What Is "Your" Race?: The Census and Our Flawed Efforts to Classify Americans by

Description: What Is "Your" Race? by Kenneth Prewitt America is preoccupied with race statistics--perhaps more than any other nation. Do these statistics illuminate social reality and produce coherent social policy, or cloud that reality and confuse social policy? Does America still have a color line? Who is on which side? Does it have a different "race" line--the nativity line--separating the native FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description America is preoccupied with race statistics--perhaps more than any other nation. Do these statistics illuminate social reality and produce coherent social policy, or cloud that reality and confuse social policy? Does America still have a color line? Who is on which side? Does it have a different "race" line--the nativity line--separating the native born from the foreign born? You might expect to answer these and similar questions with the governments "statistical races." Not likely, observes Kenneth Prewitt, who shows why the way we count by race is flawed. Prewitt calls for radical change. The nation needs to move beyond a race classification whose origins are in discredited eighteenth-century race-is-biology science, a classification that once defined Japanese and Chinese as separate races, but now combines them as a statistical "Asian race." One that once tried to divide the "white race" into "good whites" and "bad whites," and that today cannot distinguish descendants of Africans brought in chains four hundred years ago from children of Ethiopian parents who eagerly immigrated twenty years ago.Contrary to common sense, the classification says there are only two ethnicities in America--Hispanics and non-Hispanics. But if the old classification is cast aside, is there something better? What Is Your Race? clearly lays out the steps that can take the nation from where it is to where it needs to be. Its not an overnight task--particularly the explosive step of dropping todays race question from the census--but Prewitt argues persuasively that radical change is technically and politically achievable, and morally necessary. Back Cover "Race may be socially constructed, but alleles are not. The question is not if biology matters, but how does it--and will it--matter? How will biology be called upon to define or confine us in the twenty-first century? Kenneth Prewitt forcefully urges caution in the recuperation of biology, especially when biology is called upon to justify genomic medicines uncontested adoption of a census taxonomy that is itself based on eighteenth-century pseudoscience. He also effectively deconstructs the pretense by census takers that this taxonomy itself is firmly anchored in science. In one of the most original aspects of this important new book, Prewitt shows in fine historical detail that social science and social policy share a common starting point--ultimately, in American slavery and Jim Crow racial relations. Prewitts analysis, even when I disagree with him, is timely, thoughtful, eloquent, and learned, and we would all do well to heed his warnings." --Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University "This is the best book ever written about the federal census of the United States." --David A. Hollinger, University of California, Berkeley "This is an important and passionately written book. Prewitt traces the historical origins of what he calls the statistical races, arguing that race and ethnicity questions on federal censuses and surveys should ultimately be dropped. His policy recommendations are provocative and well explicated and deserve wide consideration. As a former census director, his proposal carries weight." --Margo Anderson, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee "Few people are better placed than Prewitt to comment on the role of racial classification in U.S. policy. As both a scholar and public servant, he brings a unique insider perspective to the sausage making of race-based data. Although lots of scholars and bureaucrats grumble about our existing race categories, no one else has put together a call for change that is as detailed, extensive, and historically researched." --Ann Morning, author of The Nature of Race: How Scientists Think and Teach about Human Difference Flap "Race may be socially constructed, but alleles are not. The question is not if biology matters, but how does it--and will it--matter? How will biology be called upon to define or confine us in the twenty-first century? Kenneth Prewitt forcefully urges caution in the recuperation of biology, especially when biology is called upon to justify genomic medicines uncontested adoption of a census taxonomy that is itself based on eighteenth-century pseudoscience. He also effectively deconstructs the pretense by census takers that this taxonomy itself is firmly anchored in science. In one of the most original aspects of this important new book, Prewitt shows in fine historical detail that social science and social policy share a common starting point--ultimately, in American slavery and Jim Crow racial relations. Prewitts analysis, even when I disagree with him, is timely, thoughtful, eloquent, and learned, and we would all do well to heed his warnings." --Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University "This is the best book ever written about the federal census of the United States." --David A. Hollinger, University of California, Berkeley "This is an important and passionately written book. Prewitt traces the historical origins of what he calls the statistical races, arguing that race and ethnicity questions on federal censuses and surveys should ultimately be dropped. His policy recommendations are provocative and