Classifying racial and ethnic group data in the United States: the politics of negotiation and accommodation

"Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity," formerly known as "Statistical Policy Directive 15," is a classification system that has formed the basis of the U.S. government's co llection and presentation of data on race and ethnicity since 1977. During the mid-1990s, it underwent a public evaluation to determine whether the ra cial and ethnic group categories should be revised. This article examines t he history of Statistical Policy Directive 15 from its origins through Octo ber 1997 and evaluates its consequences on political, economic, and social life. Among the many lessons that government information specialists can ta ke away from the history of Statistical Policy Directive 15 is that classif ication systems are not neutral tools that objectively reflect and measure the empirical world. Classification systems cannot be isolated from the lar ger political setting. They are tightly linked to public policies, and, in the case of racial and ethnic group classification, they constitute highly contested social policy about which there is little public consensus. (C) 2 000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.