the United States. This evolving process often reflects changes in social attitudes and immigration, as well as a wish for people in an increasingly diverse society to see themselves in the numbers produced by the federal government.

“You can’t underestimate the emotional impact this has on people,” said Meeta Anand, senior director for census and data equity at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “It’s how we conceive ourselves as a society. … You are seeing a desire for people to want to self-identify and be reflected in data so they can tell their own stories.”

Under the revisions, questions about race and ethnicity that previously were asked separately on forms will be combined into a single question. That will give respondents the option to pick multiple categories at the same time, such as “Black”, “American Indian” and “Hispanic”. Research has shown that large numbers of Hispanic people aren’t sure how to answer the race question when that question is asked separately because they understand race and ethnicity to be similar and they often pick “some other race” or do not answer the question.

A Middle Eastern and North African category will be added to the choices available for questions about race and ethnicity. People descended from places such as Lebanon, Iran, Egypt and Syria had been encouraged to identify as white, but now will have the option of identifying themselves in the new group. Results from the 2020 census, which asked respondents to elaborate on their backgrounds, suggest that 3.5 million residents identify as Middle Eastern and North African.

“It feels good to be seen,” said Florida state representative Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando whose parents are from Iran. “Growing up, my family would check the ‘white’ box because we didn’t know what other box reflected our family. Having representation like that, it feels meaningful.”

The changes also strike from federal forms the words “Negro” and “Far East”, now widely regarded as pejorative, as well as the terms “majority” and “minority”, because they fail to reflect the nation’s complex racial and ethnic diversity, some officials say. The revisions also encourage the collection of detailed race and ethnicity data beyond the minimum standards, such as “Haitian” or “Jamaican” for someone who checks “Black”.

Grouping together people of different backgrounds into a single race and ethnicity category, such as Japanese and Filipino in the Asian classification, often masks disparities in income or health, and advocates argued having the detailed data will allow the information about the subgroups to be separated out in a process called disaggregation.

“To be able to disaggregate can really be helpful to distinguish different kinds of discrimination, the ability to enforce laws around discrimination and do research on public health and economic outcomes,” said Allison Plyer, chief demographer of The Data Center in New Orleans.

The changes to the standards were hammered out over two years by a group of federal statisticians and bureaucrats who prefer to stay above the political fray. But the revisions have long-term implications for legislative redistricting, civil rights laws, health statistics, and possibly even politics as the number of people categorized as white is reduced.

The changes will be reflected in data collection, forms, surveys and the once-a-decade census questionnaires put out by the federal government, as well as in state governments and the private sector because businesses, universities and other groups usually follow Washington’s lead. Federal agencies have 18 months to submit a plan on how they will put the changes in place.

The first federal standards on race and ethnicity were produced in 1977 to provide consistent data across agencies and come up with figures that could help enforce civil rights laws. They were last updated in 1997 when five minimum race categories were delineated – American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and white; respondents could pick more than one race. The minimum ethnic categories were grouped separately as not Hispanic or Hispanic or Latino.

Not everyone is on board with the latest revisions.

Some Afro Latinos feel that combining the race and ethnicity question will reduce their numbers and representation in the data, though previous research by the US Census Bureau did not find significant differences among Afro Latino responses when the questions were asked separately or together.

Mozelle Ortiz, for instance, is of mixed Afro Puerto Rican descent. She feels the changes could eliminate that identity, even though people can choose more than one answer once the race and ethnicity questions are combined.

“My entire lineage, that of my Black Puerto Rican grandmother’s and all other non-white Spanish speaking peoples, will be erased,” Ortiz wrote the interagency group.

Others are unhappy about how some groups of people such as Armenians or Arabs from Sudan and Somalia were not included in the examples used to define people of Middle Eastern or North African background.

Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, said that while she was “incredibly happy” with the new category, that enthusiasm was tempered by the omissions.

“It is not reflective of the racial diversity of our community,” Berry said. “And it’s wrong.”