Hear Me Out: Race Isn’t Real. The Census Should Reflect That.

Slate Debates

Slate Podcasts

Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2023

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… cen-suspicions. We’re a little over six years away from the next national census. It’s understandable that this might not be at the top of your mind, but for a small group of academics and activists, it absolutely is. Race isn’t a real thing, scientifically speaking. But we still live in a heavily racialized society, and the Census sets the stage for many, many policy decisions that impact race equity. So, if race isn’t real, why does the Census act like it’s a simple, immutable fact? Carlos Hoyt, an author and speaker, joins us to propose a more dynamic way of self reporting – and recording – race. If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected] Podcast production by Maura Currie. You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Hear Me Out. I'm Celeste Hedley. We're a little over six years away from the next nationwide
0:07.8	census. So yeah, it's not exactly a pressing issue for most of us anyway. As the Washington Post wrote in early November,
0:15.2	there's a small but mighty group of academics and activists who are pushing for a big change to the census.
0:21.7	Right now you're asked about your race on the census and
0:25.0	that data is treated as an immutable fact that impacts lots of decisions and
0:29.6	philosophies about American life. So what if the census was retooled and we stopped placing so much emphasis on definitive racial categories.
0:40.0	The major shift that I think is necessary and doable is instead of perpetuating this
0:44.6	false notion by talking about each other in terms of race, let's recognize that we're all
0:48.8	racialized, sometimes adversely, sometimes advantageously.
0:54.0	Teacher, social worker, and activist Carlos Hoyt joins us in just a moment.
0:58.4	Stay with us.
0:59.3	Welcome back to Hear Me Out, I'm Celeste Hedley. Most of us spend very little time thinking
1:08.6	about the census. Once every ten years we'll get a letter in the mail or maybe a knock on the door and beyond that
1:14.5	the census is not really a priority for most Americans.
1:17.8	Now if you are already typing an email to us that says actually you think about the
1:22.3	census a lot.
1:24.0	Slow down for a second.
1:25.4	We get it.
1:26.4	Obviously, there are a lot of reasons
1:29.4	to care about the census.
1:30.9	The data that the census collects impacts so many parts of our lives,
1:35.0	your representation in Congress,
	...

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