Prompt Cast
The Evolution of Race in the US Census and its Impact on Racial Hierarchy
TLDR The US Census has included a question about race since 1790, and its evolution over time has had implications for racial hierarchy and cultural moments in the country. The addition of racial categories and the use of census data to reinforce white supremacy and racial inequality have shaped racial attitudes and policies in the United States.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
The US Census, which has been conducted every 10 years since 1790, has a long history of including a question about race, which has evolved over time and has implications for notions of racial hierarchy and cultural moments in the country.
05:12
The question of who should be counted in the US Census has had a lasting impact on the power balance between slave states and non-slave states, leading to the compromise that slaves would count as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of apportionment.
09:13
The census became a battleground for the future of slavery as tensions between the North and South intensified, with both sides using their interpretations of statistics to justify their positions on slavery.
14:26
The mulatto category was added to the 1850 census in order to support the pseudoscientific belief that black and white people were separate races, with some even arguing that they were different species, and to justify the idea that the African American population would eventually die out.
18:58
The addition of the mulatto category to the 1850 census not only changed the way the government counted people, but also helped shape racial attitudes and hierarchy in the US, as it encouraged the notion that data and science could prove the inferiority of black people.
23:13
The addition of racial categories in the census and the implementation of Jim Crow laws reinforced racial hierarchy and inequality in the United States, and the census data was used to further white supremacy in politics and science.
29:16
The Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896 led to wholesale segregation in the southern states, and the census data was used to further reinforce racial inequality and white supremacy in politics and science.
33:27
The census data was used to determine who was considered white and therefore entitled to privileges, while the one-drop rule was adopted to classify anyone with even a small trace of African ancestry as black.
37:38
The census has transitioned from being an instrument of oppression and racism to one of empowerment and opportunity, with the inclusion of a multiracial category and the ability to check more than one box.
Categories:
History
Society & Culture
