Census might ask if black residents were descendants of slaves: Report
Jack Birle
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The U.S. Census Bureau is reportedly exploring asking black residents if they are descendants of slaves as an update to race and ethnicity questions already asked by the survey.
The Wall Street Journal reported the Biden administration is looking to categorize black residents who descended from slaves in the United States separately from those whose descendants immigrated from other countries and were not slaves.
NEWSOM SILENT ON CALIFORNIA REPARATIONS PROPOSALS
Another change the Biden administration is reportedly looking to make relates to combining the race and ethnicity question, which would eliminate asking if a person is Hispanic or Latino as a separate question. Currently, the government asks those surveyed what their race is and then will ask if they are of Hispanic or Latino origin, with the latter question being dubbed the ethnicity question.
The census currently asks for race or ethnicity but does not ponder connections to past slavery domestically. The change could help kick-start more reparations programs for descendants of slavery or racial discrimination, similar to programs being debated in California.
The state of California and the city of San Francisco both have commissions evaluating reparations for black citizens, with both citing slavery and prior legal discrimination as the rationale for reparations.
The proposal by the California task force calls for $360,000 payments for the roughly 1.8 million black residents in the Golden State who have at least one ancestor who was a slave. The proposal is estimated to cost $800 billion, which would put the state more than 2.5 times over its typical annual budget.
The task force was created via a bill that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed into law in 2020 and is set to release its final report on July 1 after nearly three years of research and deliberation. After the final report is issued, it will be up to the state legislature to decide if it wants to implement the proposals.
Newsom has been silent on if he will support the proposals by the task force. California was admitted in 1850 as a “free state,” which did not permit slavery, but various other states in the U.S. permitted it until it was outlawed nationwide via ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865.
The San Francisco proposal would be broader, with current proposals calling for $5 million payments, along with the elimination of personal debt and tax burdens, guaranteed annual incomes of at least $97,000 for the next 250 years, and homes in the city for $1 per family.
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The city council has signaled it will support the final proposals, which are set to be released in June. Recently, lawmakers in San Francisco have called for $50 million to be set aside for a reparations office, which will process the reparations and confirm eligibility for people.
The timetable for the possible rule change is unknown. The next census is scheduled to take place in 2030.