They speak? They have eyes? I hadn't noticed.
Posted on 12/17/2009 9:20:07 AM PST by NativeNewYorker
DEARBORN, Mich., Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Ethnic groups, especially Arab-Americans, say the U.S. census all but eliminates any way of distinguishing their background by simply classifying them as white. "It's unfair because we are not treated as white in society and by the government, but we also don't qualify as minorities to get the benefits of some programs" such as minority contracts, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Regional Director Imad Hamad said. The concern arose because, for the first time, the regular 2010 U.S. census form eliminates a question asking people about their ancestry. Government officials say they shortened the form so more people would fill it out than in previous decades. The U.S. Census Bureau considers anyone with Middle Eastern roots, for instance, as white. "That's just weird to me," said Khadigah Alasry, 23, whose parents were born in Yemen. Alasry of Dearborn, Mich., has light-brown skin and told the Detroit Free Press she doesn't consider herself white.
"There is no such thing as white culture," said Thaddeus Radzilowski, president of the Piast Institute, a Polish-American group near Detroit.
Having the ancestry question "provides a better notion of our pluralistic society and who we are," the newspaper quoted him as saying.
"We're aware of the problems with the census," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, a Chinese-American, told an Arab-American group in Dearborn, Mich. "But we still need you to participate."
Locke, whose department oversees the Census Bureau, said the ancestry question remained on the American Community Survey, sent to some 250,000 addresses monthly to replace the decennial census' long form.
I prefer to refer to Flemings as "The Phlegms."
My ancestors showed up a couple boats after the Mayflower. Over the following generations, several of the menfolk married ladies from local native tribes. You may refer to me as a Baseline-American...
There is only one “classification”: AMERICAN. The rest is just stuff you talk about/sing/drink/dance at family reunions.
YEP.
NO! The Italians fought long and hard to NOT be considered an immigrant minority community. So did the Irish. Too bad for them, they won their battle, but the spoils go to the minorities.
We certainly weren't living high on the horse at the time, either. He drove a 1978 Plymouth Volare, mom drove a 1989 Chevy Caprice, and I had my 1985 Mercury Lynx...nothing fancy by any means. Either way, that ended up forcing me to work my way through school (a decision I don't regret).
Ay Chihuahua!
I watch the Spanish channel. Blond hair. Blue eyes. They sure look White to me. In fact, they speak a language very close to Italian. And we are White.
;^)
Oh, one of those, huh?
I hate you people!!!
PS: That was a joke.
"All right... we'll give some land to the n-----s and the c---ks......But we don't want the Irish!"
Oh great. Now that's an image I needed at dinnertime!
That’s because they are white. The Census Bureau had to create the category of non-Hispanic whites to differentiate between the two.
Of course there’s always, ‘Fat, Miserable Belgian Bastards.’
German? That's it? Just...German? Vandal, Goth, Alan, Saxon, Hunnic? Come on man we need to really get ethic.
I thought you were gonna go somewhere racist...like opening a shoe-shine stand. What a relief.
Yeah, I can speak many languages. Spanish is not one.
But for some reason, I always watch the weather in Spanish while drinking my coffee.
They shouldn’t.
BUT:the rationale was/is that they were historicly discriminated against in the west and southwest. Of course blacks get it because of slavery and Jim Crow.
I don’t agree with any of that but thats the rationale. But Muslims weren’t even here. Why should they be considered for any special treatment at all?
Being here is not a requirement. The category of Hispanic was established in the 1970s. Hispanics were about 1% of population then. They are now 16% and will be 30% by 2050. Hispanics comprise about two-thirds of the 1.2 million legal immigrants who enter annually and the vast percentage of those who enter illegally (about 500,000 a year.) What grievance do they have? Or some immigrant from Haiti or Nigeria or China?
Arabs have distinctive features. Muslims can claim that they are being discriminated against by their names and religion. Once you go down this slippery slope, you just open yourself up to this nonsense that is leading to the Balkanization of this country, which will be 50% minority by 2050.
We need to get rid of laws that confer benefits on individuals based on gender, ethnicity, and race. It is distructive and patently unfair.
How about “Dangerous Maniac Ragheads”?
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