My race is “American”
Mark Krikorian is fighting back against Census form race politics and urging you to do the same:
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.
Ditto that!
Scott Johnson at Power Line reminds us of De Crevecoeur’s Letter from an American Farmer:
In Letter III of his Letters From an America Farmer (1782), J. Hector St. John De Crevecoeur famously asked: “What then is the American, this new man?” He answered: “He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He has become an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all races are melted into a new race of man, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims.” (More on De Crevecoeur here.)
I’ll add Teddy Roosevelt’s famous passage about hyphenated Americanism:
There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all… The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic… There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.
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On March 9th, 2010 at 1:18 pm, DanMan said:
Obama’s an American Indian, too.
My sons are Norwegian, German, British, Cajun and Native American (that we know about).
“American” sounds GREAT to me!!!
p.s. I know Cajun isn’t an ethic group…but they’re crazy so don’t mess with them!
I put “Human.” Wish I saw this post before sent it in.
Why is it the dems that are always dividing up Americans…if they are so tolerant, why classify people by ones heritage and not their belief in their country and themselves?
I am a firm believer in the words “if you don’t like it here or your country of heritage is so good to you, go there, please”
All legalized citizens should be Americans 1st.
I made my point with the Mass court’s jury pool squad when I refused to answer their race question. It states that I am subject to fines and or imprisonment for intentionally making false statements so I called them and asked more about that, “Does that mean that for every question I answer I must be reasonably certain that the answer is correct?”
They said said yes it does and then I told that I was adopted at birth so I do not actually know for certain what race I am so I cannot in good conscious answer the question truthfully. They asked if I thought I knew.. yes, I think I do but I’m not about to bet a fine or imprisonment on it.
Then they said to just leave it blank so I did and sent it in. It was for alternate juror duty and it turned out they didn’t need me anyway.
That was five or six years ago – I’ve haven’t been called for jury duty since then. Hmmm… I wonder if they put a little mark next to my name?
Of three children, one of mine is “White” on his birth certificate.
He was born at the Naval Hospital, Charleston, S.C. I don’t know if it still is true, but in S.C. the race of the child is dependent on the race of the father. It supposedly goes back to the days of slavery.
If the father is WHITE, and the mother is Choctaw-Hawaiian-Tibetan-Hutu-Inuit-Australian Aborigine, then the child is WHITE.
Kind of makes me wonder if, during the Potato Famine and the great exodus from Ireland to America, the 1850 and 1860 Census listed “Irish” as separate from WHITE.
I’m leaning toward “Daytona”.
I just got a letter from the Census Dept. It says I’m going to get a census form in a week. Another waste of money. Why didn’t they just send the form?
The ads are costing us $350 million. Why don’t they just run a lottery where 100 census forms are drawn to win $1 million each. That will get them returned and save us $250M. Of course if fraud is found, the criminal should be liable for a $1M fine.
On March 9th, 2010 at 1:21 pm, mojo said:
If you believe in evolution, that is.
If, however, you believe the Bible, we are all descendants of Adam and Eve. And if we look at the 8 people who were on Noah’s ark and survived the flood, (Noah, his wife, their 3 sons, and the sons’ wives), the common ancestor for the Y chromosome was Noah, but the common ancestor for the X chromosome was Eve.
It makes perfect sense that
Y-chromosomal Adam (really Y-chromosomal Noah) is younger than Mitochondrial Eve.
Now, I don’t accept wikipedia’s description of exactly how old they are (*), but it is interesting to note that the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) from whom all living men are descended patrilineally (tracing back along the paternal lines of their family tree only) is younger than the matrilineal most recent common ancestor for all living humans.
* Note: The “problem” with believing in evolution and believing that Y-chromosomal Adam lived “between 90,000 and 60,000 years ago” and Mitochondrial Eve lived “around 200,000 years ago” is that while you can believe in God in general, evolution and those ages are in conflict with the Biblical account. They can’t both be true.
For example, if you believe that Jesus is who the Bible says He is, then it makes sense to believe that Joseph was who the Bible says he was, and his father, and his father, all the way back to Adam. The Bible gives the Genealogy of Jesus Christ and links Jesus Christ to “Adam, the son of God”. If you believe the Biblical account of Jesus, you need to believe the Biblical account of Adam. If you don’t believe the Biblical account of Adam, then you really don’t believe the Biblical account of Jesus.
Thank you Michelle, for sharing this. As the trend has been for the race-counters to use childish labels as if humans were simply divergent representatives of the light spectrum, I’ve been writing “Pink” for years. Henceforth it shall be written unwaveringly as American!
On March 9th, 2010 at 1:32 pm, vickisoup said:
Why are we being asked our race on a government generated census questionairre? When are we going to stop referring people by race? When is race relevent when counting people since we each count as one?
