Census debate: Bloggers on race, identity and politics of the 2010 count
Americans have been filling out — and complaining about — the Census for more than 200 years. But the 2010 Census is the first time they can take the debate online.
Bloggers have been writing about their experiences filling out the form. You can log on to Twitter and Facebook to follow various Census protests and boycotts. You can also watch people symbolically burning their Census forms on YouTube.
Even U.S. Census Bureau director Robert Groves has his own blog, where he is trying to answer questions and dispel misinformation about the 2010 count.
There is plenty to talk about: Why is the word "Negro" on the form? Must Hispanics declare their race as white? Should same-sex partners check off the box for husband or wife, even if their state doesn’t recognize gay marriage? Why isn’t there a box for Arabs?
Some conservative groups are encouraging citizens to write in "human" as a protest against the race question. Other groups, including some Latino leaders, are advocating a census boycott as a way to protest the lack of movement on immigration reform in Congress.
As the deadline for census responses approaches, the forms continue to prompt complicated questions within families about race and identity and larger political questions about how much information the federal government should collect from its increasingly diverse citizens.
Jonathan Curiel, blogging at True/Slant:
The term "Negro" on the line for Box No. 2 is one for the record books. Who uses such a term on official documents in the year 2010? Only the U.S. government, which is holding on to a calcified relic of a word . . .
Two centuries ago, in 1778, President George Washington used the word "Negro" in a matter-of-fact way when he said he wanted to acquire property by trading his slaves. "For this land also," he wrote in a letter, "I had rather give Negroes — if Negroes would do. For to be plain I wish to get quit of Negroes."
Washington’s sentence is telling and antiquated, just like the one word from line 2 of the 2010 Census form. When I opened the form a few hours ago, and saw the word "Negro," I had to look twice to see if I was hallucinating. It’s no hallucination — just a reality check on the passage of time, and how some words refuse to disappear, even when we think they’ve gone forever.
Pia Guerrero, blogging at Adios Barbie:
I’m tired. And, I’m disappointed. I’m tired of explaining to folks that yes, I am white and, yes, I am also Mexican. But that struggle pales in comparison to what my darker, more indigenous looking friends and relatives are going to have to face when they explain, "Well, despite having brown skin, according to the U.S. Census, the source of all racial truth, I am indeed white" . . .
Latinos in all our cultures, ethnicities and shades will soon be the biggest population in this country. I really wonder if the Census wants to make it easy to capture accurate information on us. Or are they trying to find another way to make us invisible? Maybe this is a way to make our growing numbers seem a lot less scary. I mean if the "white" population grows to such proportions that they outnumber Latinos, what’s there for white America to fear?
Chris Wysocki, blogging at WyBlog:
If "Pakistani" is a race then by golly so is "American." And if the Census can recognize all those other races, then where is "Jamaican" or "Italian" or "Siberian"?
My race is "American." I’m guessing yours is too. When you fill out your Census form check "Some other race" and write in "American." You might just catch the attention of the racial bean counters and in doing so restore some meaning to E Pluribus Unum.
Waymon Hudson, blogging at The Bilerico Project:
I got a special thrill out of marking "husband" in the relationship box on the Census . . . We are married. We are gay. We are proud.
When so many forms require us to mark "single" (I’m looking at you, IRS tax forms!), this small act was really something special to me — a glimpse at a part of the equality we are fighting for. Little moments like that help keep me fighting when the march for equality gets rough. And it gets rough a lot.
Marriage equality may not be the fight everyone in our community wants to get involved in, but we should all value and respect each other’s relationships. However you choose to identify your family, I hope you all take the chance to do it on the Census. And I hope it feels as good for you as it did for me.
Jill Tubman, blogging at Jack & Jill Politics:
I’m filling out the form because as an African-American (who’s a little bit Cherokee and Piscataway Indian too) I know that my community is depending on me. I’m going to fill out all the questions — even the racial ones. I look forward to the day when we can drop those questions off the form. In other countries, one of the questions often asked is about religion. We don’t ask that here because your religion shouldn’t matter and traditionally has mattered less than race and ethnicity when it comes to voting redistricting and public funds distribution. I hope that we get there someday. But for now, we must understand better the growth of our population as well as the changing socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the American people . . . In the meantime, fill out your Census form and drop it in the mail! You’ll be participating in history.