5 Guiding Questions to Ask **Before** Asking about Race & Ethnicity
Have you ever taken a survey, gotten to that item about race and ethnicity, and paused? Maybe you started to question why you’re being asked and/or how that data will be used? If so, you’re not alone. At Sharp Insight, we ask those questions a lot. And we encourage our clients to do the same. Why? Because we owe it to the communities we support to collect and use social identity data respectfully and intentionally.
As evaluators, we struggle with the “About You” section of surveys because we are keenly aware of an important tension point. We know asking about race and ethnicity can be off-putting to our participants; however, if we don’t ask, then we don’t have data available to measure and, ultimately, reduce racial inequities in our work.
To support our clients with measuring race and ethnicity on their surveys, we developed the five guiding questions below. The next time you’re developing or reviewing a survey, we hope these questions will help you when considering if, when, and how to include race and ethnicity items.
1. Is asking about race and ethnicity in this tool essential for our work?
Based on your program goals and reporting needs, is there a clear purpose for collecting race and ethnicity data? Does that purpose ultimately benefit your respondents and/or the communities you support or is it included “just because” it’s been on past forms or because funders are curious? If you find that race and ethnicity data are not essential to your work at this time, simply don’t ask. If you do, read on!
2. How will our participants’ race and ethnicity data be protected, private, and secure?
Race and ethnicity have long been used as the basis for marginalizing individuals and communities. It is vital that leaders and staff take measures to protect, secure, and maintain the confidentiality of sensitive data, including that of participants’ race and ethnicity. Once your systems are in place, be sure to train your staff and then openly communicate this process with your participants to build trust, ultimately leading to more reliable data.
3. Will the race and ethnicity items measure what we actually need to know?
Often, race and ethnicity items are used as a proxy for more abstract phenomena like discrimination and oppression. For example, if you compare Asian/Pacific Islander respondents to Non-Hispanic White respondents on their answer to “How easy was it to access our services?,” you’re not measuring some inherent difference between the two racial/ethnic groups. Rather, you’re likely capturing the ways in which race-based social factors might make your services harder to access for some groups of people. It is important when asking about race/ethnicity to think about the data you’ve actually captured before making comparisons and interpreting results.
4. Does the way we ask about race ethnicity make sense for the communities we work with?
Race and ethnicity are complex social constructs that rarely fit neatly into checkboxes. Survey methodologists have long grappled with these items and continue to do so today. There are models from the 2020 US Census and the US Office on Minority Health that your organization may be asked to follow. Alternatively, you may consider exploring items that center on individuals who identify as a person of color or as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Color). With respect to ethnicity, you may consider a combined “check all that apply” race and ethnicity item with Hispanic or Latino included or you may work in a predominately Hispanic/Latino community where knowing individuals’ native country is more useful than a simple yes or no ethnicity item. Knowing why and how you will use race and ethnicity in your analysis will help guide you in determining the item design itself.
5. How will we intentionally use our respondents’ race and ethnicity data?
If your team has determined that collecting race and ethnicity data is essential to your work, it’s time to map out how you will use the data. For instance, how will you use the data to inform program (re-)design? How will you look for differences in how participants are responding to program delivery based on race or ethnicity? How will you use the information to hold your team accountable for an equitable distribution of services? Ultimately, how will you maximize the data by ultimately using it to reduce racial inequities in your work and in your communities? If you can answer these questions, then asking about race and ethnicity on your next survey may certainly be worthwhile.