r/USCensus2020

The US census has added a MENA census category. While we’re still 4 years away from the census it has started to appear on various forms that ask that type of information. So I guess this question is primarily for other ethnic Jews. Most American Jews descend from people who came here from the pale of settlement and other places in Eastern Europe roughly between 1880 and 1920. I personally don’t feel a connection with those countries as my ancestors were treated poorly. But I’m not sure what the best way to answer. Obviously this is a fraught issue. For me personally, I look very Mediterranean and this has very much affected how some people have treated me. But I don’t think it really compares to how women wearing hajib are often treated. Have you all run across this yet and if so how did you answer or plan to answer?

King County is approaching majority-minority status — but parts of the Eastside got there years ago. Here’s the city-by-city breakdown.

The Seattle Times reported last week that King County could have no single ethnic majority group as soon as next year. King 5 picked it up the same day. I went to the Census data to look at this more granularly, by city.
King County overall: White (non-Hispanic): 52.2%, down from 56.9% in 2020 Asian: 23.5% Foreign-born: 25.8% (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020–2024 ACS 5-Year Estimates)

City by city:
Seattle: White 58.8%, Asian 17.5%, Hispanic 8.5% (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020–2024 ACS)
Bellevue: White 40%, Asian 43%, Foreign-born 43% (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020–2024 ACS)
Redmond: White 44.8%, Asian 40.2%, Hispanic 6.7% (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020–2024 ACS)
Issaquah: White 55.7%, Asian 26.6% (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020–2024 ACS)
Kirkland: White 62.3%, Asian 19.3% (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020–2024 ACS)
Mercer Island: White 63%, Asian 24% (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020–2024 ACS)

A few things stand out:
Bellevue and Redmond already have no majority group. In Bellevue, Asian is the plurality at 43%. In Redmond it is nearly even — 44.8% white, 40.2% Asian. Both cities have foreign-born populations above 40%, triple the national average.
Seattle, despite being the region’s largest city, is actually less diverse than the Eastside — still 58.8% white. The Eastside diversified faster because tech immigration landed here disproportionately, not in Seattle proper.
Issaquah is the fastest-moving market I track. White share dropped nearly 3 points since 2020. Strong schools and more accessible price points compared to Bellevue are attracting similar buyer profiles slightly later in the cycle.
Mercer Island and Kirkland are earlier in the shift — high homeownership rates and higher price points mean the existing base turns over slowly.

I’m an Eastside realtor and this is the data I track for my clients.
From a real estate lens: school district strength, proximity to cultural amenities, and walkable density are showing up as hard pricing factors, not soft preferences. You can see it in where competitive offers concentrate on the Eastside.
Curious whether others are tracking the same patterns. Does the demographic shift visibly affect where buyers are landing in your experience?

This is a genuine curiosity post. I’m sharing what I see in the market and interested in what others are experiencing. Keep it civil please.

A lot of southern Mexicans, Guatemalans, Peruvians and bolovians are going to check that box and the native American population is going to skyrocket. They are not white!

Asian looking descendents that are brown.

Why did it take a long time to make this rule?

Bolivians and chiapas people are not white.

Today is the last day for Census self-enumeration, so I sent the link to my friends. It turned into a debate, and now I'm curious to know what others think.

Their main arguments were:

• This isn't our responsibility. It's the government's job, and the employees are getting paid to do it. We aren't getting any incentive for filling it ourselves.
• We already pay taxes. Crores of rupees from taxpayers' money are allocated for conducting the census. The whole point of that budget is for the government to collect this data properly. Why should citizens do part of the work that has already been paid for?
• If people self-enumerate, there's a huge chance they'll intentionally enter misinformation to get benefits.
• Verification is the key. If the data is already filled, many officials, especially government teachers who are doing this along with their regular jobs, might just verify it without actually checking properly because it makes their work easier.
• Since this happens only once every 10 years, why can't the officials simply come to every house, ask the questions themselves, and do the work they're being paid for? I actually agree with this point. If the data is incorrect or manipulated, working with it could be harder than starting from scratch.

But my thoughts were a bit different.

Even if we self-enumerate, officials should still come to our homes and verify the information. That's how the process is supposed to work.

The reason this work is given to government employees is because they are accountable for it. If they skip verification or approve false information, there is a way to trace who verified that particular household. That's the whole point of assigning government employees to do the verification. If they tamper with the data or fail to do their job properly, they're putting their own jobs at risk.

I also felt that many details like the type of house, roof, walls, electricity connection, etc. can be verified just by visiting the house. If someone lies about those, it should be fairly easy to spot and flag. Things like LPG connection or toilets obviously need to be asked. Even then, if something feels off, the enumerator can flag it and report it. Since many of the enumerators are government teachers from nearby areas, they may also have some familiarity with the locality, which could help during verification.

My other point was that we spend time on the internet filling out surveys, quizzes. Spending 10 minutes filling out the census, the data that is used for planning schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and policymaking for the coming years. I saw self-enumeration as a small civic contribution, while the government is still responsible for verifying and validating the information.

But for them, it all came down to one point:

"We're already paying for this through our taxes. The employees are getting paid to do this. Let them do the job properly, even if it takes longer. This happens only once every 10 years."

I couldn't really say they were wrong either, so we just agreed to disagree.

What are your thoughts on this?

All presidents have changed certain policies like stem cells research etc, but within the law. It feels like deleting this data is in violation that this data belongs to the American people

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) appears to be purchasing records related to immigrants’ tax identifiers from a data broker, potentially skirting a court order that banned ICE from sourcing such information, according to Senator Ron Wyden and government procurement records reviewed by 404 Media.

The $10 million procurement reviewed by 404 Media indicates ICE is buying records related to immigrants’ tax identifiers. “It looks for all the world like Trump is trying to skirt the law and a court order to fuel his mass-deportation campaign,” Senator Ron Wyden said.

Read now: https://www.404media.co/ice-appears-to-be-buying-immigrants-tax-identifiers-from-a-data-broker/

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