I trust everyone has completed and mailed their census forms by now so nobody gets into big trouble. I rarely delve into political-type topics with my writing, but I must say, I got a bit caught up in the census drama this year. Between the controversy over the Hispanic community's boycott of it, to the hullabaloo over the added and outdated "Negro" reference, it apparently caused quite the flurry of emotion.
And as usual, the whole "race" portion of the form gave me pause as well. It was nice in the 2000 census when "they" finally figured out many Americans didn't fit into just one box. However, I (and thus our children as well) have never even fit into two boxes and once again I had no way to fill the form out with complete accuracy.
People have guessed my racial background to include everything from Mexican to Egyptian, but in fact I'm a conglomeration, a potpourri, I'm MULTIracial. Just between my two parents my racial background includes White: English, Irish, Scottish, Dutch; Native American: Cherokee, Ojibwe, Seneca, Potawatomi; and Black.
According to the current census form, while I was finally able to check multiple boxes, I was only allowed to claim ONE of my Native American groups. I know it may seem petty, but this stuff drives me nuts!
You know what I think? Either give everyone all the boxes they need, or better yet, just forget it! A part of me wonders why all this race information is necessary anyway. I mean we live in America, the great melting pot, right? So, I ended up pulling one Native American group out of my mental hat and wrote that one on the form. Maybe for the next census, I'll pick a new one and really mess stuff up. Heh, heh.
In honor of all our completed censuses I thought I'd share this humorous video regarding "race" which my mom sent to me. Enjoy!