How about:
Are you in the country legally? ____
Race: When younger. Now, only to bathroom.
Beck was also talking about the census this morning (and yes, he made a very (IMHO) gracious apology to MM after the phone call affair).
Plus, this morning I got my “you’ll be getting a letter” letter from the department of redundancy department in Washington. I’m not thrilled with the questions (actually my home is rather average and have nothing to hide, but I just find them offensively intrusive).
I’d appreciate link(s) to learned opinions about whether it really is necessary to answer any of the questions beyond the first (“how many live there”)? The remaining questions would surely seem to exceed the constitutional requirement to simply count the populace, but IANAL.
First, I find it mind boggling that they still ask people their race. For most people even asking their ethnic origins would require a genealogy chart to describe.
Second,White and Black are COLORS not a Race or ethnic origin. They don’t mean much of anything and I am insulted to be called White. “White” in no way describes anyone.
I like the “American”, Or “Born in USA”, or if they want to go back further, “Heinz 57″ or “Mixed”.
Perhaps, some day I will just write “See Attached” and attach a chart of the locations for all my ancestors, at least as far as I can determine, with a note in red, “My place of birth, Florida, United States of America, you figure it out”.
I think Terrestrial is the best answer; It fits whether you are a creationist or evolutionist. No matter how we started, we are all related distantly.
Vulcan-Chinese-Irish-Creole
Perhaps we should all send a letter saying they would be receiving a reply to their notice.
But then they would simply send us a letter notifying us we would receive a letter thanking us for participating in the census and we would feel compelled to send them a letter notfying them we would be send a letter of welcome, to which they would send……….
If, in answer to the race questions, I wrote on the form, “I could tell you but then I would have to kill you,” could it be considered a threat?
*America can be so much better than this, but not until the right people are in D.C.; I predict, sadly, that the census in 2020 will also ask for a persons’ sexual identity; To the minorities go the bennies!
*I’ll answer how many at the address, as for the others, it will be NOYFB!
On March 9th, 2010 at 3:12 pm, RogersUmp said:
Made me think of…
“Out of many, one”
Why don’t we start acting like One Nation Under God?
I can’t see anything wrong with writing American or Human, but what’s the word on filing a false instrument regarding some of these other answers?
I’m sure the likelihood of any penalties is small, but everyone should be informed about potential risk.
Corkie, my (very limited) knowledge on the census, constitutionally, is they only have the authority to ask a quantitative question, IOW, “how many peole live here?” Anything else you do not have to answer.
They chopped down a gazillion trees for all the “your census is coming” letters because they want you to make sure you’re aware that everyone gets their “fair share.” The matter of redistribution was so important they said it twice.
Ain’t that the truth.
I’m jealous that Hispanic/Latino/Spanish/PuertoRican/Cuban/Arentinean/Columbian/Dominican/Nicaraguan/Salvadoran/Mexican/Chicano/Spaniard/_________ people get their own question. I’m just some generic Euromutt. I feel so, I dunno…insignificant. Thanks, US Census.
For those who believe the questions outside of “number of people in your household” are unconstitutional, here’s a reminder of what it says in Article I Section 2:
In such manner as they shall by law direct. If you have a problem with the laws, get Congress to change them. But the Constitution as it stands allows Congress to enact changes to the way the census is conducted. Fill out the form, fill it out honestly, and send it in, or you’re breaking the law.
I can’t believe I just promoted something I take issue with. And for no compensation! Where’s my fair share?!
That’s it, I’m filling in __________!
I see that as the method used for the enumeration; door to door, by mail, etc.
I don’t see it as giving the CB the right to ask other questions, create surveys and badger people who don’t feel that it is the gov’s business to know anything else about the general public. Any redistribution of funds should be by the consent to the people and not for the political elites to continue to pander for votes.
The Census isn’t for counting Americans, it’s for counting how much money poverty pimps and other big-government types can score for their chosen friends.
When the form comes to my house next week (after the reminder came yesterday to tell me I was getting the form next week) they get Question #1 answered and that’s it.
If a SEIU thug comes to my door looking for more, I’ll kindly tell him he’s trespassing and he gets no other answers.
If they try to charge me a fine for not answering, good luck collecting.
As it turns out, my significant other, her daughter, and I are moving around the first of June anyway so I may luck out and they’ll come to a vacant house.
On March 9th, 2010 at 11:38 am, Psycotte said:
Where da JEWZ?
I was born Jewish, was baptized as an evangelical protestant, and will be accepted into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church at Easter vigil. My last protestant denomination was the Nazarenes-therefore my new race is…JUDEO-CATHERENE.
*smirk*
Let me guess, you gave up Matzo balls for Lent?
Having the right not to answer doesn’t give you the right to knowingly give the government false information.
Again, there might be risks associated with providing false information on a document being filed to the federal government. Research/consider this before you decide to write anything which can’t be justified as truthful (e.g. human race, American race, etc.).
