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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» We Hear From The Department Of Good Ideas And False Choices
God Bless Americans!
That’s what I posted in 2000 and and plan on doing again this year. No one bothered me last time and I wouldn’t have cooperated anyway. What are they going to do? They have no right to any of this information.
I am an AMERICAN!
I got a letter yesterday from the Census Bureau informing me I will be getting my census form next week. What a waste of money.
Yes! I only write in American on any and all forms…drives some people nuts. And, I am hoping all conservatives and lovers of liberty will stop using liberal speak like, African-American…it is the most well-known of hyphenated American in our lexicon today and is absolutely un-American.
People often hyphenate their pre-american heritage or pre-canadian heritage in my case, in order to belong to a specific group and attempt to receive benefits because of that status. For example, because of affirmative action in my country, many immigrants point out their racial heritage during interviews because they know it grants them special status. In other situations though, when it comes to legal rights afforded Canadian citizens for example, such as the Canadian Human Rights Commission or other legal rights, they will proclaim their Candian only identity and make no reference to their other identity. Typical human nature and more so encouraged by racial exploiters and grievance-mongers.
BTW, as I have revealed several times here and elsewhere, I am the son of immigrants who came here to be Americans, not part of some sub-class distinguished by a hyphen. There are some in MA that still argue for social advantage based on where their ancestors sat on the Mayflower. They approve of hyphens.
I celebrate American history month every month.
According to a map by Thomas Huxley
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Huxley_races.png)…
I am Xanthochroi.
I’d like to see the government computers figure that one out. Probably take $120 million and 7,000 goverment jobs saved to fix the computer system when it crashes.
Martin Luther King would approve this message.
I was born here. I’m an American. That as legitimate an answer as any other on that form, including Chinese, Korean or Japanese.
American it is.
I am not mailing back my census form to counter all the ones from Illegal Aliens they are accepting, but if I was I would do this.
Michelle just made me aware of the fact that my occasionally posted rants here and elsewhere about needing to eliminate the reference to “hyphenated” Americans was preceded by 100 years or so by Theodore Roosevelt …
Had never read that anywhere in my over 60 years … but not sure that I would have expected it to have come from that source …
I have always put American on anything and everything I fill out that asked that race question … not just at census time … and it nearly always gets a response that I didn’t fill it in correctly … to which I reply that I filled it in correctly and I refuse to change it …
.
“Some other race – Print race.” – HUMAN
.
That’s my answer and I’m sticking to it.
The only constitutionally mandated question in the whole census process is the number of people. Every other question has no constitutional mandate or other legitimate purpose.
When I get my form the only truthful answer will be the number of people who live in my house. The rest will be some creative fiction.
I realized this is the census form, but what to do about the American Community Survey, the so called long form census? That one is very intrusive.
For decades now I have put down ESKIMO, so at some point I figure I am an eskimo.
Filling in “American” is more satisfying than leaving the field blank — which was my original thinking.
If they had a “Native American” checkbox, that’d be a tempting choice, too.
Why even answer the question? I am serious, why put anything?
Not Applicable.
OT
Michelle- Great interview w/Beck. I love it when you stand up and call BS.
Forget about putting American this year, I am at a toss up between writing in either Tattoienian or Klingon.
Your choice-Either join the Jedi Rebellion or the Klingon Empire!
GSP
On March 9th, 2010 at 11:12 am, tonyr951 said:
.
“Some other race – Print race.” – HUMAN
.
That’s my answer and I’m sticking to it.
Ding Ding Ding! a winner!!
That’s what I answer, too. It is not a lie; I am part of the human race.
Who’s racist? Who’s divisive? Government is.
What about separation of race and state?
I am tempted (God, forgive me!) to answer Question #9 as “Christian”. Let them quibble with that. They treat us as second-class citizens as is, an “honor” liberals have previously heaped upon black, hispanics and poor whites.
I hope I get that one. It’s going to be fun.
Perhaps I’ll notate “Tauren” or “Orc”.
