By KeriLynn Engle
The U.S. census is coming up—the buzz is all over the media. Every time I turn on the TV I’m bombarded with commercials about the census being a “snapshot of America” and how important it is that I fill mine out.
On the radio this morning, I heard about a growing movement to check “Other” in the race category and write in “American”. Race shouldn’t matter, they say. The question itself is racist! Let the government know what you think by writing in “American”.
This is something that I would have agreed with without much thought five years ago. I am white, and I was raised by my mother who tried to teach me to not judge others on their appearance, to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and always to try put myself in another person’s shoes. Race wasn’t mentioned much in my family growing up; it was just an unspoken fact that everyone was accepted and equal. My sister’s best friend in school was black and my best friend for most of my life is Puerto Rican, and I never really put much thought that my best friend was a different race. For most of my life, I thought that was the ideal way to raise a child. I considered myself “color-blind” and thought the world would soon be “post-racial” if it wasn’t already.
In the past couple of years, I’ve started educating myself about racism. From what I’ve learned, my paradigm has shifted completely. When I have kids, I want to teach them, like my mother did, to not judge others on appearance. But I also want to teach them about racism today. About subtle internalized racism, and about institutionalized racism. I don’t want my kids to be color-blind. I want them to see and appreciate all colors. I want them to know the history of the struggles of all people of color. I want them to be aware of their own privilege, to refuse to take advantage of it when they can, and to educate others about it.
Back to the census… It seems to me that the suggestion of filling in “American” for race is a very white suggestion. An attempt to be color-blind. It smacks of white privilege—of denial that racism still exists today. “Why ask for my race?” they say. “Race shouldn’t matter!” Try telling that to your black or Hispanic neighbor or coworker (if you haven’t surrounded yourself by whites). Go ahead. Walk up to them and say, “Your race doesn’t matter.” You are telling them that their identity doesn’t matter. That their struggles don’t matter. That their race doesn’t make any difference when they are applying for a job or an apartment.
Every person I found online arguing that you shouldn’t fill out your race on the census, or fill it out with “American”, is white. Do you think that’s a coincidence?
In the past, the information provided in the census has been used several times for evil purposes. In the 1940s, the names and addresses of Japanese-Americans were obtained from the census in order to displace them into concentration camps. When the census began, race was used to count black slaves as 3/5 of a person. These uses were truly evil. But (optimist that I am) I believe they are the exception. Your information is supposed to be kept confidential, and I believe it usually is. However, your racial data is still used to create a picture of America and is basis for decision about how schools, towns, or groups of people will get federal funding.
Information is not inherently good or evil. Information is knowledge, it is power, and it can lead to wisdom and social change. The information compiled by the census tells us that the minority population is growing. It tells us that the percentage of multiracial Americans is growing. It tells us that more than one in four children under the age of 6 are being raised by at least one foreign-born parent.
When I receive my census form in the mail next week, I’m going to fill out my race. Because I’m not colorblind, and neither is the world. The U.S. is not post-racial yet, but the information provided by the census can help us get there.
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Authors bio is coming up shortly.
Let’s remember the updated and more accurate definition of racist:
RACIST: 1. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive term for a white person. 2: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities, if promoted by white people. 3: a belief that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race,if promoted by white people.
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J. Morgan,
What was your end goal of defining racism or putting it such a neatly packed box? Do you propose that this definition of racism is the complete view of what it means to be racist?
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That comment totally caters to white people, is all about protecting white people, and empathising with white people. It takes the focus off of the people who are actually suffering (minorities) and dares to victimize whites. Give me a break.
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[...] March 10, 2010 at 6:48 pm (32305483, conducive chronicle) Tags: change, conducive chronicle, news, post-racial, race, racism, studies, united states, white privilege This was first posted at ConduciveChronicle.com: [...]
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Yours is a very thoughtful post, which I appreciate. I’d like to suggest, though, that part of the reason our society is permeated with racism is because we keep trying to define people by their skin color. This is antithetical to Martin Luther King’s vision of a society in which people are judged by the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin.
I approach people with an eye to their values, their behavior, their belief systems, their manners, etc. I find skin color fairly irrelevant. I’m truly post-racial. I think the current obsession with skin color is unhealthy, akin to constantly picking at a scab.
Incidentally, regarding my white-ness (and that was something of an assumption on your part when you linked to my blog, wasn’t it?), it’s worth thinking about the fact that people get affirmative benefits from trumpeting their race: funding, small business benefits, school admissions, scholarships, etc. That helps fuel the obsession with defining us by our differences rather than by (a) our personalities and (b) the quality of our character.
