A deep dive into Warren’s call for racial data collection

ANGELA YU: Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) captured the passion and nerdiness of politics to its fullest extent at Tuesday’s event on “leveling the playing field.” The Senator dove into her plans for universal child care, wealth equality, and COVID-19 relief. At the center of her argument was the need to actively examine inequities in every step of policymaking. One must approach policy by asking “how it affects communities that have been left behind,” she stated in reference to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black and Brown communities. 

According to Warren, the first step in inclusive policymaking is comprehensive data sets; one cannot advocate for equality without knowledge of its existence. However, data collection organizations like the U.S. Census have historically struggled to accurately report the growing racial diversity in the country. To advance solutions for all Americans, we must demand policies mandating race demographic reporting and expand data collection efforts to target minority communities. 

21st-century innovations in data analysis has made it one of the most valuable tools in addressing humanitarian issues. These numbers help researchers accurately gauge the severity and urgency of an issue. They also enable parties such as governments, nonprofits, and businesses to confirm the viability of their solution. In the healthcare industry, racial and ethnic data is critical to closing disparities in medical care from identifying their existence to tracking the progress of reform efforts. For example, available data shows that minority individuals are less likely to have routine checkups but more frequently hospitalized for Ambulatory Care Sensitive (ACS) Conditions like congestive heart failure. These discoveries lead to initiatives like Patient Navigator programs, which is designed to help minority cancer patients receive and complete treatment.

COVID-19 as a global public health crisis exhibits the importance of accurate racial data. In 2020, U.S. journalists, scientists, and advocates called out missing race and ethnicity data in pandemic reporting despite its devastating impact on communities of color. Black, Latinx, and Native Americans experience COVID-19 deaths at a much higher rate than non-Hispanic, white Americans. The Trump administration responded in June 2020 by mandating the information be reported to public health departments by August 1st. However, only 48% of the cases on the CDC demographic tracker contained data on race and ethnicity as of August 28th. The COVID-19 Racial Data Tracker still shows a wide discrepancy in racial reporting for cases, dropping as low as 3% in Texas and up to 100% in Nevada. 

Senator Warren, along with Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Ayanna Pressley, and Robin Kelley brought missing data to the attention of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in a letter last March. The lawmakers noted that the lack of demographic data prevents healthcare experts from addressing existing disparities in medical care that could accelerate the spread of COVID-19. As a result, nationwide initiatives to curb the impact of the pandemic “will not be felt equally in every community.” The information gap comes from a variety of systemic factors. First, the lack of data standardization across states means that everything from race categories to the exact cause of death is recorded differently. Some states have fallen behind on recording any race data at all due to a shortage of medical staff to follow up on the patient’s background. In addition, communities of color are underrepresented in data collection because of barriers such as language and socioeconomic level. These shortcomings require regulations that mandate uniform data on all demographics across the U.S.

Collecting data is a laborious process, and ensuring racial representation in one’s data adds additional layers of complexity. However, this work is necessary to create policies that truly serve all American people. Warren said it best when she advised us that to get involved in politics, our “motivation from 1 to 10 should be 4,091.” She enthusiastically stressed that we cannot be content with legislation that is not blatantly discriminatory. Change will only come with the collective refusal to accept policies that are not built upon accurate data and do not actively address this country’s racial disparities. 

Angela Yu is a freshman in the School of Foreign Service from Rockville, Maryland.