***
One of my two sons–with an ex-Mexican (now U.S.) citizen Mom and an Anglo (me) father was confused about who he was. At age 10 he asked me, “What am I, Dad? Am I Mexican or Gringo?”
***
I explained to him that he had strong characteristics of both groups–but that he should always call himself an AMERICAN. Not a Hispanic–American, Mexican–American, Anglo–American, or Caucasian–American.
***
This has always been the vision of good U.S. Citizens.
***
John Bibb
***
I put “melungeon” on the one ten years ago.
But I like American and Human.
I love to check the African box (my father was born in North Africa) and have them look at me in confusion as I am as white as a ghost.
I got the idea from the controversy of this South African kid who moved here and ran for an African-American award and got suspended.
Take a tip on answering these intrusive questions from Christopher Walkin…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XtuPvwBa2U
Being adopted in a time where, according to my mother,the agencies told the parents what they thought they wanted to hear, I do not know my ethnicity. In 2000, I put down European-American and will again.
On March 9th, 2010 at 11:12 am, tonyr951 said:
On March 9th, 2010 at 11:22 am, TooMuchTime said:
I agree. We are all part of:
Asking people to divide themselves by “race” is both racist and “divisive”.
I’ll probably enter “American” on the census form (rather than “Human”) because it is a Census for the United States of America.
If it were a Census of the whole world, I would enter “Human”.
Where da JEWZ?
Borg
… or perhaps I’ll enter:
I don’t know, I think I’ll go with the best of both worlds, Twilek-Ferengi!
That’s fine, but it has too much of the liberal “Global Community” concept for my tastes.
But any response that’s legitimate and still thwarts the effort of grievance-mongers works for me.
I was thinking of going with “Troll” myself.
Census? They’re doing a census? Why didn’t somebody tell me?
And on this subject of Race as defined by the gubmint. Why does the gov’t need to have race statistics?
Really. What decisions are they making based on race that is so important that it be tallied in the census?
They want to know which communities should get the grievance money?
Very funny.
Long live the Alliance! Death to the Horde!
Human-Paladin
Human-Death Knight
In about a month, some person at the Census bureau will ask a supervisor what to do with a form that has “American” entered under race, and that supervisor will probably answer, “Throw it away.”
On March 9th, 2010 at 11:33 am, nacho475 said:
Yet that kid truly is “African-American”, and the kid who ended up getting the award has probably never even been to Africa, let alone immigrated here from there.
It’s unfortunate but true that some of the biggest racists in this country are those who are Natural Born Citizens of the United States of America yet call themselves “African-American”.
Damn right I’m an American!
Note the Demographic Notes of the December 14, 2009 Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index poll:
OK, so…
Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance.
And…
Seventy-two percent (72%) of Democrats now offer their approval
And…
Seventy-seven percent (77%) of liberals approve
And…
The President earns approval from 37% of White voters and 98% of African-American voters.
So tell me, who is racist???
Don’t tell me that 98% of “African-American” voters approve of President Obama because they are Democrats or because they are Liberals. Democrats and Liberals only approve of Obama at the rate of 72% and 77%, respectively.
What accounts for that 98% approval from “African-American” voters? If it’s not attributable to just political party and/or political ideology, what’s left?
It’s pretty obvious that that 98% approval is due to “African-American” voters judging Obama by the color of his skin.
So, I ask again, WHO’S RACIST???
I don’t care about the color of Obama’s skin. I have always disapproved of Obama because of the content of his character.
I agree with Alan Keyes who said that Obama’s support of leaving born alive infants to die shows that Obama’s conscience is seared.
(On repeated occasions, Obama opposed the Born Alive Infant Protection Act in Illinois).
It’s what my dad does every time the census comes around, and this year, I get to do it too!
Race: AMERICAN!
My race is American.
Ancestrally, I’m Scottish, Irish, Welsh, English, French (*shudder*), Mexican, Native American…
My wife is Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Cornish, English, Jewish(possibly), German, African, Native American…
In a pinch, we could put Celtic, but I think we’ll go with American. Where else could you get a combination of ethnicities like that?