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Affirmative benefits…interesting point. Well, we take into account that schools weren’t desegrated until the 60′s and the land grant black schools were totally underfunded, staff was underpaid and resources scarce, it’s a more than fair conclusion that access to education was not equal in this society. Then, if we want to take the numbers of college applicant enrolle’s in post-grad programs, post-docs, busines endeavors etc…the numbers will speak to the disparity in minorities succeeding in higher ed/paying professions. I don’t think we disagree here. So, my question to you is…Since minorities were not given the equal access to resources and education until fairly recently, we should stunt the efforts put in place to give the most than overdue and just “leg up” owed from years and years of continued marginalization? Sounds a bit white supremacist to me but I could be misunderstanding something.
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Bookworm: while I understand your approach (and at one time agreed with you), I think think by ignoring race in data collection you remove the ability to measure our progress towards color-blindness (for example, how do we know the police are not racial profiling if we do not collect race data?). I believe that the taxonomy we define through tools like the census is a *reflection* of our values, not the source of those values. The fact that we are debating whether race should be included, as opposed to asking “what is this race thing?”, makes me convinced that we are not yet post racism.
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Ben,
We are not post racism. I concur.
Eryn
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Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Reddit by theRube: I’ll check white…
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Kerilynn,
WHY did I NOT see this post sooner? Congratulations to you. I take my hat off to you my friend. Being “color-blind” is such bs. If you’re being blind to color, you’re acknowledging that there is a different color. I’m so glad to see a white person saying this. I, as an African-American female, am called radical, angry, and “holding on to the race card” for bring up these points. Seriously, I totally appreciate this article! Race does matter and you’re better for accepting and embracing that. I’m so relieved that you will be teaching your children about race. To deny color, or difference, is not only denying the unique struggle of the groups of minorities in this country, it is also denying the beauty and unique aspects of vibrancy that each culture offers. FYI, I just exhaled after reading this. I wrote about being raised “not to see color” and it’s one of the most detrimental things that a parent can do. I was raised the same way. It was an attempt to not make my white family members not feel uncomfortable. But years later, who was smacked with the identity crisis and reality check when I first learned what racism was? Three guesses…me! I totally charge people to recognize racism and to ferret it out. People have become so adept in denying their own racism, they might have really convinced themselves that they’re not racist. I think racism and prejudice can be understood as a weapon of guerilla warfare. These people look like us, talk like us, pretend to like us and then we realize we’re in full fledge combat. I’ve written several articles about this. I’m sorry I’ve written too much already but once you get me started I just can’t stop.
Thank you so much for writing this. You’ve validated me and so many others and I’m proud to be working alongside you at Conducive!
Eryn
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“On the radio this morning, I heard about a growing movement to check “Other” in the race category and write in “American”. Race shouldn’t matter, they say. The question itself is racist! Let the government know what you think by writing in “American”.”
When white American women in dating sites say they prefer to date American instead of putting in preference for white males, the Census bureau should stop asking that question. Whites and everyone else who think along these lines cannot have it both ways.
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Sorry, but entering the color of your skin is so 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. This is 2010 for Pete’s sake!
I’m writing “Human” on mine because my race, OUR race is the Human race. We’re not dogs, chickens, fish or Klingons. We’re HUMANS!
We will never advance as a species until we quite categorizing each other into antiquated groupings. Grow up!
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I couldn’t have said it any better. Human is the only “race” I’ll ever consider myself to be a part of. Anytime I’m ever asked it’s always the same. I’m a human living in the United States. I am not in any way different (racially speaking) than a human in China, Ghana, or Iran. On Earth we are separated by geography, politics, and our diverse cultures but never by our humanness. Human equality will be a constant challenge in the world (likely forever) but identifying yourself first and foremost as a human is a good start. I’m interested in how many will fill out the race section of their 2010 census as humans. At least one I guess
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So isn’t asking all black people to leave a Wal-mart but THAT’s STILL TAKING PLACE! Anyone remember the Jena 6?
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@ George
Wonderfully stated.
@ “Iris”
Good job. Very well written.
The part that goes, “Try telling that to your black or Hispanic neighbor or coworker (if you haven’t surrounded yourself by whites). Go ahead. Walk up to them and say, “Your race doesn’t matter.” You are telling them that their identity doesn’t matter. That their struggles don’t matter. That their race doesn’t make any difference when they are applying for a job or an apartment” has very charming bit of snap to it.
