General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Warren listed race as 'American Indian' on Texas bar registration [View all]MineralMan
(146,288 posts)You cannot use it to determine the race of any individual person. It is used to count numbers of people in many categories, including race. Census data, for example, can tell you how many people of any race live in a particular place, but cannot tell you who they are as individuals.
For example, you can use census date to determine how many black people live in a particular zip code, but not to determine their names or addresses. That lets you target an area for campaigning, voter registration, or whatever. In some cases, you can determine how many black people live on a particular street through census data research, but not their names or addresses.
You can determine what percentage of black people own homes in a place, but not which homes are owned by black people.
Your organization can canvass such areas to determine those things on an individual basis. However, for example, the Ku Klux Klan cannot get a list of all homes in some town that are owned by black people. Not everyone or every organization means well, I'm afraid, which is the reason for this confidentiality with respect to individuals.
If you think about it, you'll understand it.
Racial demographic information is available, but not the race of individual people, for very, very good reasons.