well explicated and deserve wide consideration. As a former census director, his proposal carries weight." --Margo Anderson, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee "Few people are better placed than Prewitt to comment on the role of racial classification in U.S. policy. As both a scholar and public servant, he brings a unique insider perspective to the sausage making of race-based data. Although lots of scholars and bureaucrats grumble about our existing race categories, no one else has put together a call for change that is as detailed, extensive, and historically researched." --Ann Morning, author of The Nature of Race: How Scientists Think and Teach about Human Difference Author Biography Kenneth Prewitt is the Carnegie Professor of Public Affairs at Columbia University. His books include The Hard Count: The Political and Social Challenges of Census Mobilization. He served as director of the U.S. Census Bureau from 1998 to 2001. Table of Contents List of Figures and Tables ix Preface xi Part I What Are Statistical Races? Chapter 1 Introduction and Overview 3 Chapter 2 Classification before Counting: The Statistical Races 14 Part II Policy, Statistics, and Science Join Forces Chapter 3 The Compromise That Made the Republic and the Nations First Statistical Race 31 Chapter 4 Race Science Captures the Prize, the U.S. Census 45 Chapter 5 How Many White Races Are There? 61 Part III When You Have a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail Chapter 6 Racial Justice Finds a Policy Tool 83 Chapter 7 When You Have a Hammer: Statistical Races Misused 105 Part IV The Statistical Races under Pressure, and a Fresh Rationale Chapter 8 Pressures Mount 129 Chapter 9 The Problem of the Twenty-first Century Is the Problem of the Color Line as It Intersects the Nativity Line 151 Part V What We Have Is Not What We Need Chapter 10 Where Are We Exactly? 171 Chapter 11 Getting from Where We Are to Where We Need to Be 183 Appendix: Perspectives from Abroad--Brazil, France, Israel 209 Notes 221 Bibliography 251 Index 263 Review One of Choices Outstanding Academic Titles for 2014 "In one of the best discussions of the social construction of race and the U.S. Census Bureaus role in that social construction that this reviewer has seen, Prewitt goes way beyond the typical discussion by demonstrating the policy implications of the social construction and shifting definitions of race... This detailed history and policy analysis is an absolute requirement for race scholars and policy analysts alike."--J. Hattery, Choice "This book will inform historians on important aspects of what census measurement says about the past, but it also may provide a bridge to what students will write about American society decades from now."--Stephen E. Fienberg, Journal of American History "What Is Your Race? is a fascinating and thorough account of an American institution that has had a powerful influence on policy and society."--Ryan Allen, New Books in Education Prizes Short-listed for Christianity Today Book Awards: Christianity and Culture Category 2014 Long Description America is preoccupied with race statistics--perhaps more than any other nation. Do these statistics illuminate social reality and produce coherent social policy, or cloud that reality and confuse social policy? Does America still have a color line? Who is on which side? Does it have a different "race" line--the nativity line--separating the native born from the foreign born? You might expect to answer these and similar questions with the governments "statistical races." Not likely, observes Kenneth Prewitt, who shows why the way we count by race is flawed. Prewitt calls for radical change. The nation needs to move beyond a race classification whose origins are in discredited eighteenth-century race-is-biology science, a classification that once defined Japanese and Chinese as separate races, but now combines them as a statistical "Asian race." One that once tried to divide the "white race" into "good whites" and "bad whites," and that today cannot distinguish descendants of Africans brought in chains four hundred years ago from children of Ethiopian parents who eagerly immigrated twenty years ago.Contrary to common sense, the classification says there are only two ethnicities in America--Hispanics and non-Hispanics. But if the old classification is cast aside, is there something better? What Is Your Race? clearly lays out the steps that can take the nation from where it is to where it needs to be. Its not an overnight task--particularly the explosive step of dropping todays race question from the census--but Prewitt argues persuasively that radical change is technically and politically achievable, and morally necessary. Review Quote What Is Your Race? is a fascinating and thorough account of an American institution that has had a powerful influence on policy and society. ---Ryan Allen, New Books in Education Details ISBN0691157030 Author Kenneth Prewitt Language English Year 2013 ISBN-10 0691157030 ISBN-13 9780691157030 Format Hardcover Imprint Princeton University Press Subtitle The Census and Our Flawed Efforts to Classify Americans Place of Publication New Jersey Country of Publication United States DEWEY 352.750973 Illustrations 5 line illus. 3 tables. Short Title WHAT IS YOUR RACE Media Book Affiliation Columbia University Columbia University, USA. Columbia University, Translated from English NZ Release Date 2013-07-21 US Release Date 2013-07-21 UK Release Date 2013-07-21 Publisher Princeton University Press Pages 288 Publication Date 2013-07-21 Alternative 9780691173566 Audience Tertiary & Higher Education AU Release Date 2013-09-30 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:161695866;

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