Searching through geneology records the census in the 1800′s did list the number of people living in a household (plus their ages but nothing listing the relationship to the owner of the property), and if applicable, the number of servants or slaves. It also listed the number of buildings, their use, and livestock. The best records from the 1600′s through today are the Last Will and Testaments because that was a local legal document and was much more honest. Everyone in town knew your worth so it was prudent to be honest.
There is a very old joke in geneology about women having no last names. You’ll run onto a census where a women close to the same age as the head of household is listed as ‘Susan’ but nothing more. Ok, we have his wife – but, oh no, you run onto a Will and Susan turns out to be his sister (helping raise the children because the wife died years earlier).
These documents are invaluable to researchers but in present times I can understand the reluctance to give out more than you are comfortable disclosing. They probably didn’t have to deal with identity theft or wonder why their gubmint wants to know some things.
A quick example of my point. You have a constitutional right to NOT file a welfare application, but if you do submit a welfare application then you can’t provide false information on it.
I’m w/ CO2Producer on #127…
I like the term “Euromutt.”
It’s either that or I’m claiming to be a Vulcan like Creole.
“Live long and prosper.”
My great-grandmother was 1/2 Mexican. Is that enough to count?
If not, am I liable for checking that I am hispanic?
If so, am I liable for not checking that I am?
“American” is the best way to be honest while defying government racism.
Tens of millions of census respondents all saying “American” to their attempts to divide us is harder to ignore than tens of millions of respondents giving scattered responses as if they didn’t understand the divisive nature of the question.
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
But you’re probably safe checking:
a) whatever you think is true;
b) nothing; and
c) anything you can justify as true.
I appreciate everyone’s anger at the census questions, but failing to answer “Caucasian” only increases the weight given to minorities, which increases funding inequities. Sad, but true.
Of course, there shouldn’t even be 95% of the veQ the feds are spending…
(Threw that one in for all my Klingon-American
friends)
What is there FALSE about listing American as your race? If they ask me to prove it, I can pull out my family Bible listing my family back to the late 1600′s.
Sorry, I meant to imply that American and Human can be justified as truthful.
A few others mentioned on here probably can’t be.
I like the term “generic.”
Yep. Cultural sensitivities and all that. They do allow you to check more than one box on the census.
Good thing the census asks for “white” instead of “Caucasian,” since my ancestors lived nowhere near the Caucasus Mountains, as far as I know.
I just noticed that I referred to “Arentinians” in my previous comment. Must have been a Freudian slip referencing the Party of No. Sorry, Argentinian-Americans. Don’t let it be said that I’m insensitive.
Hmm. Generic-American. It’s sort of catchy.
Itooktheredpill
Answers in Genesis?
I saw one of their video seminars a few years after I was baptized.
They’re one of the reasons that I now consider my self to be an ‘intelligent designer’-rather than a creationist.
Being Jewish, I like to write “asian”, although I think the middle east doesn’t count.
Of course, now I actually live in Asia (don’t worry, the IRS knows where I am; they sent me a large book as a “present” recently), I suppose I don’t get “enumerated” anyway.
Please note that the earlier censuses (censi?) did ask these things – they referred to “stock” – they wanted to know if you were from NW Europe, I guess.
Black, Af. Amer. or Negro? Wow! So if you’re a while S. African exile, or from, say, Tunisia or Egypt, you can fill it in. Neat!
There was a time that race was asked on the federal government census so the ‘negro’ could be counted as ‘three fifths’ and their population and political influence in the south reduced — And now they are counting race so the population of the whites is diluted, and other than white is rewarded with more federal benefits.
Reparations by census.
I wonder, does Rev Wright have a sermon on how this works?
I agree, race is American, or natural born American
So they can figure our how to pander to whom, in order to get their vote.
“Earthling”?
Why do ‘hispanics’ get their own questions?
I may just check other and then enter ‘None of Your Business.’
On the census, all you need to report is how many live in the residence and how many are of voting age. That is in accordence with Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution.
crazy fool:
I noticed the emphasis on hispanics the last census. They have been planning for the future when they are the majority. The illegal alien invasion HAS NOT been accidental or from incompetence. It was intentional. By OUR government.
On March 10th, 2010 at 3:26 am, cubbiegal said:
cubbiegal,
Do you believe that Jesus was a real person, who walked the face of this Earth?
Do you believe that his (non-biological) father, Joseph, was a real person who walked the face of this Earth?
Do you believe that his father, Heli, was a real person who walked the face of this Earth?
Etc., etc.
The entire genealogy of Jesus Christ, all the way back to “Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God” is laid out in black and white in Luke 3:23-38. Which part of that New Testament passage do you think is not true?