Thanks for including this story MM!
I’ll be writing in “American” on my census forms. I will do so simply because I don’t believe in race/ethnic identity politics and want to ‘opt out’.
…Thus, proving that labels and assumptions really don’t mean very much in the end. In fact, you would probably be most technically correct in claiming “African” as your heritage … to the confusion and bewilderment of the racial bean counters everywhere.
I guess I could check “Other” and put down “100 Meter, 400 Meter, 400 Meter Relay, and 70 Meter High Hurdles.”
I used to run in all those races…
When did “race” become synonymous with “national origin” and “ethnicity?” These morons do realize that race, national origin and ethnicity are NOT the same? I know Chinese folks who were born in Laos, and Germans born in Uruguay and Jews born in Russia…
Just check every box, it worked in Florida
“American” all the way. Saw this over at Ace’s earlier, and am helping spread the word.
That has kind of a nice ring to it…
My census form has “Gregoire” written on it – I think the Acorn worker who delivered it misunderstood what it was…
Under ‘Some Other Race’, simply write ‘Native American’ if you were born here.
Our home will do the number of people in the home and for race-American, period! Big bro has all the info on us they need. They sent the form to our name at our address, so they already have this.
L
Amen.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
hahaha
… or “human”.
I linked this. EVERY American should be doing this.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
I get real annoyed with the fact that some special interest groups get a box, but others, like all my Thai and Cambodian friends, do not.
I think I may just write in Jedi in EVERY single Other box.
Wait, there is no box for Cham or Hmong. What exactly does it take to get a box?
And there aren’t separate boxes for Welsh, Scots or English.
I am going to file a complaint for discrimination!
What’s my race?
The Daytona 500!
Damn right.
Sort of echoes the words I saw on a sign in a photo from a political rally last year (the photo might have been here at MM.com!): A black fellow is holding the sign, on which is written something like: “I’m related to Joe the Plumber…we’re both Americans.”
God Bless that guy and Joe.
God Bless America.
Since I am 57 varieties of ethnicity anyway, it will be easy and enjoyable to write “American” in the box.
Oops!
It’s 2010!
…political rally in 2008.
Apologies….
American for me and proud of it.
Thanks, needed to know how to answer it.
Likewise… 200, 400 400IMH, 800 (when I really had to…)
lol… good answer WarEagle.
I have a feeling the census will not be very accurate this year!! Ha! What is the best way to go on this? Lie, or not answer at all?
I love Michelle and I love Beck. They have very different styles but are both fighting on the same side. If Beck is making a mistake by having that creep on, he will learn from it. I believe, if the guy even shows up, that Beck will pulverize him. I think there was just a difference of opinion on how to go about dealing with this story. I love and respect both of these patriots and hope we don’t have discord in our ranks. Leave that to the progressives!! We are too smart for that.
I usually put down “Celt” for myself.
Wife is Chinese-Hawaiian. What do I check?
Kids are Scots-Irish-Welsh-Chinese-Hawaiian.
My grandaughter is Japanese-Korean-Chinese-Hawaiian-Scots-Irish-Welsh.
Isn’t there an “All of the above”?
WarEagle, that scot, welsh, english irish thing is me, so I’m a British Isles Mutt. No mere caucasian, but a true american coming from the old sod on prison barges and steerage ships under other forms of slavery. Indentured servitude is such a kind and gentle word for forced slave labor, don’t you agree?
On my son’s school form, I checked all the boxes, so now he’s an African-American, Mexican-American, Native -American, Samoan/Pacific Islander-American, etc, etc, etc.
I told him if anyone asked him about it, tell them to prove he’s not.
Separation of race and state…..
I like it.
I wasn’t even going to fill out the form, but I will and American it is.
Princess Leia: Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope.
My race in human and my nationality is American!
My inclination is to return only the page with the enumeration question answered and to throw the rest of the form away. The gov has no business knowing my age, DOB, gender, own/rent or who lives with me. Enough is enough of this pigeonhole census.
