In a testy exchange with the U.S Census Bureau director last week, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) slammed the bureau’s failure to include more diverse demographic information for people of Middle Eastern and North African descent. “Do I look white to you?” Tlaib asked U.S. Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham during the hearing. Based on those findings, the U.S. Census Bureau under the former President Obama administration had recommended for the category to be added. In January 2018, the Census Bureau announced it would no longer be adding the new category for the 2020 census. “They [the Trump administration] ignored it.”Tlaib said that by not including the MENA category, people who are Arab, Middle Eastern or North African are forced to identify as “white” on the survey.

Source: The North Africa Journal February 20, 2020 22:30 UTC