{"id":42053,"date":"2010-01-25T16:07:38","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T21:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2010\/01\/25\/racial-labeling-in-survey-questions\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:10:01","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:10:01","slug":"racial-labeling-in-survey-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2010\/01\/25\/racial-labeling-in-survey-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Racial Labeling in Survey Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Census takers aren\u2019t the only ones who have struggled with racial labels. Over the past seven decades, America\u2019s pollsters have used \u201ccolored,\u201d \u201cNegro,\u201d \u201cAfrican American,\u201d \u201cAfro-American\u201d and \u201cblack\u201d in questions in national surveys, according to a review of survey questions archived by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut.<\/p>\n\n

Here, for example, is a survey question asked in a May 1948 Gallup Poll:<\/p>\n\n

It has been suggested that white and colored men serve together throughout the U.S. Armed Services\u2014that is, live and work in the same units. Do you think this is a good idea or a poor idea?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Jeffrey Passel recently recounted the fascinating history<\/a> of the Census Bureau\u2019s efforts to label the races. As Census Director Robert Groves notes in his blog<\/a>, this year the bureau will allow people to choose from 15 categories for race, including \u201cblack, African American, or Negro.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The history of racial labeling in public opinion polls is briefly but vividly recounted by Lee Sigelman and Steven A. Tuch of George Washington University and Jack K. Martin of Indiana University in their article<\/a> \u201cWhat\u2019s In a Name? Preferences for \u2018Black\u2019 Versus \u2018African American\u2019 among Americans of African Descent\u201d in the \u00a0Fall 2005 issue of Public Opinion Quarterly.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

They report that during the first-two thirds of the last century the prevailing usage \u201cevolved from \u2018colored\u2019 to \u201cNegro\u201d and then to \u201cblack.\u201d In the late 1980s, researchers found that preferences shifted again as civil rights leaders pressed to make ethnicity or culture the defining characteristic\u2026and the term \u201cAfrican American\u201d came into common usage.<\/p>\n\n

In 2007 when Gallup asked a sample of blacks which term they preferred, 24% said \u201cAfrican American,\u201d 13% said \u201cblack\u201d and 61% said it didn\u2019t matter to them. (Pollsters have a clear preference: A total of 1,345 survey questions asked since 2000 have used \u201cblack\u201d to refer to the racial group, compared with 246 that use the term \u201cAfrican American.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n

Of course much more than the language of race has changed in America since pollsters started measuring racial attitudes in the late 1930s. \u00a0Today, blacks and whites\u2014as well as men and women\u2014serve shoulder-to-shoulder in America\u2019s armed forces. Such a future must have seemed far away in 1948 when 60% of those surveyed by Gallup said it would be a \u201cpoor\u201d idea for the races to serve together.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past seven decades, America\u2019s pollsters have used \u201ccolored,\u201d \u201cNegro,\u201d \u201cAfrican American,\u201d \u201cAfro-American\u201d and \u201cblack\u201d in questions in national surveys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"bylines":[{"key":"20ccf163-6486-4939-b908-028ed05163b5","termId":950}],"acknowledgements":[],"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[28,144],"tags":[],"bylines":[950],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[519],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-42053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-race-ethnicity","category-racial-ethnic-identity","bylines-dvera-cohn","formats-report","research-teams-social-trends"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":388,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2010\/01\/25\/racial-labeling-in-survey-questions\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":null,"next_post":null,"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"Racial 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