Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
00:46 – Analyzing the "Demographic Decimation" map from X (Twitter)
01:57 – The Mystery of the 1940 Census: When a race "disappeared"
04:52 – How strangers (enumerators) decided your race for 160 years
07:18 – Why the white population "dropped" between 2010 and 2020
08:50 – The DNA test factor: Why checking "White Alone" is changing
10:53 – The 2024 Rule Change: Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) categories
Sources:
1930 U.S. Census Enumerator Instructions U.S. Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States: Instructions to Enumerators, Population, 1930. Section 155: usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/inst1930.shtml
1930 Census — Categories and Codes U.S. Census Bureau, "1930 Overview," History Program. Confirms enumerator race codes (W, Neg, Mex, In, Ch, Jp, Fil, Hin, Kor) and the one-time-only status of "Mexican" as a distinct race category. census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/index_of_questions/1930_1.html
1940 U.S. Census Enumerator Instructions U.S. Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States: Instructions to Enumerators, Population, 1940. Full text available through IPUMS: usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/inst1940.shtml
2020 Census Race Data Release U.S. Census Bureau, "Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the United States: 2010 Census and 2020 Census," August 12, 2021. census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/2020-united-states-population-more-racially-ethnically-diverse-than-2010.html
OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, Revised March 28, 2024 Office of Management and Budget, "Revisions to OMB's Statistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity," Federal Register, March 29, 2024. federalregister.gov/documents/2024/03/29/2024-06469/revisions-to-ombs-statistical-policy-directive-no-15-standards-for-maintaining-collecting-and
OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, 1997 version Office of Management and Budget, "Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity," October 30, 1997. The rule that classified persons of Middle Eastern or North African origin under the "White" category. obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/omb/fedreg_1997standards
Gratton, Brian, and Emily Klancher Merchant. "La Raza: Mexicans in the United States Census." Journal of Policy History 28, no. 4 (October 2016): 537–567. The definitive scholarly account of how Mexican American leaders, allied with the Mexican government and sympathetic politicians, successfully pressured the Census Bureau to remove the "Mexican" race category after 1930. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/631860
League of United Latin American Citizens, "LULAC's Milestones." Confirms that beginning in El Paso in 1936, LULAC "pressured the US Census Bureau to reclassify persons of Mexican descent from 'Mexican' in 1930 (previously 'white' in 1920) and back to 'white' in 1940." lulac.org/about/history/milestones
National Research Council, The 2000 Census: Counting Under Adversity (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2004), Chapter 8: "Race and Ethnicity Measurement." Confirms that prior to 1960, enumerators determined racial classification by observation, and that self-identification became the standard beginning with the mail-based 1960 and fully self-reported 1970 censuses. nationalacademies.org/read/10907/chapter/10
Pew Research Center, "Race and the Census: The 'Negro' Controversy," January 21, 2010. pewresearch.org/social-trends/2010/01/21/race-and-the-census-the-negro-controversy
Jones, Nicholas, Rachel Marks, Roberto Ramirez, and Merarys Ríos-Vargas. "2020 Census Illuminates Racial and Ethnic Composition of the Country." U.S. Census Bureau, August 12, 2021.mhttps://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/2020-united-states-population-more-racially-ethnically-diverse-than-2010.html
Your family's actual 1940 census record (free): Search by name, state, and county at the National Archives 1940 Census site: 1940census.archives.gov The race column will be filled in by the enumerator, not your relative. Compare handwriting across the entire page to see the same enumerator making judgment calls on every household.
