Brown Racialization, Demographobia, and Statistical Representation of MENA Communities

• In Event: 1132 - Arabs and Arab Americans

Abstract

In 2018, the U.S. Census Bureau released a series of memos that announced that they will not be using a combined race-ethnicity question or a separate Middle Eastern/North African category on the 2020 U.S. Census. (Citation) This announcement comes in spite of evidence from the 2015 National Content Test that both would increase response rate, decrease the percent of individuals choosing the problematic “other” category, and provide additional accuracy of racial demographic statistics (Buchanan, Marks, Alvaraz Figueroa 2016). In effect, individuals who would otherwise choose the MENA category will continue to be classified as white, while Latinx will continue to be considered an ethnicity for the purposes of the Census. ). By not counting Middle Eastern Americans separately from whites, the U.S. Census will continue to produce unreliable demographic, economic, educational, and political statistics on Middle Eastern Americans. Though problematic for demographers and scholars of racial inequality, this announcement is likely to be met with complex emotions from members in the Middle Eastern, Arab, and Muslim American communities. Drawing from 53 in-depth interviews with Egyptian and Egyptian Americans, I propose the concept of “brown demographobia” to explain the ambivalence, anxiety, and fear around statistical representation for Arab, Middle Eastern, and/or Muslim Americans. In particular, while the majority of Egyptians and Egyptian Americans desiring statistical recognition distinct from white, most do so with at least some level of apprehension.

Author

• Bradley J. Zopf, Carthage College