(AP) — Advocates in Hawaiʻi say the pandemic has underscored the importance of collecting and reporting racial data. Honolulu City Councilwoman Esther Kiaʻāina says the pandemic’s toll on Pacific Islanders who are not Native Hawaiian inspired her to introduce a resolution urging Hawaiʻi government agencies to collect more specific data about Pacific Islanders. Kiaʻāina worked at the federal level to separate Native Hawaiian data from Asian data in the 1990s, prompted by concerns that Native Hawaiian students were considered overrepresented in colleges when counted as Asian. Since then, however, all other Pacific Islanders have remained in one category.

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