Arab Americans aren’t ‘white,’ study authors tell Census

Members of the Aden Community Center, a Bridgeview-based nonprofit that caters to Arab American communities of Chicago, rallied outside Trump International Hotel in 2017. The U.S. Census categorizes people of Arab descent as white. A study from the University of Illinois Chicago recommends government agencies use Middle Eastern/North African to identify the fast-growing demographic group. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file)

A new study on Arab Americans in the Chicago area recommends the U.S. Census Bureau stop categorizing the group as “white or Caucasian” so better data can be gathered and racial injustice can be addressed.

“Beyond Erasure and Profiling,” by scholars at the University of Illinois Chicago, recommends government agencies use Middle Eastern/North African to identify the fast-growing demographic group.