So what is this with the census? First of all, all they care about is name, age, and race. I guess that's the usual government nosiness. But when I got to filling out race, their idea of race seemed truly skewed:
First of all, they apparently think I want to be in one big bucket called "white", with the rest of the hoi polloi. Then they move on to the race category of "Black, African Am., or Negro". So far as I know, in common usage, they mean the same thing, so Uncle Sam is just worried about giving offense to folks with an agenda.
From there, we go on to American Indian or Alaska Native. -- Hoy!
Not the same thing!!!
Asian Indian? Guess Uncle Sam just wants to point out that, though you may be Caucasian or East Asian (under
current scientific definitions of race), you are most definitely
not White. If your name is
Ramesh Krishnamurty (caught here musing, not picking his nose!)
it doesn't matter that you're a dead ringer for Gandalf/Ian McKellan (with a slight tan)
and probably have more Scottish ancestors than Ian does.
Chinese? Filipino? Japanesse? Korean? Vietnamese? Native Hawaiian? Guamanian or Chamorro? Samoan? You each get your own check box. Wouldn't want to offend by lumping
you together, would we?
Still not good enough? You get a fill-in box for "Other Asian" if your self-definition is "Hmong, Laotian, Thai, Pakistani, Cambodian, and so on". I kid you not -- the quotes are verbatim from the census document.
Or, if you are "Fijian, Tongan, and so on", there's a fill-in box for "Other Pacific Islander".
Well, we *do* have a liberal government... If you can't cram yourself into one of the above, there's a fill-in box for "Some other race --
Print race."Oh, but wait, I forgot the whole
other category of race in question 8,
preceding question 9 that I've been referring to. Question 8 goes like this: "Is [this person] of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?"
And here are the options:
No
Yes, Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano
Yes, Puerto Rican
Yes, Cuban
Yes, another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin --
Print origin, for example Argentinean, Colombian, Dominican, Nicaraguan, Salvadoran, Spaniard, and so on.
I
guess having question 8 makes sense. After all, there are black Puerto Ricans, and I suppose a Cuban Samoan isn't beyond the pale of possibility.
I'm just having trouble with where I fit. Uncle Sam, who has so much interest in counting how many Japanese Peruvians live in this country
just isn't interested in anything except the color of my skin. (Which is not white, but pinkish tan with a few age spots, by the way.)
I can't quite figure out if this census strategy is designed to preserve a white hegemony --- assuming such a thing exists in USA --- or to create a whole lot of minorities for the politicians to cater to. My guess is it's the latter. Next census will no doubt be asking about sexual orientation, with options
parsed down to the level of "
transgendered presurgical homosexual".
What I do know is that, for all of Uncle Sam's disinterest, my heritage is every bit as interesting and valuable as the next guy's, thank-you-very-much! I appreciate and respect the Italian, English, Irish, Suid Afrikaner, Russian, German, and countable-but-sadly-uncounted other "races" who have lent their strength and culture to this country. I don't really care to be lumped with them based on the tinge (or lack thereof) of my skin, and I would encourage their members to stand up and be counted separately, too!
Or, if Uncle Sam wants to be fair, he can go back to counting Caucasians (which includes Indian, Iranian, and Lapp), Oceanian (
only Australian aborigine and New Guinean), East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Malay, Polynesian, etc.), African, and Native American (which includes Brazil Indian and Eskimo). What is
not fair is starting with one boring skin color (white) and then giving everyone else the opportunity to be counted in more interesting ways.
It takes a whole Wikipedia entry to
explain the US Census theory of race, but I've chosen to display as much interest toward that as Uncle Sam has showed toward my race ... aside, that is, from noticing that the 1850 census allowed one to be "White", "Black", or "Mulatto". Maybe we should go back to that. It is, at least, marginally self-consistent.
For my part, though I'm sure I've broken some law or other, I chose to write in "Dutch" under "Some other race".
I would have written in "Thai Malaysian Dutch American", but there wasn't enough space. And besides, I'm turning in the census form late, which is an infraction of federal law. (The crime apparently
carries no penalty, but no point in attracting too much attention.)
Pregnant Jolene, after listening patiently to my rant (bless her), declared her desire to be listed as "White", though I offered to write her in as "German". I should have expected nothing else. After all, there isn't space on the form for "98% German by blood, but 5th Generation Californian and proud of it" either.
[OK, that's it for me. Gotta fly! -- Case]
... to the babies, too!
Norma Jean bonded with Anneka & Mariella right away. There's something about moms and babies.
Then again, there's something about babies and mom's, too!
And not to forget papas and their daughters!
Photos notwithstanding, the afternoon was not all about the babies. There was a fine meal, thanks to Norma Jean, and an enjoyable time with Richard & Jeanette Bonjour (Case's high school dormitory dean) and Inna (another Scandinavian, like Ulf). It was also Ulf's birthday; we were honored to be included on his special day. 