Anyhoo, the people at the Bureau will simply assume everyone who writes in “American” is white and count them so…with maybe a 2% margin of error.
It’ll also give them some excellent additional data, like, “Such and such percent of white Americans are absolutely clueless about their country’s racial reality.”
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I think that assuming that everyone that puts American on their Census is white is in and of itself racist. I am glad that you did a brief count online and “assumed” the people were white, but how do you know? What was your margin of error? What statistical significance level did you use (.01 or .05)? What is your sample size?
The point is, unless you actually did your homework, which you clearly did not, you cannot assume everyone doing this is white.
One of the people who commented went into a long talk about the difference in grad school applications for minorities and used this to support the point that there is still racism in this country. I do not think that this proves your point. I agree that there is still racism in the United States, but if someone goes to undergrad then they have the same chance of going to grad as everyone else. That would be a personal choice.
At any rate, my personal issue with the census asking race is this; one of the things the census is used for is to redistrict and assign the appropriate number of representatives to an area. What in the world do they need my race (or actual date of birth) in order to accomplish this? Also, money is spent according to population density–first of all, this simply isn’t true and second of all, if it was why again do they need my race or age? If money is given based on population, population doesn’t change regardless of my race or age.
The whole thing is crazy, but bottom line you have to answer something.
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I’m the one who spoke about race as it relates to attaining higher education degrees. The U.S. that I live in is very racist and education is on the first and foremost areas of disparity amongst black and whites. Are you aware of the struggle for equal education and by equal I don’t mean separate but equal…I mean blacks being able to attend the same schools as whites. Ha, but this is a funny concept. Because black people were not given the same access to economic resources, blacks weren’t able to afford higher education. The schools that blacks were able to attend as I said before, were under staffed, had inadequate supplies, were distant from people’s homes because they were few and far between etc….I really encourage you to read some literature about this. It would be unfortunate for you to think that blacks have had equal opportunity in this country in terms of education and anything else really.
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I was born in South Africa and moved here with my parents, I have since become a citizen of this country. Would I be an African American?
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Good point. You are more African than me my friend. This is why the term African-American is so difficult. Black American is the best term for blacks who are born in this country without having migrated from Africa.
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Racism is taught. Have fun teaching it to your kids. Racist.
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There’s a difference between racism and race-consciousness. The author is going to teach her children to be race-conscious or aware of the difference and uniqueness that each race brings to the table.
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@ all the draptoresponsic folks, current & future…
Your “whine” is served.
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To quote the movie “The Network” (1976)
I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV’s while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be. We know things are bad – worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, ‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.’ Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot – I don’t want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad.
You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!’ So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!’
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Hi, This is an outstanding post, but I was wondering how to suscribe to the RSS feed?
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Regarding KeriLynn’s original point: I agree that we can’t (yet) ignore race in America. How you take note of it is debatable, though. Saying that you want your kids to note other people’s races may back-fire. If you re-inforce in the kids minds that race is central to everyone’s identity and always will be, you will perpetrate the fundamental error of the slave-holding, Jim-Crow bigots. Race is central to an American’s identity ONLY because we are in a society that screwed up its racial business. In 200 years, if we work at it correctly, RACE WON’T BE CENTRAL TO ANYONE’S identity, it will be something as important as your hair color, your preferred food type, or your political leaning. All of which are far, far secondary to the important things in your identity like your humanity, your charity, your peace, integrity, vices, joys, hates, sense of fun, or melancholia. These will define your identity, and your skin color will define something else really, REALLY important: how high SPF you need for sunscreen. And not much else.
Saying that being race-conscious implies being aware of what each RACE brings to the table, implies that something X that is valuable to humans belongs more to certain races precisely as a racial quality, and you value their race because their race gives them more X, so they can bring that more X to the table. Which sounds racist to me. Race is not culture. A black-skinned child, adopted by mixed Asian / Hispanic / White folk, in an Indian town, may never have an ounce of black culture to bring to the table. He may speak Hindu, worship Odin, eat burritos, and read Hemingway for fun. If you say his “identity” is located in his black skin, I defy you to name that identity in the concrete. I value cultural differences, but I don’t presume that a person not born into a given culture cannot adopt parts of that culture, nor that a person born into a culture cannot adopt parts of other cultures (and turn his back on parts of his own native culture). I was born into a family culture of bigotry, but I have turned my back on part of that heritage.
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