Understanding and Measuring Latino Racial and Ethnic Identity

PowerPoint Slides

Most survey questions do not reflect the complex ways that Latino ethnicity and race interact. In this webinar recording, Drs. Julie Dowling and Mark Hugo Lopez discuss the research pertaining to the measurement of race and ethnicity in the U.S. Census and across other surveys. Specifically, they discuss the following:

1. Conceptual issues surrounding the measurement of race and ethnicity in Latino populations
2. Challenges with current approaches to measuring race and ethnicity among Latino populations
3. Proposed solutions for measuring racial and ethnic identity more accurately, including the measurement of mixed-race identity.

Learn more about our panelists and discover resources used in the webinar below.

Panelists:

• Julie Dowling, PhD, University of Illinois Chicago
• Mark Hugo Lopez, PhD, Pew Research Center

Resources:

Overview

• OMB Launches New Public Listening Sessions on Federal Race and Ethnicity Standards Revision

Latino/a Identity in the Census and Beyond

• Mexican Americans and the Question of Race (Julie A. Dowling, 2015)
• Making Hispanics: How Activists, Bureaucrats, and Media Constructed a New American (G. Cristina Mora, 2014)
• Racial Mismatch: The Divergence Between Form and Function in Data for Monitoring Racial Discrimination of Hispanics (Roth, 2010)
• 2010 Census Race and Hispanic Origin Alternative Questionnaire Experiment
• 2015 National Content Test, Race and Ethnicity Analysis Report 
• Changing Race: Latinos, the Census and the History of Ethnicity (Clara E. Rodriguez, 2000)

Reconsidering Approaches to Measuring Racial Identity Among U.S. Latinos

• Only about half of Americans say census questions reflect their identity very well (Pew Research Center, 2021)
• Majority of Latinos Say Skin Color Impacts Opportunity in America and Shapes Daily Life (Pew Research Center, 2021)
• About 6 million U.S. adults identify as Afro-Latino (Pew Research Center, 2022)
• ‘Mestizo’ and ‘mulatto’: Mixed-race identities among U.S. Hispanics (Pew Research Center, 2015)

Other Resources

• U.S. Decennial Census Measurement of Race and Ethnicity Across the Decades: 1790-2020
• Improving Data Infrastructure to Recognize Hispanic Diversity in the United States (National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families, 2015)
• Using Existing Large-Scale Data to Study Early Care and Education among Hispanics: Project Overview and Methodology (National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families, 2016)
• How Well Do National Surveys Measure Hispanic Families and Households? (National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families, 2018)