Does the current version of the Census Bureau’s race and ethnicity questions accurately reflect our rapidly changing population? That’s what civil rights stakeholders want to know.  Each decade the Census Bureau reviews these questions to assess their impact on civil rights policies. This begs the obvious question: Why the need?

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The unfortunate death of Mike Brown has resurfaced a growing frustration with the mistreatment of people of color, especially African Americans, by law enforcement. Mike Brown’s lifeless body lying on the street in Ferguson, Missouri seems as the crucible moment in the contemporary, yet enduring, appeal for dignity of African Americans. The fatal result of a meeting between Mike Brown and officer Darren Wilson encapsulates the recurring reality that African Americans are overwhelmingly affected by state violence. Growing criticisms of police department’s lack of diversity, transparency and accountability casually produces a disparity of African American victims of injustices. Among the roster of victims we uplift Aiyana Jones, Tarika Wilson, Kathryn Johnson, and Rekia Boyd as black women affected by police mistreatment.

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