America’s Complicated History of Counting Race
The United States has collected information related to race since the first federal census in 1790. That history is deeply compromised by white supremacy.
Early census categories reflected slavery, Native dispossession, racial hierarchy, and unequal citizenship. Under the Three-Fifths Clause, enslaved Black people were counted to increase the political power of the people who enslaved them. They were counted for representation but denied any voice in the government their bodies helped enlarge.
The Constitution did not use the words “slave” or “Black” in the Three-Fifths Clause. It referred to “three fifths of all other Persons.” But the legal and political meaning was unmistakable: enslaved people increased a state’s representation in Congress without receiving any corresponding political rights.
Census classifications changed repeatedly as the nation’s racial ideology, immigration policies, political interests, and understanding of identity changed. Some categories were degrading. Some imposed identities that communities did not choose for themselves. Government data has also been misused against vulnerable populations.
We should not hide that history. Racial data has served two very different purposes. It has been used as an instrument of racial control, but it has also become an instrument of racial accountability.
Today, racial and ethnic population data helps researchers, advocates, agencies, and courts examine inequality in health, education, employment, housing, voting, environmental exposure, wealth, incarceration, and access to government services. It allows us to compare outcomes across communities, locations, and time.
The history of misuse supports strong confidentiality protections, voluntary self-identification, community consultation, transparent categories, and strict limits on the use of individual information. It does not justify destroying the population data needed to identify discrimination.
The answer to abusive data collection is responsible data governance—not government-imposed ignorance.