If you don’t believe the Biblical account of Adam, then you don’t believe the Biblical account of Jesus Christ.
could someone at the CB tell me the truthful answer to
“how does ones’ ethnic origin affect a ‘fair share’ of funding?”
My parents were born in America. My parents’ parents were born in America. My parents’ parents’ parents were born in America. I was born in America. How many generations do I need before I’m a native American?
Those are excellent questions. I’d be willing to bet that no one in the US BoC would have the nads to venture a substantive answer either.
Itooktheredpill
Answers in Genesis believes that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time and that the earth is 6000 something years old. I tried believing that when I was first baptized but the facts don’t back that up.
Yes-I believe in the Bible. I believe that it’s God-inspired but that it was written by man. Much of it-starting with Genesis-is allegory.
Evolution-rather than cause me to doubt my creator-makes me more in awe of him.
That’s one of the reasons that I’m leaving the more fundamentalist Nazarenes for Catholicism. The Church doesn’t hold a totally literalistic view of the Bible and believes that modern science and faith compliment-rather than work against-each other.
There’s a reason why I took a scholar of the Church-St.Edith Stein(a Ph.D in philosophy) as my patron saint.
Her intellect informed her faith which in turn informed her intellect.
How she saw Christianity is how I see Christianity.
cubbiegal,
Please explain which parts of Luke 3:23-38 are, in your opinion, allegorical, and which parts are, in your opinion, literal.
I’m really curious how you parse that.
A point of logic of which you may already be aware: The genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3:23-38 could be 100% literally true all the way to Adam, while the story of Adam (and many parts of the stories of the other names in the lineage) as the first human could be completely allegorical.
Your point of logic is to claim that all of Luke 3:23-38 could be 100% literally true all the way up to the last four words, while the last four words could be completely allegorical.
Exactly. Of course.
The last four words are quite different from the rest. You should be able to see that even if you think the last four words are not allegorical.
Roland,
When Jesus spoke in parables, it was obvious that he was teaching a spiritual truth through a parable.
This passage from Luke is not a parable. It is a genealogy.
You want to use your own theological scalpel and decide which words in a New Testament verse are 100% literally true and which words are completely allegorical.
You get to “play God” and decide what you want to believe is true, and what you want to essentially discard as not really true.
You have the freedom to do that and believe whatever you want to believe.
But don’t claim that your arbitrary editing is a “point of logic”. It’s not. It’s a “point of personal preference”.
If everyone gets to choose what parts of the Bible they think are true, and which parts they think are not really true, then the Bible becomes meaningless… it means whatever you decide it means.
This isn’t really anything new.
Man has been trying to “play God”/”be like God” ever since Adam & Eve.
I think you misunderstood what I was saying about the point of logic. Perhaps I failed to be clear.
I was not saying that was the way it was. I was saying there was nothing logically inconsistent about saying that is the way it was. Right or wrong.
I have no interest in a discussion about whether or not Genesis should be taken literally. Such a discussion is a waste of everyone’s time. Anyone who thinks the Universe was Created 6000 years ago is seriously disconnected from reality.
I assume you consider evolution to be “reality”. If I am wrong about that assumption, please correct me, but the remainder of this comment will move forward from that assumption.
Yet the “scientists” who are telling us that evolution is “reality” are practicing the scientific method about as well as the “scientists” who are telling us that Anthropogenic Global Warming is “reality”.
Science is not about “consensus”. And any “scientist” who resorts to claims of “consensus”, instead of results from reproducible scientific experiments, is not a scientist at all.
They cannot show any scientific evidence of a macro-evolution transition from one species to another species. We are expected to just accept that belief by faith.
You have faith in a man-made “consensus” of evolution.
I have faith in the Biblical account of creation.
You claim I am “seriously disconnected from reality”, yet you have faith in the same people who sell us the man-made “consensus” of AGW.
I think the “consensus” believers are “seriously disconnected from reality”.
We are all decendents of Adam & Eve.
So, to come back to the topic of this post, I guess we could all say that our “race” is “Adamandevian“.
On March 10th, 2010 at 9:38 am, Savage24 said:
I must be reading the wrong constitution.
I think the census is least of our problems. Labeling me a black man or a negro won’t emotionally hurt me. Now bankrupting businesses and magnifying poverty amoung the middle class, that’s different…..anyway, American isn’t a race but nationality. In most nations, they are made up of tribes. 12 tribes made the Israel nation.
Ummm… no. The 3/5 compromise was not do diminish the influence of the African slaves, but to diminish the influence of the slave owners.
I am definitely going to self-identify as a Caucasian. Let them challenge that one.
what they can do is take off all race categories and count on the basis of individual and individual family size.
“We’d Like to Know More About You…”
It seems like the questions are more like where are you from rather than what race are you.
American it is!!
Hey….I resemble that remark!
Great idea though I might use that.
self-identify as Celtic-American