We do not have to allow them to slice and dice us into racial and ethnic categories for whatever their purposes are.
When a form asks for your race or ethnicity write in: American
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Thursday, November 4, 2010
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I agree with your suggestion to simply not participate in attempts to track (and potentially perpetuate) race related information gathering.
ReplyDeleteThat having been said it would be best if you told no one of you lack of participation in tracking race, lest you be accused of being of being a racist. We all know that racial stats can be (and are) used to gain funding for programs designed to benefit certain racial groups. By not indicating your race you are thwarting attempts to direct efforts toward racial groups and there are those, perhaps many, that would categorize your activity as racist. There is no escaping the PC nonsense, in this case racism by omission.
Perhaps you are right. I suppose I can console myself with the fact that I will be in the company of the Chief Justice.
ReplyDeleteFor some time I have been doing what Wayne suggests here. I'm embarrassed to say that I do take just a little bit of absurdist delight in the exercise. Race is far from a well-defined notion -- for example, I invite you to peruse the official (and rather sorry) Explanations and Definitions posted below that were taken from a US Dept of Education survey recently administered at Murray State University.
ReplyDeleteI understand that racial identity is important to some, and I do not deny the importance to some of race as a social category. But to me the history of race labels is largely pernicious, and I want no part of it. I am not White, European, Black, Latino, Native Hawaiian, Celtic, etc etc etc. I am an American. E Pluribus Unum. Emphasis on the Unum.
What's below are the Explanations and Definitions from a US Dept of Education racial identity survey conducted at Murray State University.
ReplyDeleteI only have scant knowledge of 3 of my 16 great-great grandparents. How the hell do I know what my "origins" are? What would someone say in this survey if their parents were from New Guinea, or were Australian aboriginals? The whole exercise seems rife with problems. At least the survey authors have the good sense to acknowledge that race is a matter of self-identification. It would be nice if they had made room in the survey for those of us who choose not to self-identify to declare so. Even better if they would have had an option for Other. In which case I would have said: American. :-)
"EXPLANATION AND DEFINITIONS
"SELF-IDENTIFICATION DEFINITIONS. Completion of this information is voluntary. All information is confidential and will be reported in statistical form only. Declining to provide this information will not subject you to any adverse treatment.
"Ethnicity and Race - This two-part question is requested for statistical reporting purposes to government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Education.
"Hispanic or Latino ethnicity - A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin (including Spain) regardless of race.
"American Indian or Alaska Native - A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment.
"Asian - A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian Subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
"Black or African American - A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.
"Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander - A person having origins in any of the peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
"White - A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa."
Is this only for American students? If not then it makes all Africans into African Americans, whether they are Americans or not.
ReplyDeleteOnce in the Faculty Senate of Murray State some proposal about something related offered as a definition of African American: any one who's foreparents spent 250 years in slavery in this country.
This would eliminate anyone who ... well it is not worth enumerating beyond noting that it would eliminate Barack Obama and all of the descendants of Fredric Douglass.
I am embarassed to admit that I did not have the courage to object publicly.