Good Decisions Require Good information.
To understand America, we need to understand the people who live here.
Accurate information about race and ethnicity helps us understand our communities, identify problems, measure progress, and make decisions based on facts – not guesses.
The 30-Second Case.
We collect information about jobs, health, housing, education, and the economy in order to better understand what’s happening in our country and make informed decisions about what comes next. Race and ethnicity data is no different.
Accurate information helps us see where our communities are thriving, where issues exist, where policies and investments are working, and where improvements need to be made. It helps businesses understand their employees and consumers, researchers understand health and economic trends, and policymakers understand the people that their decisions impact.
Collecting this information is just the first step. What it allows us to do is what really matters: solve problems, measure progress, hold institutions and people accountable, and make decisions based on facts and not opinions.
Why does race and ethnicity information matter?
This toolkit is built for the long game.
As the country looks ahead to the 2030 Census, we have an opportunity to build understanding before we need to defend it. That means it’s important to tell a positive, proactive, and values-driven story about why accurate race and ethnicity information matters. We have to make this story familiar and clear to more people, organizations, and decision-makers for years to come.
A successful movement has to do both: respond to today’s challenges and shape how people think about tomorrow. This toolkit is designed to help you do the latter.
Why this material exist
America is a big, diverse, and constantly changing country. National averages and broad categories only tell us a part of the story, and they can also obscure important differences about people.
Accurate information about race and ethnicity gives us a clearer picture of our country. It can show how health problems impact a certain community, how workers can have access to opportunities, if a program designed to teach children is working as it should, or whether conditions that once differed across communities are improving.
If we don’t collect the information, these differences and issues don’t just disappear. We simply lose our ability to see and understand them.
why it matters
information helps us see america as it actually is.
four Things to remember.
Private and public organizations around the country use race and ethnicity information for different reasons. We don’t all need to use the exact same words. However, we can make a greater impact if our voices reinforce the same basic ideas.
One shared foundation. many ways to make the case.
Understand America.
To understand our country, we have to understand the people who live here.
#1
Accurate race and ethnicity information gives us a better picture of our communities and the different stories and backgrounds of the people within them.
Make better decisions.
Good information helps us make decisions based on facts, not assumptions. #2
It helps us identify problems, understand needs, direct resources, develop solutions, and determine what’s working.
Private businesses, local governments, and citizens all want to understand where challenges exist, just as much as what improvements and investments are working.
Measure change.
You can’t measure progress if you stop measuring. #3
Ensure accountability.
Public information should serve the public. #4
Information should be collected for a clear purpose, responsibly protected, transparently used, and accessible appropriately so that people can understand what’s happening and how to hold institutions accountable.
One last thing.
The goal isn’t better data. It’s about what the information makes possible for America.
Better information helps us understand problems. Build solutions. Tell us if solutions are working. Reveal where progress is happening and where we need to keep working.
Good decisions require good information. And understanding America requires understanding all of us.