This administration wants to expand the 2011 budget for the American Community Survey so that the sample size can be increased. The last thing we need is to pay the Census more to invade our privacy.
On March 9th, 2010 at 12:47 pm, Hangfire said:
That’s a perfect example of why asking Americans to divide themselves up by “race” is stupid and divisive.
…I thought the Dems claimed they didn’t like people being “divisive”…
This is ridiculous! I strongly oppose using any hyphenated-American to denote race, as it is NOT accurate! For that very reason I also reject “American” as a race. There is no such thing as an American race, nor a hyphenated-American. These are CULTURAL terms that have nothing whatsoever to do with race.
I’ve a friend from South Africa. If they immigrated to America and had a kid, could they say he’s “African-American” despite being Caucasian?
Scientific terms describing race are not racist. They are scientific terms.
For those filling out census forms, I’d recommend filling out how many people in the household and be done with it.
I know it’s un-PC, but I can’t stop laughing over the break out of,
“Black, African Am., Negro”
In my family, we’ve been called all three over the course of the years. To cinch it, they should have added “Colored People” as in “NAAColored People.”
I have no idea why it is striking me as particularly funny today.
Unfortunately, in science today, there is no science. Everything has been tainted by PC politics.
On March 9th, 2010 at 12:43 pm, happyscrapper said:
Agreed!
Over 20 million responded with “American” back in 2000. That makes it the best protest response.
It also happens to be true, but that is of secondary importance.
The goal is to make sure the response is easily recognized as a protest against government racism.
My race is confused.
Reminds me of a Newsweek (I think) cover a while back that had a computer-generated picture on it, and the title was something like “The New Face of America”. I laughed and wondered why it was computer-generated, it looked exactly like thousands of people in Hawaii. Could have picked anyone off the street for the photo.
Under “Race” I think I’ll put…5K
Ten years ago I was a handicapped black hispanic female with a chinese surname but I have my reservations now…I’m going with American Indian of the Beigefoot tribe.
Well isn’t this interesting? I just opened my mail and there is a letter from the Census Bureau, saying I will be getting the form in about a week. The letterhead says “United States Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, US Census Bureau.”
Considering that Zero removed the census from Commerce, this letter is both misleading and fraudulent.
On March 9th, 2010 at 1:07 pm, Virginia Patriot said:
That was the second of Eisenhower’s two warnings…
Government-funded “science” increasingly fails to follow the scientific method, and instead begins with a political end in mind. Studies and results are manipulated, and critics silenced and intimidated, in order to manufacture a ficticious “consensus” and keep the money flowing.
Only one race: Human
Homo Sapiens Sapiens (as distinct from the extinct Homo Sapiens Neandertalensis)
Ethnicities, now, are a different story.
well at least they weren’t asking if people are from another planet.
Well technically I am PreAmerican ( not indian ) but I’ll put American so you newbees don’t get upset
Defender or Founder has nice ring to it as well. Whatever you do leave a lil note to your future generations, when
they do geneaology they will know whats what.
RogueCheddar-
Obi-Wan Kenobi at your service!
GSP
That’s been my policy for some time now, inspired by Lloyd Marcus and others who have cast off the oppression of the hyphen. I have far more in common with any random citizen of this country than my cousins on that other continent.
Jesus says my race is “won”.
I have a great idea. The government could issue strict guidelines to help us determine our race. Then they could issue national identity cards that would specify our race (race first and and gender next).
And then we could receive our government mandated services based on our race. The government would tell us where we could live and where we could work and which libraries and restaurants and shops and parks we could use. And they could specify special places for us to sit on public transport.
Then, the government could demonstrate that all of us diverse people are “treated equally.”
I can just hear it now. “Hey, you! Move to the back of the bus! That seat is not for irish-english-slavic-chinese-burmese. That seat is only for burmese-chinese-slavic-english-irish! Whatsa matta, can’t read da signs!”
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”.