NBC: Although the 2020 US Census is still five years away, the U.S. Census Bureau must make final decisions about the design, methodology, and content of the next census soon. So civil rights organizations are already compiling recommendations to make sure that communities of color are counted correctly.

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“We cannot afford to go backwards,” said Terry Ao Minnis, Director of Census and Voting Programs for Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC, who warned that for Asian Americans, combining race and ethnicity questions and removing detailed check boxes for ethnicity would decrease and discourage race reporting, especially for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.