All decennial census enumerator instructions, 1790 through 2020 (free): IPUMS USA at the University of Minnesota hosts the complete instructions for every U.S. census: usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/tEnumInstr.shtml
Census Bureau history and question wording, decade by decade: census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/index_of_questions
OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 revisions and implementation: spd15revision.gov
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00:46 – Analyzing the "Demographic Decimation" map from X (Twitter)
01:57 – The Mystery of the 1940 Census: When a race "disappeared"
04:52 – How strangers (enumerators) decided your race for 160 years
07:18 – Why the white population "dropped" between 2010 and 2020
08:50 – The DNA test factor: Why checking "White Alone" is changing
10:53 – The 2024 Rule Change: Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) categories
Sources:
1930 U.S. Census Enumerator Instructions U.S. Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States: Instructions to Enumerators, Population, 1930. Section 155: usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/inst1930.shtml
1930 Census — Categories and Codes U.S. Census Bureau, "1930 Overview," History Program. Confirms enumerator race codes (W, Neg, Mex, In, Ch, Jp, Fil, Hin, Kor) and the one-time-only status of "Mexican" as a distinct race category. census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/index_of_questions/1930_1.html
1940 U.S. Census Enumerator Instructions U.S. Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States: Instructions to Enumerators, Population, 1940. Full text available through IPUMS: usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/inst1940.shtml
2020 Census Race Data Release U.S. Census Bureau, "Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the United States: 2010 Census and 2020 Census," August 12, 2021. census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/2020-united-states-population-more-racially-ethnically-diverse-than-2010.html
OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, Revised March 28, 2024 Office of Management and Budget, "Revisions to OMB's Statistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity," Federal Register, March 29, 2024. federalregister.gov/documents/2024/03/29/2024-06469/revisions-to-ombs-statistical-policy-directive-no-15-standards-for-maintaining-collecting-and
OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, 1997 version Office of Management and Budget, "Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity," October 30, 1997. The rule that classified persons of Middle Eastern or North African origin under the "White" category. obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/omb/fedreg_1997standards
Gratton, Brian, and Emily Klancher Merchant. "La Raza: Mexicans in the United States Census." Journal of Policy History 28, no. 4 (October 2016): 537–567. The definitive scholarly account of how Mexican American leaders, allied with the Mexican government and sympathetic politicians, successfully pressured the Census Bureau to remove the "Mexican" race category after 1930. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/631860
League of United Latin American Citizens, "LULAC's Milestones." Confirms that beginning in El Paso in 1936, LULAC "pressured the US Census Bureau to reclassify persons of Mexican descent from 'Mexican' in 1930 (previously 'white' in 1920) and back to 'white' in 1940." lulac.org/about/history/milestones
National Research Council, The 2000 Census: Counting Under Adversity (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2004), Chapter 8: "Race and Ethnicity Measurement." Confirms that prior to 1960, enumerators determined racial classification by observation, and that self-identification became the standard beginning with the mail-based 1960 and fully self-reported 1970 censuses. nationalacademies.org/read/10907/chapter/10
Pew Research Center, "Race and the Census: The 'Negro' Controversy," January 21, 2010. pewresearch.org/social-trends/2010/01/21/race-and-the-census-the-negro-controversy
Jones, Nicholas, Rachel Marks, Roberto Ramirez, and Merarys Ríos-Vargas. "2020 Census Illuminates Racial and Ethnic Composition of the Country." U.S. Census Bureau, August 12, 2021.mhttps://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/2020-united-states-population-more-racially-ethnically-diverse-than-2010.html
Your family's actual 1940 census record (free): Search by name, state, and county at the National Archives 1940 Census site: 1940census.archives.gov The race column will be filled in by the enumerator, not your relative. Compare handwriting across the entire page to see the same enumerator making judgment calls on every household.
All decennial census enumerator instructions, 1790 through 2020 (free): IPUMS USA at the University of Minnesota hosts the complete instructions for every U.S. census: usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/tEnumInstr.shtml
Census Bureau history and question wording, decade by decade: census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/index_of_questions
OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 revisions and implementation: spd15revision.gov
✅Join me OFF of Youtube
patreon.com/NYTN
💚💚Get you $50 cash back @ Rakuten rakuten.com/r/DANIEL9771
☕Send me a coffee!: ko-fi.com/nytn13#linkModal
nytonashville.com
