"US Government Overhauls Federal Race and Ethnicity Categories After 27 Years"

The Biden administration has adopted new race and ethnicity standards, combining Hispanic or Latino into one category and adding a separate checkbox for people of Middle Eastern or North African descent. The changes aim to better capture the expanding multicultural identity of the country and allow individuals to check as many categories as apply to their identity. The revisions, effective immediately, will impact federal data collection, census, and other agencies, with subcategories provided for each race/ethnicity. While praised for being a critical step, concerns have been raised about the prescriptive nature of the new standards and their potential impact on visibility for certain groups.