Census Q: race? A: American

[ericire12]

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDAzNTgyZTM4NGRiMzUxNDk2MzljMDBlMDdlYTQxMzU=

Sending a Message with the Census   [Mark Krikorian]


John: I haven't gotten my letter from the Census Bureau yet asking me to make sure I fill out the questionnaire. But when I do fill it out, I'll use it to send a message.

Fully one-quarter of the space on this year's form is taken up with questions of race and ethnicity, which are clearly illegitimate and none of the government's business (despite the New York Times' assurances to the contrary on today's editorial page). So until we succeed in building the needed wall of separation between race and state, I have a proposal. Question 9 on the census form asks "What is Person 1's race?" (and so on, for other members of the household). My initial impulse was simply to misidentify my race so as to throw a monkey wrench into the statistics; I had fun doing this on the personal-information form my college required every semester, where I was a Puerto Rican Muslim one semester, and a Samoan Buddhist the next. But lying in this constitutionally mandated process is wrong. Really — don't do it.

Instead, we should answer Question 9 by checking the last option — "Some other race" — and writing in "American." It's a truthful answer but at the same time is a way for ordinary citizens to express their rejection of unconstitutional racial classification schemes. In fact, "American" was the plurality ancestry selection for respondents to the 2000 census in four states and several hundred counties.

So remember: Question 9 — "Some other race" — "American". Pass it on.

[Hazcat]

I like it!

[MikeBjerum]

I thought questions about race and religion and sex were illegal on gov. forms  

If we are all the same and all equal, why ask 

[ericire12]

I thought questions about race and religion and sex were illegal on gov. forms 

If we are all the same and all equal, why ask 

Some animals are more equal than others

[MikeBjerum]

Who was the bus driver that said "From now on we are all green?  Now ... Light green in the front and dark green in the back."

[Sponsor]

[crusader rabbit]

I think I can get behind being racially identified as American.  Sounds like what I donned the uniform for some 44 years ago.  Yep.  I like it.

[tombogan03884]

Sounds good to this Mutt. 

[Rob10ring]

I did this in the last census. I got a few nasty phone calls demanding a real answer of what my race is, then they sent someone to my door. He asked for me by name, then checked me off as the race that he saw me as. My mom is a genealogist and has uncovered people of nearly every race in our past, so this makes these questions really seem stupid.

Since that time, I married a girl who is half white and half filipino. We have 2 daughters that are both the same amount filipino. One is darker and it would be hard to place an ethnic classification on. The other is fair, blonde with blue eyes and I guess they'd make an assumption on her too.

I don't understand what these questions are for, but I had a poly sci prof that told us that the government uses the numbers for allocating funds and to make sure there is a "fair" distribution of wealth.

[shooter32]

Sounds like a plan!

[saltydogbk]

Back in the 60's I asked my Dad about where our people came from.  Germany was the answer.  So I said," that means we are German-Americans?"  His answer was a resounding NO WE ARE AMERICANS.  Since that time , that is the answer I have been using.  By the way, we stepped off the boat in 1750.