White House Pushing For New Race Categories For Middle Easterns And North Africans Before Barack Obama packs his things and moves out of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, he’s got a couple things he wants to do for brown and black immigrants who are now American citizens according to USAToday. The White House is proposing that new racial identifications be added to the 2020 census. Such a move could be immensely helpful in both combatting discriminatory laws and medical research. Under current law, people from the Middle East are considered white, the legacy of century-old court rulings in which Syrian Americans argued that they should not be considered Asian — because that designation would deny them citizenship under the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. But scholars and community leaders say more and more people with their roots in the Middle East find themselves caught between white, black and Asian classifications that don’t fully reflect their identities. Sounds like the brown folks are pleased with the idea: “What it does is it helps these communities feel less invisible,” said Helen Samhan of the Arab American Institute, which has been advocating the change for more than 30 years. “It’s a good step, a positive step.” Does this count as “doing something for black people” or nah? Image via AP
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New Race, Who Dis? White House To Add New Ethnic Classification For Middle Eastern And North African People
