The Senate Local Government Committee is not moving forward with a bill that allows a person to decline to specify his or her race when filling out state and local government forms. The Committee sent Senate Bill 105 to the 41st legislative day, effectively killing the measure. Roslyn resident Lawrence Diggs says the bill is needed because people shouldn’t be forced to assign themselves to a racial group. He says science shows that race doesn’t actually exist.
“Because there’s no definition of race and people don’t really understand it, the assignment becomes arbitrary,” Diggs says. “So people find themselves forced to become part of something that they have no affinity for. They don’t belong to this group, but they are forced to do that.”
Diggs says people should be able to opt out of declaring a race on forms.
But opponents say the bill encourages people to not report their race. Joan Adam is the Director of Administration for the Department of Health. She says the information collected by her department is vital to maintaining the health of South Dakotans.
“By identifying high risk populations, the department is able to demonstrate need for federal funding and target those resources to the affected populations,” Adam says. “Issues such as infant mortality, tobacco use, and tuberculosis control are just some of the health issues that are dependent on race specific data for program development and monitoring.”
Other opponents say the bill is a good idea, but isn’t practical until the federal government changes its funding requirements. The Committee sent the bill to the 41st legislative day with a vote of five to two.