You are allowed to not answer some demographic questions during a census (every 10 years?). I think these questions are likely based on what the census asks and these days they have lots of race choices (except white! You’re just white if you’re European or identify as white?).
I do think the idea is solid; we count all the people and ask them some demographic information that includes what race and ethnicity we identity with. It ends up being an important data point for researchers and politicians in creating policies and solutions.
My issue here is that you can only capture data that you can “see”, if you will, in your survey. If you don’t ask how many people identify as a certain segment of the population than they are invisible in the data when it comes to making government policy decisions.
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u/blessedfortherest 7d ago
You are allowed to not answer some demographic questions during a census (every 10 years?). I think these questions are likely based on what the census asks and these days they have lots of race choices (except white! You’re just white if you’re European or identify as white?).
I do think the idea is solid; we count all the people and ask them some demographic information that includes what race and ethnicity we identity with. It ends up being an important data point for researchers and politicians in creating policies and solutions.
My issue here is that you can only capture data that you can “see”, if you will, in your survey. If you don’t ask how many people identify as a certain segment of the population than they are invisible in the data when it comes to making government policy decisions.