Reconfiguring Race: Exploring the Racial Reclassification of Puerto Ricans in the Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS)

• In Event: 40852 - Race and Ethnicity: Racialization, Socialization, and Identity

Abstract

This study uses microdata from the Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS) to assess shifts in the racial classification of Puerto Ricans in the redesigned 2020 race question. The results show that Puerto Ricans who were classified as White plunged by 55 percent between question designs. Similarly, the Black count fell by nearly 53 percent in the same period. Separate multinomial logit models were estimated for both populations to test for plausible evidence of boundary shifting. I find that both groups show higher log odds of both multiracial and Some Other Race (SOR) classification between designs, which implies that changes to the 2020 race question may have led to more rigid racial classifications for monoracial Puerto Ricans. I also find that unit increases in the White resident population share (at the PUMA-level) were associated with higher log odds of multiracial classification in the 2020 design, but lower odds of SOR classification. Puerto Ricans who reside in PUMAs with higher Black population shares had higher log odds of both multiracial and SOR classifications between designs. Ultimately, these results indicate that shifts in the racial classification of Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico may be driven by at least two factors. First, the coding schemes used in the 2020 question design may have increased multi-race classifications among Puerto Ricans who may have identified as exclusively Black or White in the previous design. Second, I contend that some Puerto Ricans, especially those who solely identified as Black in the previous design, may have chosen to self-identify themselves as SOR in the 2020 question design.

Author

• Ricardo Henrique Lowe, University of Texas-Austin