The Importance of Collecting Data and Doing Social Scientific Research on Race

Copyright

2003

This statement from the American Sociological Association discusses the question of whether to collect statistics that allow the comparison of differences among racial and ethnic groups in the census, public surveys, and administrative databases. The statement summarizes the views of sociologists with expertise in matters related to race in America and highlights significant research findings on the role and consequences of race relations in social institutions such as schools, labor markets, neighborhoods, and health care scholarship that would not have been possible without data on racial categories.