2010 Census: Negro causes outrage
The 2010 census form is causing some outrage with the use of an outdated word - Negro. An article in the New York Daily News quoted many African-Americans expressing their disappointment after seeing the word listed as a choice on question no. 9. For "most" African-Americans, the word reminds them of slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow.
The story also highlights the evergrowing gap between pre-1960's African-Americans and those born into an unsegregated America with less racial violence. I still know many African-Americans that identify themselves as "negro". In fact, the Census Bureau reports that over 500,000 people in America checked the "negro" box in the 2000 Census. The word superceded "colored" to become the politically correct choice, but fell out of favor in the 1960's when civil rights leaders labeled "negro" as a racial slur. Of course, the word is derived from the Latin niger (i.e., "black"). The message on the proper term to use is muddied further by such organizations such as ... the United Negro College Fund and the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People ("NAACP"). I think both groups should consider a name change to align their organizations with the strides that we have made in race relations.
I am a young African-American and I personally believe the word is derogatory. I would not check the "negro" box. However, I am empathetic to people in America that find the term "African-American" offensive, because there are many people of color that originate from many countries all over the world. "Black" should be an acceptable alternative.
The issue also underscores a much deeper and fundamental problem we have in America. If we are all Americans, then why do we have to identify ourselves with a specific race. The reality is that we are all members of the human race, so why do we seek to divide ourselves into color groups.
The census is vitally important to our country. The report will determine how important government services and federal funds are appropriated for many social and economic programs. In addition, the census can impact how voting districts are drawn, which determines the number of house seats that each state will have in Congress. Should the federal government make these decisions based on color?
New York Daily News Article
Categories: Community, Politics, Culture
Tags: 2010 census negro jim crow new york
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With all due respect: should I be upset at use of Caucasian and argue for Anglo American or white or something like that? I went through an argument between two of my African-American-Negro- Black friends about the use of the word and was left feeling as tho I needed to leave the room rather than have to choose. Do not want to argue that I can understand importance to others.
At same time I sat in a committee meeting where an African-American-Negro-Black leader thought someone from Alaska should be called Eskimo and I should be called Bubba and the two of us just decided to grin and bear it and be understanding. But there is a limit to that patience.
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Recently, I found the 2010 Census form hanging on my door. As I began filling it out, I came across a dilemma. The U.S. government wants to know if my children are adopted or not and it wants to know what our races are. Being adopted myself, I had to put “Other” and “Don’t Know Adopted” for my race and “Other” and “Don’t Know” for my kids’ races.
Can you imagine not knowing your ethnicity, your race? Now imagine walking into a vital records office and asking the clerk for your original birth certificate only to be told “No, you can’t have it, it’s sealed.”
How about being presented with a “family history form” to fill out at every single doctor’s office visit and having to put “N/A Adopted” where life saving information should be?
Imagine being asked what your nationality is and having to respond with “I don’t know”.
It is time that the archaic practice of sealing and altering birth certificates of adopted persons stops.
Adoption is a 5 billion dollar, unregulated industry that profits from the sale and redistribution of children. It turns children into chattel who are re-labeled and sold as “blank slates”.
Genealogy, a modern-day fascination, cannot be enjoyed by adopted persons with sealed identities. Family trees are exclusive to the non-adopted persons in our society.
If adoption is truly to return to what is best for a child, then the rights of children to their biological identities should NEVER be violated. Every single judge that finalizes an adoption and orders a child’s birth certificate to be sealed should be ashamed of him/herself.
I'd really like to know how Uncle Sam wants adopted persons will sealed identities to answer the race question. Does the U.S. Government want us to lie or does it expect us to be psychic?
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