Next U.S. census will have new boxes for 'Middle Eastern or North African,' 'Latino'

Next U.S. census will have new boxes for 'Middle Eastern or North African,' 'Latino' Enlarge this image toggle caption RLT_Images/Getty Images RLT_Images/Getty Images On the next U.S. census and future federal government forms, the list of checkboxes for a person's race and ethnicity is officially getting longer. Sponsor Message The "White" definition has changed, and "Latino" is now a "race and/or ethnicity" OMB's decision to change its statistical standards on race and ethnicity for the first time in more than a quarter-century also marks a major shift in the U.S. government's definition of "White," which no longer includes people who identify with Middle Eastern or North African groups such as Egyptian, Iranian, Iraqi, Israeli, Jordanian, Kurdish, Lebanese, Moroccan, Palestinian, Syrian and Yemeni. That move sets up "Middle Eastern or North African" as the first completely new racial or ethnic category to be required on federal government forms since officials first issued in 1977 standards on racial and ethnic data that the Census Bureau and other federal agencies must follow. For more than three decades, advocates for Arab Americans and other MENA groups have campaigned for their own checkbox on the U.S. census and other government forms, and recent research suggests that many people of MENA descent do not see themselves as white, a category that the federal government previously considered to include people with "origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa." But at the same time, Berry says she is concerned that the example groups representing the MENA category in OMB's new definition for "Middle Eastern or North African" do not represent the full racial and geographic diversity of MENA communities in the U.S., including those from Black diaspora communities.