Posted on 01/11/2010 7:30:04 AM PST by Between the Lines
It's a new decade, which means that the U.S. Census Bureau is hard at work getting the nation's more than 300 million residents to fill out a 10-question form that determines how the federal government doles out its money.
But one question is causing some controversy. Specifically question No. 9 asks "What is Person 1's race?" The answer choices are "White; Black, African-American, or Negro; American Indian or Alaska Native."
The Grio reports that many older blacks preferred to be called "Negro." "Some prefer it because of their complexion, whether they're light-skinned or dark," said Jeanne R. Stanley, a retiree in Richmond, Va. "Others still have a slave mentality. There are a lot of people who still have a color complex."
But younger generations are angered by the use of the term.
"I find the word 'Negro' to be quite offensive when it comes to the census and separating and differentiating among races because of the history of the use of the word," said Taryn Anthony, a 25-year old graduate student. "I've yet to hear someone use it in a respectable manner, so placing it on a census seems as yet another way to set back African-Americans."
Added Patrick Riley, a New York television producer, "Well, if the census form authors are going to go so far as to include an the archaic term 'Negro,' why not put 'Colored' on there ... just in case someone hadn't graduated from that word usage."
Census officials said that "Negro" was offered as an option because many people wrote in "Negro" on their 2000 census forms. A spokeswoman added that the questions were "tested ad nauseum" and that including the term "outweighed the negatives."
The Grio writes that in light of the census trying to be inclusive of all U.S. residents this year, the decision to include "Negro" could hamper those efforts. Traditionally Hispanics have been wary of filling out census forms, fearing deportation.
"The biggest obstacle I have is that the Hispanic community is very reluctant to give information to anybody related to the government," Roberto Belen told the Island Packet newspaper . Belen, a native of Puerto Rico, is encouraging Hispanics in South Carolina to turn in their forms. But he said he constantly hears people say of the form, "What is so important that I have to risk my liberty?"
oops
I was just noticing that myself... also no hispanic although I do understand the controversy with that. I remember when my granddaughter was in 1st grade her black teacher said for the white people to go to one side of the room and the black people to the other. She - Puerto Rican/white mix started crying because she didn’t know what side of the room she should go. My first thought was what if a white teacher had made that request?
Anyway, my other question is about “mixed” how much percentage of Negro does a person need to remain Negro or what percentage makes them white? And so on. And what do we keep on insisiting that race needs to be identified? Can’t we be just people?
Why don’t that just use Persons Of Color; in which case they can get rid of the question altogether.
Africa is a place, not a race.
The wording needs to be changed worldwide from race to ethnic. There has been too much intermingling of races to determine a classification based on that word. A long time ago I had a friend of mixed “race” and she was always confused as to what “race” she belonged to as she was Caucasian and Negro....both races at that time. Ethnic choice would have given her the privilege of choosing which group she prefered. The problem here with Reid is the double standard.
In Africa years ago the measuring tool for whether a mixed race child was Caucasian or Negro was whether a comb could be pulled through their hair without problem. Children in families with the same parents would often be divided as to their race based on that determination.
I never bother with any ethnic crap. Being a working class white American, I know that excludes me from virtually any Government handouts.
This really hurts with my kids going to out-of-state colleges.
Are your parents white? You don’t qualify.
Do your parents work for a living? You don’t qualify.
Do your parents own their home? You don’t qualify.
Do your parents save any money outside of IRA and 401k? You don’t qualify.
Did grandma give your child a graduation check? You don’t qualify.
Are you an illegal alien? No? You don’t qualify.
Have your parents ever attended a Tea Party? You don’t qualify.
OK strike the last disqualifier.
Cordially,
Cordially,
My point, exactly.
The racial designation has been on census reports for ages and ages..If anyone does any genealogy work you will see this on the reports and identifies those who are immigrants and from the nation they arrived and what languages they speak as well as occupation. It lists the states where you parents were born. There are questions that are not proper on the census reports such as how many computers do you own etc. Once upon a time they asked if you own or rent your home and if you own your business or if you are employed and if you even had a radio.
As to the race it was just identifies as W for White and N for Negro and in cases of genealogy where names are the same and birthdates are in the same area it is helpful to identify family members so I don’t have a problem with the racial designation.
Thought he was from TN..just goes to show you how now running for political office at the National level is just a matter of ..” Hay I wanna be a senator so I’ll move from ARK to NY...or now TN to NY....what crap.
Haven’t seen the census form, but is there a place to list ‘primary language’? ... I mean, perhaps Harry the undertaker was emrely referring to the negro dialect as an alternate language in America? /sarcasm
That is a play on the teacher who did the same thing with blue eyes and brown eyed kids which did teach them something important.
I don’t think Ford has the juice that Hillary or Rfk had.
The Rep. are making small inroads back.Rudy would have won
this seat if he chose to run.
I have not seen any census report more recent than 1930 in any of the work I have done with genealogy and the rate at which these reports is governed by law. I wish we were able to have access to more recent reports but not to date which makes it hard. I suppose it is mostly for privacy reasons.
LOL
Blacks in this country are calling themselves Africaaners? LOL
Reminds me of a woman who called into talk radio. She was mad at the local talk show host because he was a Republican. She said, “You folks always say democracy is good in other countries but then you refuse to vote for a Democrat here when he’s black.”
She somehow thought democracy and democrats were interchangeable words. The talk show host was speechless.
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