i am sure you all have missed my stories dearly, but this one will hopefully be short and sweet.
so, we got our 2010 CENSUS in the mail a week or so ago. what exciting times we live in, i know. i mean, it is kind of exciting...if they were able to actually count every American. i do know that they put in a lot of hard work and money to attempt to count every one....so FILL IT OUT and MAIL IT BACK.
anywho, not the point of this blog. as i was filling out my census, like a good girl, i got to the part where i had to fill in my race.
this is what the questions looks like, more or less.
i know, its blurry. the census asked first if i was of hispanic decent. and then if not, it wanted to know about my race. the census went into a LOT of detail about all of the given race "categories". hispanics. asians. pacific islanders. even a teeny bit about native americans (that's what they are because they were here first) and alaskans.
the only TWO race groups that didn't get detailed on their origins: whites and blacks.
this bothered me a little bit.
because what really is white and black other than european and african american, respectively?
so, why don't those races get numerous check boxes? doesn't the census care where they came from? ohh, that's right, europe and africa are very small continents, so the people are the exact same. no need.
i am sure a person from greece is very different than a person from england.
same is true for a person from south africa and a person from egypt. they are going to be very different people. different cultures. different beliefs. different ways of life.
intra-racially these two groups are vastly different. even though "white" people may share a similar skin color, compare the life of an italian american and a jewish american. different. probably because they were raised different. different values. different culture. different beliefs.
so why are we all lumped into one group? i mean, if everyone else gets a fancy label stating their lineages...why are blacks and whites...mushed together?
well, there is that lonely "some other race" category.......
but i will tell you this, even on my palest of days...my skin color is not white. and black people are not black...even on their darkest of days. so what gives?
even with all of our differences, intra-racial and among races. we all share at least one thing, we all are AMERICAN. some of us may not have been born here, but are now citizens here. so be proud of that. be proud of where you live and the country you are a part of.
so, fellow census filler-outters, i encourage you to fill in the "some other race" category!! state your lineages. or just say your race is AMERICAN. that is where YOU come from, is it not!?
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